playmaker magazine april 2011

Playmaker Magazine

9

14

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17 welCome to the fAmily

We chart the course that the heroes of the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros will take this action-packed season.

By Javi Perez and Adam Sweeney

APriL 20114 The Six Shooter The Playmaker staff gives six bold thoughts on Texas Sports.

7 Out of Bounds with Jake Gyllenhaal An interview with the acclaimed actor on his new fi lm, Source Code

20 South by Southwest Photo Highlights We take a photographic look back at some of the best in music and fi lm in Austin this past March.

23 Jukebox the Ghost We sit down with Tommy Siegel, vocalist and guitarist, and talked about the band’s latest tour, their obsession with gum, and much more.

25 Comedy Central’s Workaholics Playmaker Magazine sat down with the cast of the new Comedy Central series to talk about their show.

26 2011 Playmaker NBA End-of-Season Awards We hand out the hardware to all the NBA teams in Texas at the close of the 2010-2011 NBA Season.

Playmaker Magazine looks into the future for Texas’s two MLS teams, FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo.

By James Bolton

We play the role of the wise guy and dole out some advice for both the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans when it comes to their 2011 fi rst round draft picks.

By Adam Sweeney and Bradford Harrison

Photo by Adam Sweeney

Letter from the editorI have a confession to make. The Houston Astros are one of my favorite teams in sports. That said, I’m a sucker for redemption stories. It is the main reason I became interested in the Texas Rangers in the last few years. Josh Hamilton’s path to becoming one of baseball’s elite players stands as one of the most inspirational stories you will hear, even if you’re not a fan of America’s pastime. In the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft, Hamilton was the first pick for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and was expected to be their franchise player. With a nickname like “The Natu-ral,” it was clear that Hamilton was blessed with the skill set to become a household name. As fate would have it, Hamilton would have to go through Hell to get to the top.

Before the 2001 season, Hamilton and his parents were in-volved in a brutal car accident. That year saw the beginning of a battle with drug addiction that pushed Hamilton out of baseball until 2005 and left him fighting for his life. Along the way, Hamilton has stated that he had dreams of “fighting the Devil” and discussed his journey with a level of honesty that is unusual for pro athletes in this era.

Through his walk of faith and trust in his teammates and support circle, Hamilton has batted away his demons and as fans, we get to watch the resurrection of one of the greatest hitters of all-time. More importantly, we get the joy of seeing a man beat incredible odds and give hope to individuals who may not feel they can avoid becoming a statistic. Because of this, we are honored to have Josh Hamilton on the cover of our April issue.

Along with our season outlook for the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros, which brings out the inner gamer in us, Playmaker Magazine was lucky enough to hit the scene at the 2011 SXSW Festival and took the chance to enjoy shows with Big Boi, The Sounds, Jukebox the Ghost and the sci-fi thriller Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. We even got a chance to sit down and chat with the latter two of the aforementioned artists and you won’t want to miss what they had to say.

Last season was a bust for the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys but both teams have a chance to shake the aftershock of 2010 by bringing in some new blood. Our 2011 Cowboys/Texans Draft Preview pays tribute to The Godfather. In it, we decide what former college players should be given offers they can’t refuse.

The NBA season is coming to a spectacular finish and we celebrate the best that basketball in Texas has to offer by handing out our Playmaker Awards. And for those who think we only focus on the “Big Three” sports, feast your eyes on our MLS Texas soccer preview. It’s good enough to make even the novice soccer fan want to get out on the pitch.

We hope you enjoy the April issue of Playmaker Magazine as much as we enjoyed making it. Whether you’re a gamer, a gangster movie aficionado, or just a fan of looking at anything Gyllenhaal, this is the issue made for you.

Adam SweeneyEditor-in-Chief

Publishers

AdAm sweeney And brAdford hArrison

editor-in-Chief

Adam Sweeney

stAff editor

Bradford Harrison

Art direCtor

Tiffany Cunningham

story Contributors

Adam Sweeney | Javier Perez | Bradford Harrison James Bolton | Amy Curtis

Photo Contributors

Adam Sweeney | Bradford Harrison | Keith Allison Summit Entertainment | Houston Astros | S BoydMLS/Getty Images | Marc W | GreengeorgeAndrew Kilzer & texags.com | Keith Mann & the University of Wisconsin | David Stluka – Wisconsin Athletic Communications | Jeffrey A. Camarati Michael Pimentel, GoldenBearSports.com | IFCFilms.comMichael Kovac/WireImage | Shervin Lainez | Matt Hoyle

Copyright 2011 Playmaker Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved. Play-maker Magazine is published monthly. Views expressed in Playmaker Magazine are not necessarily the opinion of Playmaker Magazine, its staff, or its advertisers.

Playmaker Magazine does not knowingly accept false or misleading edi-torial content or advertising, nor is Playmaker Magazine responsible for the content or claims of any advertising or editorial in this publication. No content (articles, photographs, graphics) in Playmaker Magazine may be used for reproduction from the publisher. Playmaker Magazine is available free of charge.

ContACt us: Editorial Staff: (512) 696-7124Advertising Staff: (254) [email protected]

www.playmakeronline.com

Cover photo by Keith Allison, courtesy of a Creative Commons licence

Jake Gyllenhaal inset photo courtesy Summit Entertainment

Through his walk of faith and trust in his teammates and support circle, (Josh) Hamilton has batted away his demons and as fans, we get to watch the resurrection of one of the greatest hitters of all-time.

Playmaker Magazine

CLAMPING DOWN

Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant encourages his teammates before the game with the Dallas Mavericks

Photo by Bradford Harrison

1 mAN doWN

It fi nally happened. The Spurs are dealing with a devastating injury. Tony Parker was expected to miss a few weeks with a shin injury, but returned a few games later. Anyone that saw Tim Duncan’s ankle injury knows that he won’t be making a miracle recovery like Parker.

While San Antonio has been dominant in the regular season, there are three solid teams at the top of the Western Conference (Spurs, Lakers, Mavs) that could win it all and two more (Thunder, Trailblazers) with the tools to make a deep run.

