Shaquille O'Neal

LeBron James Is Your Non-Unanimous 2012-13 MVP, And I'm Fine With That

I am mesmerized by LeBron James. I'll admit, he's converted me. I am a fan. This is coming from someone who wrote four straight posts around the time of "The Decision" in July 2010 about what an asshole LeBron was. This is coming from someone who openly rooted against him every time he was on my ... More >>

Rockets-Thunder Game 5: 4 Winners, 4 Losers

The Rockets began this series with the Thunder by falling behind three games to none, with a deer-in-the-headlights Game 1 preceding two very winnable games in Games 2 and 3. No team in NBA history has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series, and to expect an 8 seed like the Rockets to become t ... More >>

NBA All Star Weekend: 5 Observations And A Plea For More Barkley

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel like I should tell you that I chose not to stick around Houston for the NBA All Star Game and it's peripheral festivities (up to and including the transformation of the Galleria into some kind of three-story clown car on Saturday) this past weekend. As a br ... More >>

Oh, You Mean There Is Actually A Game During NBA All-Star Weekend? (Plus, Can You Name The Rappers In Our Courtside Photo?)

After a weekend of human gridlock at the Galleria, traffic snarls, bottles poppin', and all the parties you could handle, NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston came to a close on Sunday with the Western Conference defeating their Eastern foes 143-138, the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Paul getting the game' ... 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 >>

The Most Pointless Part of 2013 NBA All-Star Houston: The "Rising Stars" Practice (PRACTICE?!)

It would've been better if the coaches made the players perform drills like the spider, the Cousy or the box-out circle. Hell, even watching these anointed "stars" running suicides would've been riveting compared to the whatever on display at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Friday morning. ... More >>

NBA All-Star Game: Your Prop Bets For This Weekend

Michael Jordan turns 50 this weekend, I'm not sure if you've heard. In case you missed the incessant career retrospective pieces that ran on Sportscenter or the story of MJ's renting the Museum of Fine Arts here in Houston for his birthday shindig this weekend, the most iconic team sport athlete o ... More >>

All the Rappers Who Will Be Here All-Star Weekend, Part 2

"Are you going to StripperFest?" "Excuse me, am I going to what?" "StripperFest. It's a thing at All-Star Weekend." Rewind: All the Rappers Who Will Be Here All-Star Weekend, Part 1 If I told you a complete stranger with his or her own guide to All-Star Weekend told me such a thing, I would be ... More >>

6 Famous Female Artists' Bizarre Early Album Covers

Marketing can be a funny thing in the music business. Look at Garth Brooks, who tried a dozen different gimmicks before becoming the world's most famous country singer. Even the Beatles were shaped and forged into the lads we know after an early career dressing like hooligans and nailing condoms to ... More >>

Ask A Rapper: Tha Centop's Top 6 Sports-Related Rap Songs

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -- lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good -- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? E-mail sheaserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

Syrupy Surprises: Random Selections From DJ Screw's Personal Vinyl Collection

If you haven't taken the time to check out the "DJ Screw and the Rise of Houston Hip-Hop" exhibit on display now at UH's MD Anderson Library, do yourself a favor and go. Put on in conjunction with the H.E.R.E. (Houston Enriches Rice Education) Project, UH's African-American Studies department and th ... More >>

Top 5 Musical NBA Players

The NBA All-Star Game is coming up in a couple of weeks. There may not be any Rockets on the roster - even ex-Rocket/Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin didn't blow up in time to be added as a reserve - but musical names such as Kanye West, Rihanna (the halftime entertainment), Lenny Kravitz, Josh Groban, ... More >>

Your iPod Is Interesting Again: 10 New Local Rap Releases Worth Noting

It appears that last year, local underground rap's most impressive in a handful of terms, was not an anomaly. Six weeks into the last year of human existence (goddamn you, Mayans) and Houston's burgeoning stars are moving as fervently as ever. Ten relatively new bits of music for your brain:

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 >>

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 >>

Ask A Rapper: J. Cole vs. Big Sean, the Worst Song of 2011, More

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email introducingliston@gmail.com ... More >>

Ask A Rapper: Discussing the Six Worse Rap Collaborations Ever

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -- lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good -- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. &# ... 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 >>

The NBA's Top-Selling Jerseys List (And Seven Things It Tells Us)

