Isiah Thomas

Louisville 82, Michigan 76: 4 Winners, 4 Losers

A roller-coaster first half, which had Twitter in a frenzy of hyperbole, led to a grinding second half, and in the end experience won out as Louisville knocked off Michigan 82-76 to win Rick Pitino's second career men's basketball title, making him the first coach to win it all at two different scho ... More >>

Seven ZERO Time NBA All-Stars Who Made More in Career Earnings Than Michael Jordan

I once had a boss who told me "The only thing worse than being underpaid is being overpaid." Looking back, perhaps he was trying to send a message to me personally, but the general message was this -- making too much money makes one utterly expendable. That's a fine notion, and in most walks of li ... More >>

Six Examples of How James Harden Follows in the Tradition of Great Rockets Hair

When the Houston Rockets acquired James Harden in late October, general manager Daryl Morey finally found the superstar that he longed for. Houston would go on to post billboards around the city featuring Harden with the caption, "The Beard Has Landed!" So far, Harden has delivered, as he is one of ... More >>

Phil Jackson Words Ring True for Underground Houston Rap

Context: That's The Fury God doing one of those radio-station freestyles that radio stations like to ask rappers to do. It happened right before he performed at The Box's recent Los Magnificos Custom Car Show, alongside four other underground acts. Why It's Important: Because it might maybe possib ... More >>

The Knicks Play Hide-and-Seek in Order to Keep the Rockets from Signing Jeremy Lin

For every weird little occurrence in life, there seems to be an episode of Seinfeld to which you can circle back for an analogous situation. Even for something as innocuous as the Rockets' pursuit of Knicks restricted free agent guard Jeremy Lin. So here goes: Remember that episode of Seinfeld whe ... More >>

Houston Rockets 1993 vs. Houston Rockets 2012, the Hard Truth

It's been a tough start for the hapless Rockets. With early injury problems, a trade that didn't happen in the lockout-shortened offseason and a new, unproven coach, it's no wonder the first few weeks of the season have been somewhere between "OH GOD NO!" and "Just shoot me." This, of course, makes ... More >>

2011 NBA Draft -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Tough night for Dick Vitale​My fingers are still recovering from the lengthy (eight printed pages!) live blog I did last night here on Hair Balls, but the day after the draft necessitates some post-draft analysis. I've now had a day to sleep on it, and without further ado, a few post-draft tho ... More >>

2011 NBA Draft -- The Live Blog

Keep coming back for the latest​The overwhelming consensus on the 2011 NBA Draft is that it's, by and large, a pretty underwhelming group of players, and it may quite possibly be completely devoid of future All-Stars. So why am I so excited about tonight's festivities? Because of all the thin ... More >>

NCAA Days Three and Four -- Winners and Losers

March madness underway.​Well, I'm guessing that this past weekend of basketball is not how the money people behind the Final Four's coming to Houston drew it up on the chalkboard. In a tournament that already had last year's regional darling Baylor on the outside looking in, the only two Te ... More >>

2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Video Recap

Justin Bieber, your All-Star MVP​Travel day today back from Phoenix, so I'm submitting the ultimate Cliffs Notes version of dominant performances during the NBA All Star weekend. (I'll be back at full blog strength tomorrow.) Here goes: - Justin Bieber was named most valuable player of the c ... More >>

Time Waster Tuesday -- NBA Superstars Videos (via YouTube)

"'Remember when' is the lowest form of conversation." -- Tony Soprano Tony was right, you never want to be "remember when" guy, and I try my best not to be. But the fact of the matter is, for many of us, what happened between the ages of 16 and 28 constitute the "good times." High school, maybe ... More >>

NFL, College Football, Twitter, Pancake Bites and Bestiality -- Weekend's Best Bets

A regular Paul the Octopus​So last season I did these Best Bets posts on Fridays and made every attempt to conduct myself like an actual handicapper, coming up with reams of statistics and subjective observations to lead to a conclusion that I hoped made reasonable sense. End result? A predic ... More >>

Game Time: Whaler Fan Fest -- Houston Oiler Fans May Know How I Feel

Hartford Whalers: They live on as a dessert​"Somewhere along the line, we will see you in another place in another time. God bless all of you fans. Remember one thing, you may have lost the NHL, but you have not lost the memories." -- Chuck Kaiton, the voice of the Hartford Whalers after the Whal ... More >>

Game Time: Trevor Ariza Trade -- Instant Analysis

Good trade for the Rockets​I was not writing for HoustonPress.com when the Trevor Ariza signing went down last year so you'll have to take my word for it -- I was very skeptical and surprised by the signing at the time. (Note: There are megabytes and megabytes of sound from me on the internal arc ... More >>

Game Time: LeBron James -- Seven Scenarios For Thursday Night

@dramaqueen​"Hello World, the Real King James is in the Building 'Finally'. My Brother @oneandonlycp3 gas'd me up to jump on board so I'm here. Haaaa" -- LeBron James (oh sorry...@KingJames on Twitter, and what is sadly his most interesting tweet thus far)I've always thought that when Twitte ... More >>

Don't Believe the Hype

Houston's Most Overrated Attractions

Game Time: 24 -- Was CTU Actually Run By Isiah Thomas? We'll Never Know

We're running out of time...to trade for Stephon Marbury​One of my favorite parts of the work day occurs around 10:00 a.m.every day, when Lance Zierlein is finished with his show. At that point, I'm five hours away from my show starting, so Lance and I will typically begin haphazardly discussing ... More >>

Game Time: Texans Sign DeMeco Ryans, Their Dwight Shrute

​When a big sports news story breaks, my tendency is to spend about eight seconds internalizing it and wondering what it means to the subject of said news and what it means to me as a fan. From second number nine forward it's time to figure out other angles the news puts into play, what other pe ... More >>

Game Time: Jedi Master Obi Wan Morey Strikes Again

At some point, other NBA general managers are going to just stop taking Daryl Morey's calls. Nobody enjoys being made a fool of, no one aspires to be the target of an atomic wedgie on the playground, and no one wants to be the Imperial Stormtrooper that gets snowed by Obi-Wan Kenobi on the way into ... More >>

Game Time: Charlie Weis Getting Canned; Business Is About To Pick Up

​I remember my tenth grade Economics teacher Mr. Amstutz telling our class one time about how, whenever there's a recession or a depression, one thing that can "pull the economy out of the dumper is a good ol' fashioned WAR." Keep in mind, this is in 1984, when the United States versus Russia ri ... More >>

In Honor Of The Bugatti Incident: The Five Best Incidents Of When Birds Attack

Today's story on a pelican causing a $2 million sports car to wind up in a lagoon is, of course, distressing. And not just if you're the owner of that $2 million car.Birds -- you gotta watch out for them. You just never know when they're going to strike.The lagoon incident can now proudly take its p ... More >>

Jason Friedman's NBA Predictions: Mavs Beat the Jazz, the Suns, the Rockets and the Pistons, Take the Championship in '08

The New Bad Boys? No Way

Hoop Dreams of Glory

A basketball documentary delves deep into the dangerous lure of the game