The West is now a bigger mystery because Dallas didn’t play great ball in March, the Lakers continued their surge since returning from the all-star break, and San Antonio… we don’t know. As soon as Duncan went down, the Spurs lost consecutive games for just the 2nd time all season and both were by slim margins with collapses in the 4th quarter.

Gregg Popovich says he’ll easily be back before the start of the playoffs, but it’s anybody’s guess as to how the Spurs will look once he returns.

2 AdeLmAN, CoACh of the YeAr?

It’s a shame that the Houston Rockets aren’t in the Eastern Conference. They’d easily be a playoff team and would make any high seed facing them in the fi rst round worry about an upset. Sadly, they play in the Western Conference and despite playing great basketball with a mix of a talented backcourt, young and scrappy frontcourt, and shooters everywhere, they might miss the playoffs.

But you have to give credit to the two big guys that are making this improbable run happen: GM Daryl Morey and head coach Rick Adelman.Morey’s trades at the deadline got the Rockets got the Rockets under the luxury tax line and gave Houston a chance to improve for the future with a lot of potential in their base. So doesn’t that make him the GM of the year if he pulled off all of that AND turned the team into a playoff contender in the West in the same year?And props to Adelman for taking a roster everyone thought was headed to the lottery and leading them to the brink of the playoffs.

3 LoNGhorNS mAY StAY for 2012For several months now, the NBA Player’s Union has told members to prepare for a possible lockout and shortened season next year. This could lead to an epic college basketball season because many underclassmen will be reluctant to leave school early to enter a league dealing with labor negotiations.

That’s good news for schools including the University of Texas as Tristan Thompson and Jordan Hamilton are giving heavy consideration to leaving early while their stock is high.

While both show potential to be solid NBA players, they have yet to deliver as college basketball superstars. At the end of the season, when things got tough, Thompson became an offensive handicap because of his poor free throw percentage and Hamilton played selfi shly and would sag on defense if his shots weren’t going down.

They both need a lot of work and after a tough loss to Arizona, both might dedicate themselves to improving and taking Texas back to prominence in 2012.

4 miLLer ANd NfLPA teAm UP

As you’ll see in our NFL Draft preview, there are many aspects of the annual April event that we love. But, there’s one college player that’s already been welcomed into the family, Godfather-style, and that’s Texas A&M’s Von Miller. The former Aggie is among the players named in the NFL Players Association’s lawsuit against the league.

Miller’s presence is in an effort to keep the owners from imposing a rookie wage scale, which is an interesting move for the union, considering that a wage scale would mean more money for current veterans and less for non-union members.

He’s also the perfect candidate. Miller is getting was getting a ton of attention already because he’s projected to go high, he played for a recognizable school, has great character, is a hard worker, and does his homework. He’s been studying up on NFL labor negotiations since last year when he considered jumping to the NFL early.

5 GriNer Set to rULe the rooSt

The Baylor women’s basketball team is among the elite women’s teams in the country with UConn and Tennessee. Much of the credit goes to Brittney Griner, whose dominant play makes the Bears a must-watch team whenever she goes against elite competition. But remember that the team won a national title before Griner ever showed up in Waco. Kim Mulkey is the true leader of this program.

One player doesn’t make a team a championship team, it takes leadership and intensity and Mulkey is overfl owing with both. It’s that kind of personality that make Mulkey and Griner such a perfect pair, proving that the team’s Final Four appearance in Griner’s freshman year is only the beginning.

And with Oklahoma still among the top programs in the Big 12, Texas A&M rising to national prominence, and young teams at Texas and Texas Tech on the rise, the Big 12 could have a must-watch game every week in conference play next season.

6 Ut BASeBALL Set for SPeCiAL SeASoN

The blessing of being a University of Texas sports fan is that as soon as one major sports season ends for the Longhorns, there’s usually a winning team whose season just started to latch on to. For the March and April transition, UT fans have the Longhorn baseball team, ranked among the best in the country once again and looking to qualify for the College World Series and make a run at the national title.

The Horns are hungry after losing to TCU on their own fi eld last season and watching the Horned Frogs dogpile and celebrate on the pitcher’s mound. Last year was supposed to be their year after a young team lost to LSU in the championship series in Omaha in 2009.

This year, they’ve come out fi ring, especially junior starting pitcher Taylor Jungmann. In his fi rst six starts, Jungmann has thrown two complete game shutouts for a 5-0 record with a 0.52 ERA. He’ll be getting a lot of national attention if Texas makes it back to the World Series this year as he’s being projected as a possible #1 overall pick in the 2011 draft.

eVery month the stAff At PlAymAKer mAGAZine fires off siX bold thouGhts About the Current stAte of sPorts in teXAs.


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Playmaker Magazine

Ed. Note: This interview was fi rst run at wegotthiscovered.com

by Amy Curtis

At the SXSW fi lm fest we had the opportunity to sit down with Jake Gyllenhaal, the star of Source Code, and discuss his character in Summit Entertainment’s new sci-fi /thriller, Source Code. Gyllenhaal plays Colter, an Air Force pilot who wakes up in someone else’s body and must fi gure out who set off a bomb on a train. He has to re-live the same eight minutes over and over again as part of a new scientifi c program called the source code.

Playmaker Magazine: Congratulations fi rst of all, we haven’t seen you in a sci-fi fi lm since Donnie Darko. What was the experience like returning to the sci-fi genre?

Jake Gyllenhaal: It was great. Because I mean fi rst, the screenplay was fantastic and when Duncan (Duncan Jones, director) decided that he wanted to do it, to me that was it, that was pretty much it. I was excited. Because I felt like it gave you the opportunity to use your mind in a way that you don’t usually get to in movies. Usually you’re focusing only primarily on character, and not on how characters are moving through a situation… and normally that character, even if he or she is moving through something — and in my case I tend to play the he’s — even when you’re moving through something there are always the rules of reality and within the world of sci-fi and within this world there weren‘t rules, and so it offered me the opportunity in performance to do pretty much anything, and that was a thrill. And there’s so much also I did that’s not in the movie obviously as an experiment and the process was fun because most movies don’t let you do that, and most directors don’t let you do that, and Duncan was open to that all the time… and the crazier the better for him, in which I fi nd a real kindred spirit.

