The Rockets are up for sale. Who’s in for $20?

Leslie Alexander, the owner of the Houston Rockets franchise since 1993 and one of the best franchisees in the NBA, shocked everyone by announcing on Monday that he plans to sell the team. Start hunting for that $20 you left in your jeans. Cash in those saving bonds. It's time for a bidding war!

The Rockets are going to go for a mint. Remember, the Clippers went for $2 billion under quite difficult circumstances (with the previous owner swearing to sue the league to holy hell and back over the transaction). Could a Rockets sale push $2.5 billion? $3 billion? Who knows?! Houston isn't L.A., but it's a heckuva market in a state that goes out of its way to not tax its businesses.

The Rockets won the next two championships once Alexander bought the team in '93, and the Houston Comets earned the first four WNBA titles once Alexander founded the team in '97. Only the Spurs have a better record than the Rockets in the 24 years since Alexander joined the NBA. They haven't been back to the title round since those early years, but it's a stable, profitable franchise with a superstar in his prime locked up until 2023. That's incredibly valuable, as are the promised playoff runs to come.

Some new owner is going to be very, very happy.

Programming note: We're moving to our offseason schedule since NBA news has slowed to a trickle. We plan to publish Good Morning It's Basketball, the newsletter you are now reading, on Tuesdays and Thursdays unless, and until, conditions warrant otherwise.

Reminder: NBA free agent signing tracker and NBA free agent and trade rumor tracker.

MAYDAY, DAN GILBERT! MAYDAY! LeBron James is reportedly discontented with the Cavaliers' summer, one in which the Cavaliers have ... uh ... err ... umm ...

Paul Pierce signed a one-day contract with the Celtics so he can retire in green. And here I was going to ask if he'd be going into the Hall of Fame as a Wizard or a Net ...

First big name mentioned as a potential Rockets buyer: Houstonian billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who owns Landry's and the Golden Nugget.

The Lakers are champions of the Vegas Summer League. Praise be to Summer League MVP Lonzo Ball and versatile Kyle Kuzma. Shout out to the runners-up, too: the Blazers have a dude in Caleb Swanigan.

Ball didn't play in the title game on Monday. But it's become clear why the Lakers traded D'Angelo Russell and picked Ball No. 2 overall. Plus, why it was smart of Ball to wear different sneaker brands all throughout Summer League.

Good pieces from Kristian Winfield on Kenny Atkinson's plot to turn the Nets into something real and on the Suns' blank canvas and masterpiece dreams.

Great Marc Spears conversation with new Knicks GM Scott Perry on reaching the pinnacle of the career path. My desire to laugh at the Knicks has been defeated by my joy at Perry's ascent.

Lee Jenkins goes deep inside OKC's big welcome party for Paul George.

The two most important deals from the weekend: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute follows Chris Paul to H-Town, and Rajon Rondo reunites with DeMarcus Cousins in Nola. Score two for friendship!

Before the weekend, the Magic poached Jonathon Simmons for $20 million over three years. Anyone else alarmed the Spurs let go of two homegrown blue-chippers (Simmons and Dewayne Dedmon) at reasonable prices?

Curious about how Dennis Smith started dunking two weeks after ACL surgery in high school? Science explains it all.

I wrote about the latest signs no one wants sub-elite centers. To me, the biggest hint here is the Warriors spending just 3.5 percent of their massive payroll on true centers.

One of those sub-elite centers — Nerlens Noel — is No. 1 on our list of the best remaining free agents.

Jelly Washington is a high-level high school point guard from New York City. He explains why NYC is so important to basketball.

Stephen L. Carter, a Yale Law professor, on Kevin Durant's personal decision to take less money from the Warriors and alternate forms of compensation.

NBC and its partners have launched the 24/7 Olympic Channel on many U.S. cable systems. Why is this relevant to basketball? Next month, the Olympic Channel will broadcast every Dream Team game from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. A bunch of these were pay-per-view only back in the day. This going to be great. (And yes, I'm watching the heck out of some team handball while I'm at it.)

Every few years, a high-end recruit flirts with entering college a year early, throwing the recruiting world into chaos. This time, it's Marvin Bagley III, the top 2018 recruit, who could potentially enroll at Duke or USC this season. That'd add another blue-chipper in what is expected to be a solid 2018 NBA draft.

Howard Megdal argues that the WNBA doesn't need rivalries or villains so much as it simply needs more coverage.

And finally: Forget the Rockets. You need this life-sized Joel Embiid balloon animal.