NBA jerseys: We CAN just all get along!!​I'll admit, I don't own any sports jerseys. I'm not a jersey-wearing guy, partially because the fit and feel of an authentic professional sports shirt are not optimal, but mostly because I'm over the age of 14. Full disclosure, I don't buy many jersey ... More >>

Top Five Worst Rapper-Athlete Collaborations

​Ever since Shaq flung the doors wide for athletes to satisfy their microphone dreams, many have tried to follow in his steps. The athlete-rapper experiment usually works, as long as the athlete leaves all the rapping to the rapper. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with these five songs. I ... More >>

Top Five Hip-Hop Foes Turned Friends

Marco Torres​Some rivalries are beyond repair. You'll never catch Kobe and Shaq trading smiles at a joint family picnic. 50 Cent and The Game will still be mugging at each other at the 2021 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. Batman will always despise that sonamabitch The Joker. Truth be told, hip-hop is a ... More >>

Friday Juvenile Time Waster -- Live TV Cussing Videos!

Bleep happens.​Since getting into radio a few years ago, my biggest fear hasn't been a "dear in the headlights" moment (I prepare pretty meticulously), it hasn't been a guest or caller sending the show sideways. The one thing I'm still most fearful of is accidentally cursing on the air. You' ... 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 >>

Rocks Off's All-Star Team Of Rap Ballers

hoopedia.nba.com​Basketball and hip-hop have crossed paths for decades. In the words of self-proclaimed No. 1 draft pick Drake: "I swear sports and music are so synonymous/ 'Cause we want to be them, and they want to be us." To mark the start of NBA training camp, Rocks Off assembled an all-s ... 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 >>

Summerfest Short Cuts: Mix Master Mike, Kid Sister, Miniature Tigers, Etc.

Marc BrubakerSpain Colored Orange​Spain Colored Orange: Although technical difficulties with one ticket scanner caused an enormous line of hot and restless festival-goers outside one gate, Spain Colored Orange started its set at 2:05 p.m. on the dot - before the gates had even opened. SCO informed ... More >>

Game Time: Shaq And Dwight Howard Battle Over Who Is The Real Fruit Of Jor-El's Loins

​Back when I was a little kid on the mean streets of Austin (Yep, I lived there for two years during my youth) in the mid-`70's, me and a few of my fellow second-graders would play Star Wars during recess. We would pretend the jungle gym was the Millenium Falcon, the area behind the rocks was Tato ... More >>

Rockets-Suns: Brooks, Lowry Bring Small Ball to Houston

If the Rockets needed any additional evidence to the potential success of a two point-guard system, they only needed to look on the other end of the court on Friday night at Toyota Center. The Phoenix Suns (34-28) have been the model of up-tempo basketball in recent years, routinely playing small g ... More >>

Rockets-Suns: Brooks, Lowry Bring Small Ball to Houston

If the Rockets needed any additional evidence to the potential success of a two point-guard system, they only needed to look on the other end of the court on Friday night at Toyota Center. The Phoenix Suns (34-28) have been the model of up-tempo basketball in recent years, routinely playing small g ... More >>

You Down With OCD? Yeah, You Know Me

Video games linked to obsessive, Tony Shalhoub-type behavior

Can a Houston Texan outrap Shaq?

NBA Playoff Preview: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

Rockets-Sonics: Face to Face with Inevitability

Pro Athlete Musicians

Athletes step off the field and into the studio

James Howard Kunstler Finally Drags His Ass to Houston

Hustle Time

Damon Jones has traveled from UH to all around the NBA chasing stardom and a sound bite

Baller's Ball

Where to party this All-Star Weekend

And Now, Some Hoops

All-Star Weekend culminates with an actual game

Ming's Dynasty?

Yao Ming

French Kissed

Hollywood Frame Gallery goes Gallic with "March de Triomphe"

Best Rocket

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Indulge Your Inner Yao

The ultimate Web site for those obsessed with the Rockets' big guy

Kenny G.'s Revenge

Smooth-jazz fans blast Racket

Bert Wills

Tell Me Why (Gold Rhyme)

Off the Road Again

Jesse Dayton sans Road Kings

Press Picks

Family Feast

At Mandola's Family Table, small portions aren't on the menu

Rotation

The Chips Are Down