PM: We were talking to Duncan early about the importance of making something scientifi cally plausible in a sense, from an acting perspective. How important is it for you to know the mechanics of what’s going on in the story or is

it just more you need to know the emotional core, do you not worry about the actual mechanics of the story?

JG: No, I worry about the mechanics of this story, because whatever the mechanics and the rules are how, you know, Colter is going to be believed or not. So they have to coincide, they have to fuse together and they have to be solid in my mind or else I’m going to read a scene where I really need to know where I am and somewhere in the back of my mind I’m going to be like, ‘this doesn’t make sense’. Even if I’m playing it and performing it, you have to believe it. You know, so the science was important... primarily the concept more than the science itself... so the concept of the source code being a computer program, that had to be very clear to me, a comp program that somebody invented, Jeffrey Wright’s character, that allows somebody, or a body, to go back into somebody else’s body for the last eight minutes of their life. That made sense to me, so I went ok, I understand that concept, I don’t understand how it’s possible to sort of meld two consciousnesses together… that felt more philosophical and less scientifi c though I know it can be scientifi c, there are people who have kind of thought about that. That felt very solid to me. You know I knew the movie was called Source Code, the idea of source code had to be very clear because that’s what’s being used against me, or on me, you know? So that was very important to me, and I was really into the story and Duncan let me be a big part of developing it so…you know as a result of that it was solid to me to. I kind of feel like I sit behind them a little bit as partaking in the story as well.

Q: How do you feel about the sci-fi genre as far as fi lms… is it one of your favorites? Do you want to do more of it?

A: Again, I love…I don’t know...I watch a lot of movies obviously. I’m a fan of human behavior,

that’s why I do what I do…so anything that gives me an ability to experiment with kind of a broader spectrum of things…I like being able to make choices in scenes…there are takes where I’m like, “Ok, he’s going to go totally nuts.” You know, in that scene where Jeffrey Wright keeps sending me back, Jeffrey’s character keeps sending me back in sort of a torture sequence, I mean, before that there were some things I was doing to taunt him that were crazy that aren’t in the movie and you know as an actor that’s what I like because you can’t do that in other genres as much as in sci-fi . You know, you can really go out there. This guy has this strange world coming at him that he doesn’t understand that he’s trying

Continued on page 8

Out of Bounds withOut of Bounds withOut of Bounds withOut of Bounds withOut of Bounds withJAKE GYLLENHAAL

“you know, you can really go out there. This guy has this strange world coming at him that he doesn’t understand that he’s trying to fi gure out.” - Jake gyllenhaal


Gyllenhaal, continued

to figure out. So, yeah I mean if Duncan Jones is doing it I’m there.

Q: You seem to be branching out into hero roles lately, this one kind of an unwilling hero. Is that something you want to keep doing in the future? Like how did you see this character, did you see him as the hero?

A: Yes, it’s true I guess there are some obvious hero qualities… but I don’t…yeah, no, I think this movie to me was in the vein of what I loved about something like Donnie Darko when I did it, which was like, you know, I was asking myself a million questions on a daily basis constantly trying to figure out wait were we there... are we there yet? Wait no, we were already there, are we going there? No, that’s in two source codes, oh ok so I’ve already been there and talked to him! So I thought about hero or not hero, and it’s more about the experience of the whole thing. But I do love that I got to be in every scene being involved with each character and being the one who got to vary. You know I applaud Michelle (Monaghan) in that she had to continuously do the same thing and keep variation in that. I had a much easier job.

Q: But what about the aspect of humor, you know Donnie Darko and your character in Zodiac, as he gets deeper in the story he just kind of develops these quirky attributes, but here you become more playful as you keep going in…is humor important to you when connecting to an audience?

A: It’s everything! It’s so frustrating for me when you’re on a movie and you’re not allowed to be that way. Because I think who I am is…when you’re in a situation where…every movie and character I love, it’s not a wink at the audience but it’s like a little bit of the absurdity of the situation, that’s what’s being human is most of the time. It’s like, there are absurd situations when you’re angry or sad or frustrated. I mean that’s a very broad way to describe

it but most of the time humor fits in there. If you see it and step back from it, you know even traumatic experience there are funny things that happen, I believe that….I love that Duncan allows that to happen in this movie. Because it makes the movie. I mean that moment where the character goes “we’re just going out to celebrate” and does that thing and everyone laughed last night I was like yes! That I love…they’re right there and it’s great. I think it’s an incredibly important aspect to every film. Q: This is a cerebral sci-fi film... What attracted you to the character?

A: Yeah, I mean essentially it’s a character story. For me, it’s just about a guy just wanting to…you know those times when you’re like oh I’m not going to make that phone call because this person is driving me crazy, but who knows you may end up on a train in somebody else’s body and you need to find out who the bomber is and you never made that phone call. You know some people may find themselves in situations like that…but that was important to me when you got to the end the situation with the father was driving me the whole time whether you heard about it or not, it was everything to me, in every scene. And the only time I got to say was in the end when I didn’t succeed because I had a mission, and yeah there isn’t cynicism in it I think it is a kind of spiritual thing. I think it sort of hits the nail on the head in a very obvious way I think it’s a really good thing to get the love story and the things he says…most people go yeah the cerebral aspects are a lot easier than the other things… and Duncan, for some reason,

has this really big heart that I feel that he’s fascinated with details and fascinated with all these things and I think that ultimately comes through and it’s rare in a movie like this. It’s rare that you see someone say I’m going to go for it. And it seem like people are really responding to that. And for me and Duncan it was always, we constantly talked about Colter and how to get in questions about his father and his relationship with her (Michelle), and you know that scene where I call my father? Duncan and I spent two and half hours before we started shooting that day because it was a scene that always kind of looming for as and we were all a little afraid to tackle. And we had spent the time because we shot this movie so quick, sort of figuring it out as we went. And we left that scene, He’d talk a little about the relationship with the father then we’d go away for a bit. And that day we had to face it. We went down and moved things and talked about things and he just gave me all of this space, it was amazing, and the crew was so incredible in this movie that it really did feel like we were in a protected space. And as an actor to know you have that support it’s a rare thing too. And it came out of that too. Everyone worked behind the camera, like our cameramen were with me, they were all with me. It all fed into it, so I don’t know if that’s Duncan or a twist of fate but it was very important to all of us that it had that heart.

