Utah Jazz

Kevin Durant Donates $1 Million To The Red Cross For Tornado Relief

As the Rockets first round series with the Oklahoma City Thunder unfolded, as Kevin Martin flopped around like a spastic Euro, as Derek Fisher continually executed the only discernible basketball skill still in his repertoire (corner three!), as Kendrick Perkins ran up and down the floor with the gr ... More >>

After a Successful Season, Big Questions Loom for Young Rockets

It's difficult to believe anyone outside of the most hardcore fans truly believed the Rockets would be a playoff team this year. Most, including myself, assumed they would finish under .500 and back in the lottery. Even with James Harden, an unproven starter, added before the season, it was tough to ... 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 >>

The Rockets Are Back In The NBA Playoffs! Their Complete Rebuilding Anthology

With four games to go in the 2011-2012 season, the Rockets were coming off a 117-110 loss to Dallas, a loss in which Dirk Nowitzki provided a stark reminder to last season's Rockets team that they were devoid of a superstar caliber player by dropping 21 points on them in the fourth quarter. To call ... More >>

Rockets Edge Closer to the Playoffs with 2-1 West Road Trip

The Rockets loss to Denver on Saturday night was almost a given. Very few teams who faced the Nuggets in Denver on the second half of a back-to-back travel game in the last couple seasons have won. It's tough to travel and play a game at altitude against a team that likes to run. Plus, the Nuggets a ... More >>

Rockets Could Get a Lot Closer to the Playoffs Tonight

It always shocks me that over the course of 82 games, teams could remain so close that it comes right down to the wire, yet, virtually every season, that is the case. With Portland and Dallas essentially falling off the map, there are five teams left fighting for the final four spots in the Western ... More >>

The Good News-Bad News for the Rockets as They Drive for the Playoffs

Last night was a frustrating night for the young Rockets squad. They had their worst offensive output of the season, scoring just 78 points (10 in the first quarter) and getting it handed to them in the most lopsided loss of the season against the team directly ahead of them in the playoff chase, Go ... More >>

Rockets Confounding Season of Ups and Downs Continues with a 45-Point Win in Utah

For all their inconsistency this season, there is a certain amount of relative consistency to the Rockets season. Whenever they lose a few, they come back and win a few, or vice versa. The league's youngest team will struggle to shoot with any consistency and turn the ball over like playground balle ... More >>

From Five Straight Wins to Four Straight Losses, the Young Rockets Continue to Confound

I've mentioned in this space on numerous occasions that you have to take the good and bad with youth. It's exciting and fast-paced and fun, but it's also exceedingly frustrating. On a weekend that saw the Texans go out more with a whimper than a bang, it would have been nice for the other halfway de ... More >>

Hornets to Become the Pelicans? Dear NOLA, Blame Utah

The city of New Orleans has been forced to suffer many indignities when it comes to sports. Whether it was the long period of disastrous play by the "Ain'ts", so bad that fans came to games at the Super Dome with paper bags over their heads; or the fact that the team currently known as the Hornets e ... More >>

Remembering the ABA: 5 Things That Would Never Happen in the NBA

Thirty-six years ago this week, avant-garde basketball went away when the American Basketball Association merged with the National Basketball Association. The old ABA (1967-1976) helped revolutionize the game through the invention of the three-point shot and the drafting of underclassmen. At one t ... More >>

Ask A Rapper: D-Risha Discusses Sports' Worst "Decisions"

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 >>

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 >>

Jerry "The King" Lawler Piledrives Clipper Fan: Old School WWE Wrestlers for Each NBA Playoff Series (w/ VIDEO)

People laugh dismissively when I say it, but the more they can incorporate WWE performers and the general WWE "way" of entertainment, the more enjoyable other genres of sports will become. No, I'm not talking about the predetermined outcomes of matches (The NBA has already incorporated that aspect o ... More >>

4 Thoughts On Delonte West's Wet Willie On Gordon Hayward

After allowing me to fall into the trap of proclaiming them a lock for the playoffs on my radio show, the Rockets lost their fourth straight game last night. Logic dictates that I should post something about that, but I need to step away from the Rockets just to be able to rationally assess them rig ... More >>

Rockets Sweep Road Trip, Bear Down on the Playoffs

Photo by Groovehouse This Rockets team, it just sneaks up on you. It's loaded with second- and third-tier players, most of whom would be backups (albeit rotation players) on good teams. They struggle with interior defense and have an unproven coach who was once a hated rival. They lost their entire ... More >>

Chase Budinger's Painfully Awkward Dialogue with P-Diddy at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest (w/ VIDEO)

