To Win or Not to Win,

Is That Really the Question?

Just leave it to belligerently idiotic people on sports radio to question whether a professional sports team should throw some games to get a better draft spot. This all spawned from the Rockets doing what every Houston sports team seems to do every year which is make a late season run to keep all of us fans on the edge of our seats only to let us down in the end. And from the sound of these know nothing idiots on the radio, the majority of Rockets fans in Houston would rather have the Rockets lose instead of trying to make the playoffs. At no point ever is it OK for a professional sports team to throw games, even if there is a once in a lifetime prospect that is going to be in the draft. The reason being that once it is done (even once), the integrity of the game itself is gone and in the end, if the game's integrity is gone, then the game is meaningless. All sports are based on the premise that at their very core, before anything begins, every team is on a level playing field and that every team will do whatever it can to win the game fairly and by the rules of the game.

So all you people who keep saying that the Rockets as they are built now cannot win a championship, you have no idea what will happen if the make the playoffs. I am not going to bore you trying to break down a Rockets vs. Lakers 7-game series, but just remember that the Rockets have already won a championship as a 6 seed in the '94-'95 season. Anything can happen at any time and that is what sport great.

So to anyone else who tells me the Rockets need to lose out to increase to draft position, I swear I will rip them through a hell-portal into a place where the Benny Hill theme song, “Yakety Sax” plays nonstop and the only thing on TV are reruns of Project Runway.

Texas:  A Basketball State???

Disclaimer: This article is going to warn all Texans of the new trend sweeping the state. This trend will scare most of you conservatives, but here me out and Ye Shalt Be Saved.

Believe it or not people, but college basketball is not just isolated to Durham, North Carolina and New York, New York. There are schools in this very state that have basketball teams. Yeah I know. Crazy. And here is the thing, these schools have good teams. In fact, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas have been good for pretty much the last decade. UT has been good ever since Rick Barnes took over the team in 1998, and A&M has been relevant since they went 0-16 in conference play in the 2003-2004 season, having made the NCAA Tournament every year since then and winning at least one game in the tournament every year they have qualified. Both schools have put players in the NBA also, most notably Kevin Durant, T.J. Ford and DeAndre Jordan. Both schools have also made deep runs in the last decade with UT making the Final Four in 2003 and A&M making the Sweet Sixteen in 2006.

I am willing to bet that almost no people that live in Texas actually knew that us Texans had two viable college basketball teams. And given how awesome the fans are here in Texas, it is a shame that no one notices these teams because if people actually paid attention to these teams, I really think that the fans in Texas could turn these teams into successful basketball programs like Duke, North Carolina and Michigan State, universities that have an extremely devoted national following. Just because Texas is known as being a football state does not mean that it cannot be a basketball state also. I really feel that there is a niche here in Texas for some great basketball teams and rivalries, all we have to do is turn on the TV.

I will put it to you guys like this: I am fairly stupid (which actually makes me question why you people read this but that is an argument for another day), but I am not so stupid to not realize that Texas is now and will always be a football state. But if we do not start following these basketball teams with a passion, these two coaches and by extension, these teams, will not be around long. This is less likely for Rick Barnes at UT, but for Mark Turgeon, head basketball coach at A&M, when some other big basketball school comes calling, he is going to have no choice but to leave if attendance and ratings and money do not increase. And then we will slip back into the mediocre state that Texas college basketball was in before these teams started winning. Call me crazy, but I like having something exciting to watch between the Super Bowl and the start of the baseball season.

Also I know that UT smoked A&M last night 81-60. Both teams are in the top 11 in the country and it looks like they will be there for the rest of the year. UT was probably just upset about the beat down A&M put on the Horns in football last year.....who knows....Haus out.

Sports in 2010: Great Year?

Or Greatest Ever?

From Tiger Woods to Michael Vick, Cameron Newton to Cliff Lee, from Landon Donovan to LeBron James and from the Uconn women to the San Francisco Giants, 2010 was a damn good year in sports. Everyone is calling 2010 the year of the Quarterback and I would agree. But the thing is that it has been so much more than that. It has been the year of the Pitcher and the year of Redemption. The year of the “Decision” and the year of the streak. We were super-saturated with sports this year because of the World Cup and the Winter Olympics. We did not see the greatest moment in sports history this year, but I cannot remember when we saw so many great moments all across the world of sports in one year.  I cannot remember the last time I sat on my couch with my jaw dropped because of what had just seen time and time again. 

There were six no hitters this year in the MLB, and one of them in the playoffs. The San Francisco Giants somehow won the World Series. The Lakers played in their third straight NBA Finals, winning their second in a row. LeBron James' “Decision” pretty much ruined his image. Brett Favre went from the best NFC Championship game, to retired, to coming back and ruining his image and the Vikings season. The amount of amazing stories and moments this year was staggering and to try and choose the 5 best from the year would be impossible, but saying that here goes anyway.  They are mostly football but whatever...football rules.

#5. Michael Vick. What can you say? You know the story. You know about the things he has done. Whoever thought that he would do what he is doing this year? He is playing like himself mixed with Peyton Manning and it is incredible. If you said you saw this coming, you are a dirty, dirty liar.

#4. Kyle Brotzman. Who is he? He is the place kicker for Boise St. I will remember him because of the one game against Nevada. Everyone knows what Boise St. is and whether you love or hate them, they are must see TV. That was an AMAZING game. Tied with under 15 seconds left in the game, Boise's QB Kellen Moore proceeds to throw a 54 yard bomb that somehow gets completed to the Nevada nine yard line, setting up a 26 yard chip shot field goal for one of the best kickers in the country, Kyle Brotzman.......and he missed it. Unbelievable. Then the game goes to OT and he misses a 29 yarder!!! Are you kidding me?? I sat in silence for about thirty minutes rethinking my life. So Boise loses and the rest is history. Amazing.

#3. Brett Favre's interception at the end of the NFC Championship game against the Saints. A microcosm of Favre's career. Nuff said. Un-freaking-believable.

#2. Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria in the last group game to win the group in the World Cup. With the U.S. Men level at zero with Algeria in the last group game in the World Cup and needing a win to advance, Landon Donovan and company went the length of the field with just seconds left and scored the most amazing goal in U.S. Mens Soccer history. Outstanding.

#1. Drew Brees and the Saints. The big deal for me was not the Saints winning the Super Bowl, despite their history, it was Drew Brees and his son after the game. Pictures like that are for what I live.

 

Things that almost made the Top 5:

-Butler University in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. If Gordon Heyward's shot would have been a quarter inch to the left against Duke I would have died...that is all.

-UConn Women's Basketball winning streak. Lets face it. If their coach was not crazy I would not care...sorry ladies.

-Tiger Woods' comeback. So polarizing. You hate or love him. He is THE REASON I watch golf.

Now I do not know why we try to organize everything into years and define them as such, even though we cut off half of the NBA season and the playoffs in the NFL, but we do. So was 2010 the greatest year ever in sports? No. Was it in the top 5 in my lifetime? Maybe. All I know is that I would take 2010 over most of the years I have experienced because it seemed that every sport, professional or collegiate, had a plethora of amazing moments.  I am glad that every ball bounced the way it did and every call went the way it did.  I am happy that Heyward missed that shot and I am happy that Peyton Manning threw that interception in the Super Bowl.  Because if those things did not happen, 2010 would not have been as special as it was.