Q: Was the emotional aspect of your character the biggest challenge? More than the physicality of the role?

A: You know it’s funny, this kid comes up at the press conference thingy and asked what was the most difficult thing for everyone on the film… and I came up with something that I thought was difficult but then I thought there wasn’t really anything hard about this process because really it was fun and there was no ego and we were making a film and we were all having a good time. It wasn’t difficult… it was like scary when you had to get emotional and when you had to figure out something on the first day to make that train sequence work. Like the first day was kind of freaky but it wasn’t difficult because we thought the shit out of it. But we got there on the day and Duncan was like showing us how before we do anything, we had rehearsed two days before on the train with everybody and he was like ok, once this is set it’s set. And that was a little, jumping from that point on was the hardest part and then after we got it we felt maybe naively confident.

PM

Playmaker Magazine


By Javi Perez

The Story For The Houston Astros Thus Far...

Here’s how 2010 went for Houston in video game terms: They were on the last level of the first world and out of lives. If they just finish the level, they’ll get to use their next “continue” without starting the game all over again. After grabbing a mushroom and a flower, the Astros took a couple of hits, but kept plugging away and looked like they’d at least make it to the end… only to fall down the last hole before reaching the finish.

After trading Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman, leaving just one face from the team’s World Series run in 2005 left on the

roster, Houston started scraping together wins in bunches and all of sudden started playing solid baseball for a while, only to stumble at the end.

A 31-18 stretch after the trades had people talking, but Houston finished the season 3-9, dropping any momentum and excitement they’d built up from the young team they fielded for much of the 2nd half of the 2010 season with series losses to the lowly Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

What we saw in the 2nd half of last season was a lot of potential as Wandy Rodriguez tore up opposing hitters and Chris Johnson brought an extra shot of offense to a lineup that struggled to produce most of the season.

Who Will Level up?

The top of the rotation is the group carrying the green mushrooms right now. The WHIP (walks/hits per innings pitched) for Wandy Rodriguez (1.04), Brett Myers (1.16), and JA Happ (1.32) was ridiculous in 2010. Houston starters had as many quality starts as the World Series champion San Francisco Giants last year and they could actually get better — considering Wandy’s horrific slump in the middle of last year and Bud Norris standing on the brink of making the leap from raw talent

with potential to underrated stud.

They’re going to need help though, and among the other guys looking to become household names are Chris Johnson and Brett Wallace. Johnson came out of the gate on fire, making Houston fans wonder why this guy didn’t get a chance sooner. Although his numbers did settle, his OPS was an impressive .881 for the season and he had the 2nd highest VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) rate on the team. Wallace has been impressive in spring training, hitting for power and doing everything right at the plate. But the only thing that matters is the regular season and if he shows even a portion of that kind of production when the games count, he’s going to be a valuable asset in the bottom third of the lineup.

Meanwhile Hunter Pence has had steady numbers for a few years, but he has a new challenge in 2011. The 28-year-old right fielder will need to take over a leadership role on a roster lacking consistency.

Who is the big boss?

If Carlos Lee from 2008 is Mario, then Carlos

Houston Astros

Playmaker Magazine

Lee of 2011 is Wario. He’s fatter and doesn’t look as good the closer you examine him. Amazingly, he’s making

so much money that Houston is forced to bat him clean-up despite his numbers significantly sliding the past three years. Houston fans can only hope that some desperate team calls before the deadline looking to deal or that Johnson plays so well that they’re forced to move Lee to the 5th spot.

From the outside though, the ‘Stros have their eye on the big, bad Cardinals who went so far as to acquire hometown hero Lance Berkman in the offseason to bolster a ridiculously powerful lineup as the overwhelming favorites to win the division yet again. Houston always draws big crowds when the Cards visit Minute Maid Park. And while Berkman is likely to get a warm reception in his first plate appearance, expect even bigger cheers if he strikes out.

St. Louis has already shown some chinks in the armor as Adam Wainwright is done for the season, but the NL Central got two playoff teams in last year so the Astros will also have to deal with the Cincinatti Reds if they want to sneak into the playoffs with a wild card berth.

How the Story Ends...

I’m sorry. The Princess you are looking for is in another castle.

The doom of the Astros season will come down to new players finding their way and veterans struggling to learn how to handle their new roles on the team. They also have no idea what they’re going to get out of their bullpen. Most Astros can’t even name this season’s closer Brandon Lyon because, while he did

do a serviceable job when he got the job last year, Lyon has never spent a full season as a closer at any point in his career.

While guys like Chris Johnson and Brett Wallace have promise and could be the future of the franchise, it likely won’t show in their first full year as starters. And catcher Jason Castro, who is supposed to be going through that first year with them will miss the season, forcing Houston to platoon the position unless JR Towles or Humberto Quintero plays well enough to warrant becoming the permanent starter.

The middle of the infield doesn’t have a ton of upside either as the ‘Stros won’t know what they’ve got in Clint Barmes until June because of a broken bone in his left hand. Anything they get from Bill Hall will be a bonus because the team hopes he can have

just a little bit of magic left in his game from his days in Milwaukee.

Prediction:

Déjà vu all over again. Houston starts slow, has a surge in the 2nd half, surprising the critics by not finishing last in the NL Central and actually posting a decent 4th place finish.

