Miami Heat

A Surprising Amount on the Line Tonight for the Rockets in LA

It's always amazing that after 81 games, it can come down to a single contest between two teams. Such is the case tonight in Los Angeles as the Rockets face the Lakers in the final game of the season. For both, a win is paramount but for different reasons. The Lakers, the preseason favorite to win i ... More >>

Clearing Up the Western Conference Playoff Picture

I always find it amazing that after an entire season, spots in the playoffs and seeding can come down to the final few games. This year in the Western Conference it is no different. The east has been settled for over a week and there is only limited jockeying for position. But the west is deeper and ... More >>

Goooooooal Tending: Rockets Beat Suns, Make Playoffs on Bizarre Final Play

"What a long strange trip it's been." -- The Grateful Dead It is fitting in a season as crazy as this one that the young Rockets' road to the playoffs would ultimately come down to a game, a play and a call like the ones that occurred Tuesday night at Toyota Center. All season, the Rockets have don ... More >>

RodeoHouston Hops On "Harlem Shake" Bandwagon

The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo doesn't stay so successful by not keeping up with the times. So before each of this year's evening concerts, you can watch a bunch of people who work at the rodeo gyrating to the latest real-life Internet meme, the "Harlem Shake." Last week a 30-second clip of va ... More >>

Five Reasons the Young Rockets Will Make the Playoffs This Year

Last year, the Rockets were in the driver's seat with just a few weeks left in the season. They were in the sixth spot in the Western Conference seeding and virtual lock to make the playoffs. Then all hell broke loose. They lost six straight games and found themselves out of the playoffs for the thi ... More >>

Last Night: Sprint All-Star Jam Session Concert With Ludacris And Ke$ha

Sprint Pre-Game Concert feat. B.O.b, Ludacris, and Ke$ha All-Star Jam Session at George R. Brown Convention Center February 17th, 2013 Sunday afternoon, as I was counting down the minutes until I had to leave an amazing All-Star day party, where I was making friends with a beautiful girl, drinking ... More >>

Beyonce, Jay-Z, LeBron Throw an Elegant Uptown Park Affair

Red carpet moments don't yield many moments of candid humor. Camera guys tuck themselves inside of smiles and insider stories about their best and worst shots, writers peg themselves as the anxious ones itching for a quote when it's really the other way around, and handlers attempt to make sure ever ... More >>

2012: The Year In Zapruder, A Recap Of My Detailed Video Recaps

I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line in 2012, the Zapruder-style analysis of viral videos became my thing. Much like you'd go to Clay Travis on SEC football or to Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback for the weekend that was in the NFL, when you the reader needed hardcore ... More >>

Royce White's Twitter Rant: 10 Ignorant Replies

"Is he worth it?" In the sports world, it's the answer to that one simple question that ultimately determines the length of a player's shelf life in whatever league he plays in. Extrapolated in more detail and reworded, is the combination of a player's skill set, salary, and performance worth whate ... More >>

Scouting Report: Trae's Son, Rapper Lil' Jared, Hits the Court

The kid shooting the free throw, that's Jared. He's a rapper. And this is kind of about him, but also about some other people. Because this is kind of about rap, but also about some other things. Jared's father is Trae tha Truth, which means a few different things: 1. He's probably very well-beha ... More >>

Rockets GM Daryl Morey Meets With The Media To Discuss The Draft (And Mention The Aborted Pau Gasol Trade A Few Times)

While the NBA Playoffs have been rolling toward their exciting conclusion in Miami and Oklahoma City, back here in Houston, the Rockets have been busy trying to figure out how they can somehow come out of the next few months of NBA player activity with a team that at least feels like a threat to mak ... More >>

NBA Draft: Recent Stinkhole History To Enlighten Rocket Fans

Prior to Wednesday night's game between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, the 27th annual NBA Draft Lottery took place, or as Rocket fans like to call it "a tradition like no other." For those Rocket fans, their 0.5 percent chance of coming away with the top pick gave the draft lottery a decide ... More >>

Bet on the Rockets

What will the second half bring?

