DeAndre Hopkins Doesn’t Get the J.J. Watt Treatment at Rockets Game: This Star Just Quietly Watches

No one asked DeAndre Hopkins to put on a too-small T-shirt to show off his muscles. The Houston Texans’ lifeline receiver wasn’t splashed across the giant video board. And Patrick Beverley never ran over and screamed into his face — and stared at him for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Hopkins had the J.J. Watt seats, but he didn’t get the J.J. Watt treatment. Instead, two nights after Watt dominated headlines while sitting courtside with his girlfriend Kealia Ohai at the Houston Rockets’ Game 1 blowout of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Hopkins almost quietly watched the Game 2 comeback win Wednesday night. DeAndre sat in the front row, not far down from Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, just like Watt had Sunday night.

But their experiences played out completely different. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Same basic seats, both front row, two totally different personalities.

Hopkins probably wouldn’t have it any other way. He came to the Rockets game with a few buddies and almost quietly watched Russell Westbrook put up a historic 51-point, 13-assist, 10-rebound triple double and fade away in the fourth quarter when faced with a barrage of Houston threes. Hopkins chatted with the college-aged kid who happened to be sitting next to him in the second half.

This Texans star is much cooler and less demonstrative than J.J. Watt. This soccer-loving, fashion fiend is just chill.

That’s DeAndre. The same guy who Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner lauded while revealing a new anti domestic violence campaign at City Hall on Thursday morning. Hopkins will be the face of something important that matters to him, something that resonates from his own life (his mother was the victim in a horrific domestic violence attack). But he doesn’t need the show.

Hopkins likely has little interest in straining to pull on some cheap souvenir T-shirt as 18,000 people watch on the big screen, anyway. He’s much too fashionable for that look. Hopkins showed up in a simple white T-shirt and designer jeans. He did have some Rockets red on, though — a red, logo-less hat. Hey, this is DeAndre; he’s not breaking out the pom-poms.

This Texans star is much cooler and less demonstrative than J.J. Watt. This soccer-loving, fashion fiend is just chill — and different. When I wore a jacket with a simple Manchester United logo into the Texans locker room, Hopkins is the only guy who noticed and said something about it.

J.J. Watt may be dating a women’s soccer star, but DeAndre Hopkins is the one who really knows the world’s sport.

This doesn’t mean Hopkins’ Rockets way is better than Watt’s center stage one. This is no knock on Watt. The Rockets — and Beverley in particular — clearly got a kick out of interacting with the best defensive player in football and should have been 2014 NFL MVP. There’s real value in that.

Watt being into it meant something to the Rockets — and is typical of the cross-sport love found in Houston that’s absent from many other major markets. DeAndre Hopkins just goes about things in a different way.