PM

out of orderThe 2010 Houston Astros ranked last in the National League in home runs (108) and walks (415.) There were a few additions made with the pick-ups of Bill Hall and Clint Barmes in hopes to improve. Here’s how the top of the Astros’ batting order projects to shape up.

BAtting AverAge Hits runs rBi Hr1. Michael Bourn .265 142 84 38 2 *52 stolen bases2. Clint Barmes* .235 91 43 50 83. Hunter Pence .282 173 93 91 254. Carlos Lee .246 149 67 89 245. Bill Hall .247 85 44 46 18

*Barmes will be out four-to-six weeks with a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacar-pal bone in his left hand. (Statistics courtesy of MLB.com)


By Adam Sweeney

The Story For the Rangers Thus Far...

2010 was a banner year for the Texas Rangers, who shocked the baseball world by winning their first ever American League pennant in the fifty years of their often moribund franchise. They exorcised their demons by beating the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, thanks in large part to the pitching of Cliff Lee and outstanding hitting. Outfielder Josh Hamilton, also known as “The Natural,” had a season that you only see when you enter cheat codes on your gaming console, swinging for a .359 batting average, 35 home runs and 100 RBI’s on the season. Overall, the Rangers had five All-Stars, including a breakout season for closer Neftali Feliz, who won the AL Rookie of the Year award by nabbing 40 saves with a 2.72 ERA.

Sadly, the 2010 story ended when the San Francisco Giants overpowered the Rangers with their bats and “The Freak,”

pitcher Tim Lincecum on way to a World Series win. Manager Ron Washington was out-managed by Bruce Bochy and the Rangers looked out of their element overall, a la The Big Lebowski, when they got to baseball’s biggest stage.

Now comes the hard part. It’s always easier to get to the Princess, if you will, the first time around. Last year, Texas was blessed to be in a division, the AL West, where all three divisional opponents underwhelmed. The Rangers enter 2011 with a bulls eye on their back and the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim look to have both improved. Texas also lost Cliff Lee to the Philadelphia Phillies, a huge strike against their starting pitching rotation. Can the Rangers get to the next level again in 2011? Let’s find out.

Who Will Level up?

Everyone knows that teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox pay to have the hottest hitting line-ups in baseball, but the Rangers may have the scariest line-up in baseball and will ensure that the Rangers have a few extra lives in close games. They boast six former All-Stars in the first six of the batting order, including new acquisition Adrian Beltre, who has a lifetime .306 AVG and a .521 slugging percentage hitting at Rangers Ballpark. On top of that, Beltre brings Gold Glove talent to the hot corner. The chance to put him next to Elvis Andrus, a smashing defensive shortstop, is a huge reason the Rangers chose to bring him in to replace Michael Young, who is now penciled in as the team’s designated hitter. Young made waves recently by demanding a trade but has now backed off the statement.

Right fielder Nelson Cruz may not get the credit bestowed upon Josh Hamilton, the way Mario does in his game franchise, but he has the potential to put up similar numbers in the cleanup spot and come through in the clutch like right-hand man, Luigi. Cruz hit three home

texAs rAngers

Playmaker Magazine

runs in the 2010 ALCS and is one of the reasons the Rangers have a change to slug their way to a division pennant. Durability is an issue, as Cruz only played 108 games last season, but the Rangers have depth in the outfi eld so he should be okay.

Who is the Big Boss?

Losing Cliff Lee put a huge dent in the team’s ability to make a deep postseason run. With Lee, they had an ace who Ron Washington could throw against any opponent’s pitcher for two to three games in a seven-game series. His confi dence ran down to the starters below him and it’s doubtful that the Rangers would have made it to the World Series without him.

To replace Lee, the Rangers are taking a chance on right-hander Brandon Webb, who won the Cy Young Award in 2006. Webb spent last season recovering from shoulder surgery, so Texas has no idea what they can expect from him in terms of production. That puts more pressure on C.J. Wilson, who is now expected to step up and become the face of the Rangers’ starting rotation. Neftali Feliz looked to crack the starting rotation but the Rangers felt more comfortable keeping him as their closer. That may come back to haunt them, as it’s much easier to fi nd a closer than a pitcher with the talent to be a top starter. Texas, of all teams, should know the potential former closers can bring as a starter since C.J. Wilson was one of them.

Realistically, the Rangers are likely going to take a step back while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will leap even the largest Goomba to get back into title contention. The Angels picked up Vernon Wells, who brings a big bat to the team, and the Angels easily have the best pitching rotation in the division with the likes of Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana. And don’t count out the Oakland Athletics, who added Hideki Matsui and Grant Balfour to a team fi lled with young talent.

How the Story Ends...

To win a title, a lot of things have to go right, and the Rangers seemed to have almost everything go their way in 2010. To match the success of last year, they will need Brandon Webb to come in and provide the team with dependable pitching. Without it, their season will go down the fi repits. They also have to be crossing their fi ngers that Hamilton and Cruz don’t suffer signifi cant injuries. History isn’t on their side, as both have playing styles that put them at peril every time a ball is hit into the outfi eld. It’s why the Rangers hope Julio Borbon can take over in center fi eld for Hamilton with the slugger moving over to left fi eld, a much less strenuous position on his body.

The Rangers may not start the season as the best team in the division (Though they can make a case that they are), but they have a balanced lineup that will have them fi ghting for fi rst place. If they can stay in the race for an extended period of time, Rangers co-owner and team president Nolan Ryan has the gusto to make a move for a stud pitcher to push the team over the top.

Prediction:Texas has to answer a lot of questions in this sequel. To win the game, they have to overcome a weak off-season, their status as public enemy number one, and stay healthy while stabilizing a shaky pitching situation. Our guess is they take a step back but have just enough fi reballs in their arsenal to fi nish 1st in the AL West before falling in the playoffs.

