And with the 18th pick

The Texans traded first round picks with the Ravens and picked up the Raven's third and sixth round picks. The Texans used the pick to take Duane Brown from Virginia Tech.

I like the pick. The offensive line has been an Achilles heal for the Texans. The left tackle position has been snake bitten since the inception of the franchise. Tony Boselli never played a down. Charles Spencer was hurt in the second game of his rookie season and may never play a down again. The Texans needed to address the position and address it now.

Some so called experts question this pick. Many had Brown projected as a second or third rounder. I'll trust the Texans' judgement on this pick. The Texans OL Alex Gibbs is a well respected coach that teaches the zone blocking scheme. While I'm not a fan of the zone block, it has worked well for the Denver Donkeys. Gibbs knows what he's doing.

For the fans that are upset I have one thing to say. The Texans were NEVER going to take a running back with the first pick. How thick headed are you? In press conferences, radio shows and in the media, time and again the Texans brain trust explicitly stated the priorities were OT and CB and that RB was coming in the later rounds. So quit with the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I knew nothing about Brown until today. After reading a few scouting reports, I like the pick. Most the media draft gurus have him projected as a second or third rounder. Who cares? I don't. They all agree that he has great potential. Sports Illustrated's report says he "jolts opponents with a violent hand-punch" and can get out and block linebackers too. Sounds good enough for me. I can live with a O-lineman who can knock a rushing d-lineman in the jaw and take a linebacker too. He's going to have two good mentors in starting LT Ephriam Salaam and Gibbs.

As much as I hate the Cowboys, I have to admit they are having a great draft. I think. The picked up a solid running back in Felix Jones and then added much needed help with CB Mike Jenkins. I'm surprised by the second round pick of Martellus Bennett. I thought they would pick up a WR. They need one to help take some coverage off Terrell Owens. Overall a solid first day for the Cowboys.

" When the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights"
-"When the Music's Over, The Doors

That's the song I want to sing to the Phoenix Suns. Wow what an implosion. I really thought they were going to put up a better fight against the Spurs. I actually thought the Spurs were in trouble based on the way they were playing towards the end of the season. I stand corrected. The trade for Shaq has turned out to be a disaster. The Suns retooled midseason specifically to beat the Spurs. The gamble didn't work out and it looks like head coach Mike Dantoni's job is in jeopardy.

Bye, Phoenix, don't let the door hit Shaq's fat ass on the way out.

Finally, Congratulations to fellow Houston Cougar Donnie Avery. The Los Angeles Rams selected him in the second round. Avery's draft projection has been all over the place but his stock rose significantly leading up to the draft. Good luck and all the best.

Random Thoughts

My favorite Houston Texans site is no more. Housotn Pro Football is gone. A new incarnation of the site has risen in the name of In The Bull's Eye. Some of the old posters are starting to find their way over to the message board. Let's hope most of them return.

What a game between the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz. The Rockets could have mailed it in and started thinking about summer vacation. Freaking Carl Landry had a hell of a game. He got a tooth knocked out and returned to make a game winning block. Tracy McGrady scored more than one point in the fourth quarter. He made a bone headed offensive foul down the stretch but the Rockets survived. They seized home court back but they need to take game four to stay in it.

My beloved San Antonio Spurs look to take a commanding three game lead tonight in Phoenix. I know it's been talked and written a lot about. Even so I still wonder if the Spurs are really that much in the Suns' head? In every sport it some teams just have another team's number. I don't know if I they really are in their heads or is it match up problems or what. The Suns really aren't worse than the Spurs. Yet the Spurs just have their number in the playoffs. In the Tim Duncan era, the Spurs and the Suns have met up four times. The only series the Suns won was 2000 when Duncan sat out due to an injury. The Shaq experiment isn't working so far. No doubt about it, tonight is a must win for Phoenix.

I don't comment much on the NFL draft. There are enough draftniks and gurus out there that know far more about it than I do. I just read up on players who the Texans might be interested in and who might be the best fit. The most debated topic is what position the Texans will draft with the first pick. CB or LT? We won't know until Saturday.

Lakers vs. Nuggets, The Fall of the Maverick Empire, Isiah Thomas's Path of Destruciton

Lakers vs. Nuggets

The only game I watched yesterday was the Lakers vs. Nuggets. It was forming in my head that the Nuggets have the weapons to pull the upset in the first round. The game tied at the half only inflated that belief. Carmelo Anthony and Allan Iverson provide enough fire power and the supporting cast can do damage too. They also have Marcus Camby - last year's NBA Defensive Player of the Year. However as the game progressed I changed my mind. The Lakers are just more talented. Despite the perception of Kobe Bryant being selfish, the Lakers play better team basketball. At least in yesterday's game they did. They took the extra pass, hustled harder and outplayed the Nuggets. The Lakers also looked liked the more experienced team. Iverson is battle tested and has Finals experience. Bryant just has more experience in the heat of playoff battles. Anthony is a great player but is still inexperienced in playoff battle. The Nuggets might have the tools but it remains to be seen if they can put them together to make the series competitive.

The Decline of the Dallas Mavericks

Like the fall of the Roman Empire, the Dallas Mavericks are in a slow decline. Only through looking back in time can we appreciate where the peak occurred and the decline began. Rome reached a zenith but gradually lost her strength and fell to the Barbarians. The Mavericks are still strong but the Barbarians are knocking at the gate.