The logical evolution of most things brings about positive change. This is especially true in the world of sports and entertainment. Think about anything in either of those realms which you consume, and ask yourself, "Is this experience better now than it was 25 years ago?" For almost everything, be ... 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 >>

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 >>

Recalibrated Final Four Scenarios (and Jim Rome on a Mobile)

​By the time you read this space on Monday, we will know which four lucky schools have qualified for the Final Four and are headed to Houston to enjoy our weather, our ladies and our Tex-Mex. (I can now include "ladies" because BYU has been eliminated from the tournament. Houston will remain ... More >>

NCAA Sweet Sixteen Central

What the hell happened to Leslie Visser?​It's generally accepted that the first two full days of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament provide the greatest two-day watching/gambling/drinking/eating experience annually, for obvious reasons: 1. Whether by illness, approved vacation, or planned s ... More >>

Year in Review Appendix -- Five More Stories For The Road

One more for 2010...​I love the last week of December. Between Gary Kubiak and the option to just pick out some category from the past year and recap it, it's ready-made content. Just add snark! So in the spirit of lazy "Year in Review" style posts (one of which I've already submitted today! ... More >>

NBA 2010-2011 Preview -- Reconstructing LeBron

Please, no more operations on Yao Ming​"What should I do?" -- LeBron James, over and over and over again his new Nike spot The fact that LeBron James is posing the question in his new Nike spot perhaps tells us that he is not completely devoid of self-awareness, as he appeared to be last summer. ... More >>

Best & Worst Houston Sports Moments: What Didn't Make The Cut

A great moment, but not great enough​Tomorrow we officially reveal the unimpeachable, inarguable list of the Ten Best Sports Moments in Houston History, not to mention the five most heartbreaking ones.There were plenty of candidates for both lists, thanks to readers, and winnowing it down was a ta ... More >>

Game Time: 2010 World Cup -- I Am Darth Soccer

"Luke!! I am your bad-luck charm!!"​If ever there were a sporting event that was tailor-made for watching in a sports bar with a room full of diehard fans, it's World Cup soccer.It's the one sporting event that takes a pretty easily graspable concept for the casual fan (put ball in goal -- and in ... 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 >>

Game Time: Five NBA Games That Need "Dollar Beer Night"

Back in the day, Arco Arena in Sacramento used to rock pretty good. Even when it was hosting a perennially lottery-bound squad, and the Sacramento brass was drafting the likes of Pervis Ellison first overall in 1989 and Bobby Hurley in the 1993 lottery, fans would still show up and represent.Ultim ... More >>

Oh, The Lakers Will Learn All About Ron Artest

On the way to his fourth championship, Kobe Bryant was guarded by Mickael Pietrus, Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee, Dahntay Jones, Carmelo Anthony, Shane Battier, and all of the Jazz players whose names Jerry Sloan could remember. None of them had the combination of speed, size, and advanced weaponry ne ... More >>

Do You Believe In Miracles? Rockets Advance

May 17, 1997.Aaron Brooks and Von Wafer were in sixth grade. The Oilers were only a year removed from their Houston existence. The Texans were still more than five years from their birth. The Astros had yet to make the playoffs in the Biggio-Bagwell era. Then-President Bill Clinton was still eight m ... More >>

Houston's Jazz History

The Five Best Trades in the History of Houston Sports

Trapped in the Closet No More

Houston Rockets, 2007-2008: Requiem for a Season

Talk about Statutory Rape: Karl Malone and the 13-Year-Old Baby Mama

Rockets-Jazz Game Five: Return of the Streakers

Listen Up: K-Rino's "Holla at Me"

Q&A with Daryl Morey: Playoff Preview Edition

Rockets Should Improve, But Will It Matter?

He’s Back

Where Do We Go from Here?

Dear Diary

Which Texas Team Will Take Home the Title?

Hangover Hoops

2004 begins with Jazz, Rockets

Summer of Love

Tamalalia 7 and West Side Story offer different musical takes on a time-honored topic

Tamarie's Time

Whole Foods, hard wit, the legacy of Lucy and offspring of hippies have helped the woman of Tamalalia take Houston by storm. But where's she really headed?

The American Scream

A hysterical Tamarie Cooper rescues herself from suburbia in the free-association comedy Tamalalia 2000

News Hostage

Dead Man Walking

A Call to Arms

Gary Ray is going to Russia for the glory of his sport. For the honor of his country. For a chance to win one more arm-wrestling contest.

Forecast: Raining Stadiums

Forget the committee -- the city's sports future already is being negotiated by the mayor