PM

texAs rAngers 2011 ProJected stArting rotAtion (stAtistics from 2010 mlB seAson)

Wins-losses erA C.J. Wilson 15-8 3.35Colby Lewis 12-13 3.72Derek Holland 3-4 4.08Brandon Webb Did not play in 2010 due to shoulder surgeryMatt Harrison N/A 4.71*Tommy Hunter 13-4 3.73

* Projected starter, currently out for up to six weeks with strained groin

(Statistics from MLB.com)


By James Bolton The 2011 MLS regular season has begun and once again Texas fans can have a huge stake in the outcome. From FC Dallas’ amazing run to the MLS Cup finals to Hous-ton Dynamo’s failure to make the playoffs, the 2010 season was emotional to say the least. Both coaches know what it takes to succeed in this league but the biggest question is if they will be able to bring it out of the players at their disposal. So with that said, what does 2011 hold for the the Lone Star rivals?

Schellas Hyndman managed to put together a solid side for 2010, will 2011 be any differ-ent? It seems FC Dallas was so confident in the depth of the squad they failed to protect Dax McCarty from the expansion draft thus losing a dominating presence on the field and one of the reasons for their long run

deep into the playoffs. Whether or not FC Dallas can recover and fill the void left by McCarty will be one of the great determin-ers of Dallas’ success this season.

With McCarty’s loss, Hyndman has done some shuffling about in the positions. With the addition of a few fresh faces, Hynd-man has placed the young Brek Shea in an experimental cornerback position in an effort to utilize the youngster’s height on set pieces. So far, the experiment seems to be lacking in effectiveness but it at least accounts to the creativity of one of the win-

ningest NCAA coaches of all time.

Buoying Dallas’ squad is the return of veteran goalkeeper Kevin Hartmann who after a fantastic first year with Dallas is ready to provide leadership for another campaign. After a remarkable career in MLS Hartman has found himself with FC Dallas for a second season and despite his age is as spry as any goalkeeper in the league. Hartman’s staying power has endeared him to FC Dallas’ system and has found himself on the verge of another poten-tial campaign to the heights of MLS glory and perhaps another showing in the MLS Cup. With Hartman’s experi-ence in goal Dallas should be able to hold their own on defense.

On the other end of the field is the experienced Colom-bian, David Ferreira. This

will be Ferreira’s first season as an official member of Dal-las’ roster after spending the past two seasons on loan from Al Shabab in Dubai. Although being on loan, Ferreira has been a stalwart midfielder for Hyndman’s men. Of the 2,700 minutes played last season, Ferreira has figured in 2,699

of them. Ferreira is a workhorse and Dallas will depend on him this season to push the tempo of play and keep the oppositions back line on its toes.

With all positions fairly secure it is up to Hyndman to be able to put it together into a cohesive squad. While he is certainly green as it concerns the professional game he brings years of organization and man management from his many years with Southern Methodist University.

Can FC Dallas be the second team from Texas to secure the MLS Cup? We have months to find out but with the way Hyn-dman has reorganized his team Dallas certainly has a chance at repeating the suc-cess of 2010. Standing in their way is the ever stout Houston Dynamo, two time MLS champions and a side with a reputation to rebuild.

Forward Thinking2011 PlAymAker texAs mls soccer seAson outlook

Two-time MLS Cup champi-ons Houston Dynamo are

looking to get back into the fray with a successful sea-son that in many people’s opinions will only be successful with at least a playoff win. Whether or not coach Dominic Kin-near can accomplish this remains to be seen but one thing is certain, it won’t be because the other teams will be able to score a bevy of goals.

As usual, Houston’s defense is locked up as tight as tupperware, but with their first full season without Stuart Holden and Brian Ching’s struggles with injuries, offense has remained a constant problem in Kinnear’s camp.

When healthy, Brian Ching is as dan-

gerous as they come. With his strength and speed it’s no wonder Bob Bradley continuously consid-ers Ching as an option for the na-tional team, but with his constant injuries he’s not been able to play to his own personal expectations.

With options looking limited in the striking department, at least the forwards will have some quality midfielders feeding them the ball. Danny Cruz is in his third season with the Dynamo and the word dynamo could very well apply to Cruz himself. Cruz is a constant workhorse and exemplifies what the Dynamo and Dominic Kinnear’s style of play is all about. After a stellar NCAA career Cruz has been with Houston since the 2009 sea-son and has been a constant threat in the middle and has been able to step into the shoes left behind by Stuart Holden.

Joining Cruz in the midfield is the veteran Corey Ashe. After making his hundreth appearance for the Dynamo this month, Ashe his proved his reli-ability and durability and has become a constant figure in Kinnear’s game plans. Ashe’s duties this year will be multiplied after the trade of Brian Mullan in 2010 and will be seeing many more min-utes with Mullan’s absence. Of course, Mullan was a big piece of the Dynamo picture in years past so Ashe will have to step up and prove that he can handle the pressure of becoming the first choice left winger.

The one area where Houston has never had many problems is on defense; however, after Pat Onstad’s move to D.C. United the position of goalkeeper is still

very much in the air. It seems that as of now the position will be occupied by Tally Hall. After mainly seeing action during the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Hall has been tasked in the early games of the 2011 season with the starting position. While Hall has shown some exceptional play, the Dynamo have not yet been able to find the back of the net and hand Hall some support.

The broken record playing is quite ob-viously the question, “will they score goals?” With a healthy corps of veterans, including Ching and Ashe, the Dynamo should not have much problem shaking the twine. The big problem is whether or not this somewhat depleted version of the Dynamo will be able to click with each other like in years past.

With the grand strategy of Dominic Kin-near Houston should at least be able to improve upon last year’s showing.

PM

Playmaker Magazine

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2011 Playmaker Cowboys/Texans DrafT Preview

inComPeTenCe. losT oPPorTuniTies. oaTHs of revenege. If these were the defining themes of the past year, then the last season for the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans was worse than “Godfather 3” could ever be. If either team wishes to be “El Capo” this year in the NFL, they are going to need some fresh blood injected into their respective families. The most prized recruit for the Texas outfits would be

Von Millier. Both teams would love to have the former Texas A&M defensive end/linebacker product, whose post-season draft workouts have skyrocketed his stock to well beyond the reach of the number nine and eleven picks that Dallas and Houston possess respectively. Both teams need help on the defensive side of the ball, especially along the defensive line as well as in the secondary. With “The Miller Plan” feeding the fishes, Plamaker Magazine offers some hearty advice for both teams on who to introduce into the family as “made men.”

