With the football season winding down in these parts, folks are finally noticing that the Houston Rockets are approaching the halfway point of the NBA season and again look like an also-ran in the playoff race. It’s now been a dozen years since the one-time back-to-back NBA champions have won a mere playoff series.

What happened this time? Dave Berri thinks that Ron Artest has not been the answer.

Meanwhile, Rockets owner Les Alexander has been getting hammered in areas other than basketball, too:

Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has seen his 20% stake in First Marblehead Corp., once valued at nearly $1 billion, plunge to about $15 million. The company, which packages student loans and sells them to investors, saw its business evaporate in 2008. Its shares fell more than 90% last year to about $1.

Thankfully for Alexander, his original investment in the company was only $4 million and — before the 2008 meltdown — he sold a portion of his company stock for $250 million, a substantial portion of which was probably used to pay a $150 million divorce settlement.

What I can’t figure out is whether all of that makes it harder ("We’re paying him what?!") or easier ("It’s only money!") for Alexander to pay Tracy McGrady a total of $40 million over this and next season?