Texas HC Shaka Smart 'intrigues' the Houston Rockets

No. No no nonononono. No! Stay away, Houston Rockets!

ESPN's Marc Stein reports that that two college coaches who "intrigue" the Space City's NBA franchise are Texas Longhorns head coach Shaka Smart and Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self.

And while the Rockets are probably more interested in NBA retreads like analyst Jeff Van Gundy, former Indiana Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, and Mike D'Antoni, at some point Smart will probably have to say no to an NBA franchise or two.

As Stein mentions, it's hard to say if Smart or even Self have any aspirations to coach at the next level, but given that Texas isn't a job on the level of Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, or Duke, the handful of basketball blue bloods, there's a reasonable chance that as he achieves more and more success at Texas -- which seems almost like an inevitability as a head coach because of his talent -- he'll have difficult choices to make.

At one point in time, the Longhorns were lucky that former head coach Rick Barnes said no to the Wildcats. However, he never had any known chances to become an NBA head coach and likely never did.

So welcome to the biggest potential downside to the Shaka Smart era at Texas -- the possibility that he could leave.

/backs away slowly

/puts hands up

Please don't shoot the messenger.