Playmaker Magazine

Defensive Pass Rush, Secondary Help, Offensive Tackle

The 2010 season was filled with Super Bowl expectations but turned out to be a super disappointment for the Dallas Cowboys. Oddly enough, the team is still one of the most talented in the NFL, but there are some glaring holes to fill. The ‘Boys need somebody, anybody to get to the quarter-back. Linebacker DeMarcus Ware is a beast but he can’t do it all by himself. The defense ranked 31st overall and 26th in passing yards allowed, which means it’s time to overhaul al-most the entire secondary. And perhaps the biggest upgrade needs to happen on the offensive line, which is calling for a youth movement. Marc Colombo is past his prime and is one of four linemen over the age of 31 (Right guard Leonard Davis (32), Center Andre Gurode (31) and Left guard Kyle Kosier (32) are the others.) Not to be too harsh, but it’s time to put some of the cattle out to pasture in favor of new calves. Unfortunately for Dallas, there isn’t an offensive line prospect worthy of the ninth overall pick, where they currently sit. That said, here are the two players that the Cowboys should have their eyes on when their number is called.


Dallas CowboysBy Adam Sweeney

Prince Amukara, Cornerback, Nebraska (6-1, 200 lbs.)

The biggest weakness of the Dallas Cowboys last sea-son came in their effort. Players like cornerback Mike Jenkins regressed and gave lazy efforts at best. That won’t be an issue if the Cowboys take Amukara. He has excellent instincts, gives maximum effort and doesn’t shy away from the run, a rar-ity amongst players at his position.

Critics have pointed to his alleged lack of speed but Amukamara has put that no-tion to bed by running a 4.38 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. Many Cowboys fans can remember when Deion Sanders played in Big D, and no quarterback would dare throw the ball in his direction. The same was said of Amukamara at Nebraska, who was a ballhawk. Consider the fact that Amukamara had no interceptions last season and was still named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and you begin to get an idea of how much respect his game demands. You have to like the sound of that compared to the current duo Dallas possesses in Jenkins and Terence New-man, who is set to get $8 million dollars in 2011. If the ‘Boys take “The Prince,” the thirty-two-year-old Newman is as good as gone.

J.J. Watt, Defensive End, Wisconsin (6-6, 292 lbs.)

While there was a considerable amount of more coverage for players like Alabama Wide Receiver Julio Jones, Watt also dominated at his position in the NFL Combine drills. He fits well into both 3-4 and 4-3 defensive schemes, a blessing for new Rob Ryan, the Cowboys’ new Defensive Coordinator. He hounded the quarterback in college and while he lacks the top-end speed to get around the outside of defenders, his quick first step and incredible combination of strength and technique make him a force when rushing the passer from the inside. He may not rack up tons of sacks but the number of quarterback hurries would increase greatly with Watt and Ware rushing from opposite ends.

Watt isn’t quite as strong at stopping the run, hesitating at times to finish the tackle when offenses rush to his side. Rob Ryan can fix this, as Watt pays great atten-tion to his technique and is always looking for ways to improve. Physically, Watt brings a sickly amount of strength and hand size to the table, which is important when offensive linemen look to lock on to the rookie. With conditioning and polishing of his skills, Watt has the potential to be a solid contributor for years to come given his durability and knack for playing until the whistle blows. PM

Experience and leadership are the names of the game for Cameron Jor-dan. Jordan played in 50 of 51 possible games for the Golden Bears, and in playing four years of college ball has developed a wide rage of stunts and moves to get past blockers. His motor is also a great strength. Scouts have noted that Jordan rarely gives up on a play until the whistle blows. Cameron Jordan seems to have the opposite problem of Robert Quinn. Jordan’s experience and leadership are not under scrutiny, but scouts seemed to have deemed some of his physical abilities as merely “average” Texans’ fans expect to see impres-sive sack production from college defensive ends drafted early, much in the mold of current starter Mario Williams. Sacks aren’t the only way to judge the ability of defensive line prospects. Jordan has versatility and the ability to plug holes in the running game, which should make him one of the best defensive end choices for Houston in 2011.

PM

Playmaker Magazine

Robert Quinn, Junior, Defensive End, North Carolina

(6-5, 270 lbs) Robert Quinn is a rare athletic speci-men, both in terms of size and speed. He is explosive off the ball, and deceptively agile for a player of 6-5 and 270 pounds. He was something of a phenom his first two seasons at North Carolina notching thirteen sacks, forc-ing eight fumbles, and piling up a stag-gering 25.5 tackles for loss, topping the ACC in that category a year ago.

Despite his raw power and athlecticism, concerns have been raised about a benign tumor at the base of his brain stem, and more trou-blingly, his 2010 suspension for accepting inappropriate gifts from an agent. To achieve greatness as a weak-side defensive end in the NFL, an upgraded selection of pass-rush moves are desirable. Prospects blessed with his natural tools don’t come around often and some 3-4 defensive teams (like Houston) view the 270-pounder as athletic enough to handle responsibilities of an outside line-backer in that 3-4 scheme. Quinn could give the Texans’ defensive front seven the versatility it’s always craved.

Defensive Line & Linebacker DepthThe Texans were simply atrocious in many aspects of the defensive game. The team ranked last in passing yards allowed and only recorded thirty sacks all year, good for twenty-third in the league. Much of these problems stemmed from lack of talent on the defen-sive line, awful secondary play, and non-existent depth at the linebacker position. New defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, long held to be a guru at his post, has many avenues to consider on draft day. One of those paths he may dismiss quickly is drafting a secondary player. In drafting Kareem Jackson with the twentieth pick in 2010, Houston found out how chaotic throwing a rookie in at starting corner for a whole season could be. Jackson looked consistently lost and was burned on touchdown passes numerous times last season. The Texans would be wise to avoid this mistake, and draft a defensive lineman/linebacker. Players like Brian Orakpo and Ndamukong Suh have proven you can have very successful seasons right out of the gate at these positions.