Houston Rockets Second-Half Preview in Gambling-Speak

The Rockets kick off the second half of the 2011-2012 season tonight. I'm not sure how many of you care about this. The acres of empty seats at Toyota Center lead me to believe that fewer of you care than Kevin McHale, Daryl Morey and Leslie Alexander would have hoped for. Television ratings indicat ... More >>

Texans' Rashad Butler Not Really Apologizing Much for "Faggots" Tweet

The fail whale comes again for a Houston athlete.​Rashad Butler's Twitter account is the latest bit of fun Misadventures in Athlete Tweeting. The Texans tackle was watching the Miami Heat-New York Knicks game last night and got a little bit caught up in the action. He got in some back-and-fo ... More >>

LeBron James Has Someone Cut His Meat for Him

Statistically, LeBron James is having perhaps the best season in the history of the NBA. Per game, he is averaging 27.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.8 assists, and for you advanced stat geeks (you probably already know this), he is carrying an ungodly 32.68 Player Efficiency Rating (or PER, as you Har ... More >>

Looking Ahead: Rockets Hold Off on Re-Upping Lee, 2009 Rookies

The Houston Rockets announced this week that they would not exercise their option to extend the contracts of guard Courtney Lee and the four rookies from the 2009 draft, center Hasheem Thabeet, forward Jordan Hill, guard Johnny Flynn and guard Terrence Williams. The Rockets had the option available ... More >>

Rape, Scandal, Greed and Cockfighting -- The 2011 Sports Year In Review

2011: Penn State's horrible year​You know how, in the series 24, the way a season unfolds? How just when you think there has been some sort of resolution to the bad guys being bottled up, right then and there a new (often worse) layer is introduced, and ultimately in like Hour 22 Jack Bauer wi ... More >>

NBA Season Win Totals and My Rockets Prediction

Bet the over on wins​Last add on my post from yesterday about Kris Kardashian Humphries re-signing with the Nets: For those of you who think I was a little too hard on Big Humph (and by my count, there were exactly none of you who felt that way), just know that according to results of a rece ... More >>

Rockets Announce 2011-2012 Schedule -- 6 Things You Need to Know

Kevin Martin: Not a big national-TV draw.​My excitement for the upcoming NBA season was moderately brimming before yesterday (due in large part to a $50 prop bet I placed a couple months ago on the season starting on or before Christmas -- CHA-CHING!), but two things happened yesterday. First ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: David Guerrero of Samba Grille, On His Road to Recovery and Becoming Executive Chef

Mai PhamExecutive Chef David Guerrero in the kitchen at Samba Grille​Yesterday, we talked to Samba Grille's Executive Chef David Guerrero about how he was diagnosed with brain cancer early last year. You can read about it here. Today, he tells us the rest of his story about his extraordinary r ... More >>

What Google Music Means To The Music Industry

techonzo.com​Google is finally launching its own music service. Google Music is a full-scale music service/store designed to compete with Amazon and Apple. Android boss Andy Rubin says they're very close to launch. About a dozen independent labels are have already joined forces with Google and ... More >>

NBA Draft Rewind -- 1986, The Worst Draft Ever

Plus the shorts sucked​As much as those who construct teams in sports would like to think that they have a formula and a blueprint that they can go execute with any team in any market and be successful, the fact of the matter is that even for the best personnel men in the best-run organization ... More >>

2011 NBA Draft -- A Reminder of the Rockets' Purgatory

NBA Draft: Do Rocket fans have anything to look forward to?​In the second season of The Sopranos, after getting shot in the abdomen and nearly dying, Christopher has dreams while in a coma about going to a place where people die every day the same painful way they died on earth. Convinced that ... More >>

Astro Jordan Lyles' Big League Debut Is Tonight, So I'm Actually Making A Point To Watch

Jordan Lyles: Either clean-shaven, or doesn't need to shave yet.​As Tuesdays in the ho-hum, post-Memorial Day part of the calendar go, this one actually has a few juicy television nuggets tonight -- Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and the Mavericks, the season premiere of America's G ... More >>

Dallas Mavs' Promo Video: A Life & Death Battle of the Gods, Examined Second By Excruciating Second

Above is the official promo video put out by the Dallas Mavericks for their ongoing playoff run. It just may be the single most defensive and embarrassing such video ever, but hey, it's from Dallas. Let's examine this thing. Throughout, the music is so over-the-top dramatic it makes "O Fortuna" s ... More >>

Rockets Playing Well Under the Radar

Photo by Jeff BalkeFinally, the Red Rowdies have something to actually cheer about.​Houston's three major sports franchises have spent the last few seasons in the equivalent of purgatory. None have been good enough to contend for a title, but none have been horrid enough to elicit the types of ... More >>

Mantis: Prolific Internet Phantoms Surface Hungry

​Two months ago, we happened across a performance by Mantis, an eagerly funky and inwardly quirky indie-rock band we'd heard mentioned but never actively sought out. Their show, in short, was quite remarkable, an effort spearheaded by vocalist/keyboardist/bow-tie enthusiast Nick Greer. Writin ... More >>

Jerry's Time to Shine

Speaking truth about Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Remember Show's R.N.C.?

Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​Show R.N.C. (Self-released, 2010)  There are different branches of the New Houston Collectiv ... More >>

Top Ten Houston Sports Stories in 2010 (Alternate Title: "Here Comes The Prozac")

Brian Cushing will bring a keg and Fear of Tumors to your party​Putting together a "Top 10 Sports Moments" list is not supposed to invoke these feelings of anger and depression. But then again, I live in Houston, so try as I might to make this a list that is uplifting and inspiring, I can't. ... More >>

Ticket City, New Era Pinstripe? What Happened To The Real Bowl Games?

What kind of name is New Era Pinstripe Bowl?​It's possible that I'm getting old and becoming one of those grumpy old dudes who think that everything was better during his day. That caveat out of the way, I've got to ask: am I the only one around here who remembers when the New Year's Day bow ... More >>

NFL & College Football -- Weekend's Best Bets

When it comes to college football, I'm not a staunch traditionalist. I believe the season is more compelling when the longtime powers are strong (Translation: Texas, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Miami all being mediocre is, to me, a bad thing.), and yet I picked Boise State before the season ... More >>

Cory Mo's Star-Studded It's Been About Time Mixtape

Photos via myspace.com/corymoCory Mo and Bun B in Europe​We've been writing about Houston rap for nearly three years now, and have yet to hear someone - ANYONE - say a bad thing about Cory Mo. Not once. That's remarkable. Given the sometimes irritable nature of Houston's rap scene, that's like ... More >>

Thanksgiving 2010: The Post Where We Get All "Thanky"

Thank you. Thank you very much.​As we prepare to gorge ourselves today on turkey (Cajun fried is the choice here), stuffing, pumpkin bread, and perhaps something green (maaaaybe, but probably not), I want to first thank all of you who stop in and read the stuff on the blog here, not just my st ... More >>

LeBron James: Five Reasons Why He Did Not Choose Houston

Why LeBron said no​Despite what we thought were pretty compelling arguments yesterday, LeBron James did not announce last night that he will become a Houston Rocket.We blame the Children's Museum. And the Astros.Still, we're not bitter; we're analytical. And we have determined the five reason why ... More >>

LeBron James: Five Reasons Why He Will Announce Tonight He's A Houston Rocket

Forget GQ -- You can be on the cover of the Houston Press​As our Game Time blogger Sean Pendergast has ably analyzed, tonight is the big night for LeBron James. Tonight -- on a primetime special devoted solely to the specialness of him and the sheer giganticnessof his decision -- he will announce ... More >>

Game Time: LeBron-athon -- Five Backstabbings That Will Get You Ready For Tonight

Anakin Skywalker: Thanks for nothing, kid​In anticipation of LeBron James' decision as to where he will ply his trade for the next few years, shares of MSG stock rose 6 percent yesterday for a period of time before settling back to where they were earlier in the day. The reason for the brief bump ... More >>

Game Time: Kobe Bryant: One Down, One To Go (And Neither of Them Are You, LeBron)

You, Senator, are no Michael Jordan​ "I've got one more than Shaq." -- Kobe BryantThe accolades would seem to indicate that respect has not been an issue for Kobe Bryant -- the respect of fans, the respect of his peers, the respect of the media.In his career, Kobe Bryant has been selected to the A ... More >>

Game Time: NBA Free Agent Summit: The Four Horsemen Guide to 2010 Free Agency

Worldwide Wes, pulling strings​"The only time this much havoc had been wreaked by this few a number of people, you need to go all the way back to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!" -- Arn AndersonAnd with that seemingly throwaway line during a wrestling promo, one of the most entertaining fact ... More >>

Game Time: For Sale -- NBA Two Guard, 30 Y/O, Excellent Condition, Trades Accepted

​First, I want to thank everyone for their reaction, positive or otherwise, to my post yesterday which chronicled the high points of the era of Tracy McGrady's Expiring Contract I seem to learn something with every new post that I generate here on Hair Balls, and yesterday I learned that there are ... More >>

Got Live If You Want It

Our Spring/Summer concert preview, part deux

Hard Economic Times Coming To Sports Franchises

The NHL doesn't have a team in Houston, so I'm pretty confident that most of you don't follow the league, and don't have any idea about some of the severe financial problems facing many of the southern teams.  The NHL has intervened in Phoenix in an attempt to find new ownership for the club.&n ... More >>

Ten Other Instances of "Sloppy Seconds"

Sean Avery of the NHL's Dallas Stars was suspended for an indefinite period by the NHL on Tuesday for comments he made in Calgary on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters, he made a comment about several players dating his "sloppy seconds." And I know most of you in Houston would rather talk high school fo ... More >>

Rockets-Heat: A Pair of Pleasant Surprises

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

New Year's Resolutions for Houston

We have a lot to forgive – and forget – about 2005; here's hoping local celebs do better next year

French Kissed

Hollywood Frame Gallery goes Gallic with "March de Triomphe"

Oh, Say Can You See

The Star Spangles regurgitate the best of a punky rock stew