On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, the Houston Rockets had their Media Day, and at the start of Alperen Sengun’s availability, he asked about Rockets’ general manager Rafael Stone visiting his home country of Turkey.
"It's really amazing. He came this year, and Ime came last year. It's a real pleasure to have them in Turkey and show them around. I fall in love with it every summer I go, and I love showing it to American people, or my family, I would say. We are family over here. Rafael and I are more than business, so having them come out there on a 13-hour flight is a big thing. I want to do it for everybody,’ said Sengun.
"It's a good thing having them over there and showing them what my life looks like in the offseason and what I do: workouts, eating good food, spending good times in good places. There's just so much amazing stuff we did with Rafael. Normally he'd come for five or six days, but he extended his stay by three more days. I'm happy he did. We spent much more time together, and it was really fun."
Last week Rockets general manager Rafael Stone spoke with Matt Young of The Houston Chronicle while visiting the Houston Fire Station 8, where the Rockets show their appreciation for first responders 25th years after the tragic events on 9/11/2021.
"It was a great experience," said Rockets general manager Rafael Stone on Friday from Houston Fire Station 8 where he, coach Ime Udoka and some players stopped by to show their appreciation for first responders on the 25th anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11. "I loved the country. Truly beautiful, really nice, sweet people."
"I thought it was important for me to do," Stone said. "We had some good conversations at the end of last year and part of it was him putting pressure on me that, 'You have to communicate better.' He said, 'You're always around, but I want to hear from you more: Good, bad or ugly.' I said, 'Alright, that's fair.' His first couple of years, I was always on him, and I've tried to back off a little bit. He doesn't need me yelling at him 24/7, but I took that in, so one of the things that came out of that was, 'Hey, let me go spend some time with you in Türkiye."
Sengun would later speak on his goals for this upcoming season.
"Gladly, everybody starts the season healthy. I think the most important thing for us will be staying healthy during the season. After last season, there's always a purpose. You just want to get better every year, and it wasn't the goal to leave in the first round, but it is what it is,” Sengun said.
“You learn something every day, every season, and it's a different situation this year. We have a really good team, and everybody's healthy right now. Hopefully we keep it that way until the postseason, then take it step by step, win the first round and go from there. That's the goal for us."