The Mark Cuban era Dallas Mavericks peaked the during the 2006 Finals. Since the Finals, it's been a slow and lumbering decline. In game three, the Mavs blew a 13 point lead with six minutes remaining and Miami rallied to win. That 13 point lead was the summit. It been downhill ever since. Close out the game and the Mavs are one game away from a title. Instead they lose four straight and Miami wins the title. Sure they had the best record regular season in 2007 but they went down in monumental defeat in the first round. This year's version is no better. The trade for Jason Kidd reeked of desperation. The Mavs felt they had to do something to keep up in the West. The team just doesn't have in them what it takes to win a title. 2006 was the best chance and they've been sliding down ever since. That just makes me laugh!

The End of Isiah Thomas in New York

The reign of Isiah Thomas the Terrible has come to an end in New York. The Master of Disaster reduced a once proud franchise to a pile of rubble. If anyone ever hires Thomas to run any kind of business they should be committed. Terrible Thomas left his distinct fingerprints on other teams too. In Toronto, Thomas was a VP and minority owner. He made a bad power play for majority ownership and ended up getting fired. Then he moved on to coach Indiana. Thomas took over a team that went to the Finals the previous season. He immediately coached them into mediocrity. They never got out of the first round under his watch. He was fired at the end of 2002-03 season. The next season the Pacers posted the league's best record and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Thomas also managed to bring a whole league to it's knees. In 1998 he bought the CBA. Yes, he bought the a whole league. Two years later they went bankrupt and folded.

Knicks owner James Dolan bears most of the responsibility for Thomas though. Instead of firing Thomas, he allowed Thomas to run the franchise into the ground as team president. Dolan should have pulled the plug during or after the 2006 season. Instead he allowed Thomas to remain president and hire himself as head coach. Dolan finally removed him as president this season and installed Donnie Walsh as general manager. Walsh promptly dismissed Thomas as head coach.

Thomas was reassigned to a no title job with in the organization. If they are wise they'll give Thomas an office away from everybody. Let him have a computer and a telephone that don't connect to anyone in the organization. There's a Cheers episode where the corporation that owned the bar hired Sam Malone so he could pitch for the company softball team. They gave him an office, a telephone, a pencil sharpener and a secretary but nothing to do. I imagine that will be Thomas's role with the Knicks.

I just highlighted a few of Thomas's blunders. For a more indepth look at his terror go to Isiah Thomas Greatest Lifetime Achievements

One final note. Congrats go out to Danica Patrick on winning the Indy Japan 300 and having her face painted on the side of an AirTrans airplane. See the photo and article at AirDanica.

Introduction & Spurs Win! Spurs Win! Spurs Win!

Introduction

Welcome to the initial installment of the Untitled Sports Blog. I'm hoping to have a title eventually. I just can't find any inspiration and I wanted to get the blog going. A little background of me first. I used to run a website years ago and I had a small internet following. It was a general interest site but skewed towards sports. I stopped updating it at the beginning of 2002 and just recently I thought I'd get one going again just for shits and giggles. Right now I don't have a home page yet. Just two blogs and a myspace.com site. The other blog is a general interest and topic blog. I want this one to be a sports specific blog.

My favorite teams are in no particular order: Houston Texans, San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Cougars
My secondary teams are: Houston Dynamo, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Penguins, Houston Rockets
Teams I Hate: Anything out of Dallas
Teams I Enjoy Seeing Lose: Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies, Baylor Bears football
Teams that are Insignificant: rice owls

Now about me and my sports allegiances. I was born and raised in San Antonio. I graduated from Jefferson High School in 1987. I'm a University of Houston alum earning a B.S. in Mechanical Technology in 1994. Naturally I'm a Spurs fan first and have been since as far back as I can remember. As a Spurs fan, I could never fully embrace the Rockets but I do enjoy their success and keep up with them. Growing up I was a Dallas Cowboys fan. Why? Because I didn't know any better. I stopped following the Cowboys around my junior year in high school. I didn't become a diehard Oiler fan until my second or third year living in Houston. My allegiance to the Oilers didn't transfer with them to Tennessee. I then became an NFL orphan. A fan without a team. Then the Texans came to town. This season will be my third as a Texans season ticket holder. My first years in Houston I was more into college sports and the Cougars. As a UH alum from the dying days of the Southwest Conference, I'm no fan of the Aggies or Longhorns. My animosity toward Baylor football stems from the way Art Briles left the Coogs to take the Baylor head coaching the job. He left the team in a lurch while they were preparing for the Texas Bowl and took his two offensive coordinators with him. Last and least, the insignificant rice owls. The Cougars have better things to do than worry about rice.

Spurs Win! Spurs Win! Spurs Win!

Man oh man, what a game. The Spurs take the opening game against the Phoenix Suns. It didn't start out good for the Spurs. Tim Duncan was playing his ass off while the others pretty much stood around and watched. With the Spurs going down by sixteen in the first half I thought the game was going to get away from them. Face it, they hadn't been world beaters down the home stretch. I was hoping they would claw their way to within ten to twelve points before the half ended and then work from there to try and close the gap.

They freaking did it. It was a highly entertaining cardiac inducing game. Micheal Finley's clutch three to send the game to overtime. Playing again from behind in the first overtime. Duncan's unbelievable three to send the game into a second overtime. Steve Nash hitting a three to set up a possible third overtime. Then Manu Ginobili taking the inbound pass down the length of the court to lay in the game winning shot.

Timmy D, the Big Fundamental, was a monster all game. 40 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and an improbable three pointer to force a second overtime.

The Suns had their chances. Shaq complained that the Spurs flopped their way to the win. Doesn't matter. If Phoenix had a killer instinct, they never would have let the Spurs back in it. Even after the Spurs got back in it the Suns had plenty of chances to seal the game at the end and in both overtimes. The chances were there. The Suns didn't seize them.

If the rest of the series goes like this, I'm going to have a heart attack. And I'm going to have to change my underwear at the end of each game too.