Cameron Jordan, Senior, Defensive End,

California (6-4, 283 lbs)


While college hoops fans obsessed over the madness of March, the SXSW Festival took over Austin, Texas again for the twenty-fi fth year in a row. The nine-day celebration of established and emerging talent highlighted the best of music, fi lm and inter-active technology, and Playmaker Magazine was there to catch some of the best parts of it.

Above Right: Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds hypes up the crowd at SXSW. (Photo by Adam Sweeney)

Top Right: Big Boi performs at the Pepsi MAX and Foursquare event. (Photo by Adam Sweeney)

Below Right: Conan O’Brien hangs out at the IFC Crossroads House in promotion of his documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. (Photo courtesy of IFCFilms.com.)

Above: Jukebox the Ghost pianist/vocalist Ben Thornewill plays at the Red Eye event at The Dirty Dog Bar. (Photo by Adam Sweeney)

Above right: Snoop Dogg tears up a set at his Funk N’ Soul Extravaganza sponsored by Pepsi MAX. (Photo by Michael Kovac/WireImage)

Right: Matt Nathanson debuts a new song off his forth-coming Modern Love album at the Vanguard Records Showcase. (Photo by Adam Sweeney)

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Playmaker Magazine

Jukebox the Ghost

By Adam Sweeney

There are some bands that just put you in a good mood. Jukebox the Ghost is one of them. The Washington D.C. based trio of Ben Thornewill, Tommy Siegel and Jesse Kristin have been handing out smiles with their combo of upbeat indie piano rock and clever lyrics. Imagine if Ben Folds and Freddie Mercury jammed together in an alternate universe and you have an idea of their sound. Seemingly always on the road, the band has built an incredibly loyal fan base from their live performances and last year marked a signifi cant progression with their second album, “Everything Under the Sun” and appearances on shows like “Late Night with David Letterman.” Set for their next tour with Guster, guitarist/vocalist Tommy Siegel waxed poetic with Play-maker on why he loves Austin, why he wants to cover Black Sabbath and the wonders of fl avored chewing gum.

Playmaker Magazine: This is your third time to be at SXSW. You guys have played hundreds, maybe thousands of shows. What makes SXSW stand out for you?

Tommy Siegel: Well, there are similar festivals in the U.S., primarily the CMJ Festival, and it’s hard to described how much better SXSW is than CMJ. (Laughs.) Part of it is because Austin, Texas is such a cool town. It’s a very exciting place to go. A lot of it comes from that. It’s interesting to play a festival where most of the bands aren’t famous. Everyone shows up to perform. So you get to see come crazy stuff.

PM: Do you have a favorite venue to play at or place to go to when you’re in Austin?

TS: Oh gosh. Favorite venue? I love Stubb’s. Stubb’s is a great venue. Both their outdoor and indoor

stages are great. Emo’s is good too. Last time that we visited, we made it a point to go to Natural Springs to go swimming and that was fun. But yeah, we love Austin.

PM: Are you guys working on a follow-up to “Everything Under the Sun” or are you mainly focused on your tour with Guster?

TS: We’re working on working on it. (Laughs.) We kind of work in binge sessions where we write indepen-dently, and then try to get together to work things out. So we are getting out stuff together and seeing what stuff

we have. We’re going to get together soon and try to have a new record hopefully out by this summer or the fall. We had a lot of pressure build up before the second record so it’s good to see that gone.

PM: Can you discuss the evolution of how Ben and your writing styles have come together over the years? The Apocalypse, the military and love songs usually only go hand in hand in the movie Armageddon, which you’re obviously better than.

TS: (Laughs.) That Armageddon quote is funny. We both come from very different musical back-grounds, but we generally can agree on what Juke-box the Ghost should sound like. We’re both trying to write from that perspective. Ben writes with a tone of romance at times and I generally have a style that deals with political agendas. But it works.... I think subconsciously we push each oth-er outside of our own comfort zones. Knowing the other person’s perspective pushes me to explore my more pop side, and not my usual harder side. Meanwhile, it pushes Ben to look at his darker and ironic side, but we try not to go too dark. (Laughs.) It can be tricky deciding which songs will make the cut but I think overall, having two songwriters is a great thing.

PM: You will be touring with Guster, who you’ve done shows with before. What have your experi-ences been like when you fi rst listened to their music and then playing with them?

TS: We were very lucky to get to tour with them. We did last fall also and we just really hit it off with them. This is going to make them sound old, which they’re not, but I saw them when I was thirteen, maybe. I saw them at a festival and they just blew me away. We toured with them and they started playing new stuff on their album, and I fell in love all over again. Their new album might be their best one yet. It’s amazing that they have been together for so long and can continue to put out great mu-

sic. It’s inspiring. I mean, they have been on the road for so long and they’re still gracious. They’re the opposite of the word diva. (Laughs.)

PM: One of our favorite features on your website is the blog you have dedicated to critiques of chewing gum. I’m a huge gum fan so what fl avor should I be checking out right now? My girlfriend will appreciate the Twilight commentary.

TS: (Laughs.) Oh yeah. The Twilight post is really funny because I think Ben just cut and pasted the Wikipedia plot for the movie, and then inserted chewing gum into the story. I am a big fan of the Extra “Dessert Delights” chewing gum. They’re pretty out there but it’s great. There’s Key Lime Pie, which I thought was amazing but everybody else hated. (Laughs.) You can test that one yourself but you might hate it. There’s also “Mint Choco-late Chip” which is getting rave reviews. There are some pretty exciting food simulations going on right now.

PM: Maybe that will be a side project, a band just dedicated to chewing gum.

TS: (Laughs.) I alternate between happi-ness and embarrassment at the idea of how many people love that blog.

PM: I think you should totally embrace it.

TS: It actually started because our manager, Seth Kallen, was pushing for us for years to do a tour blog, where we would take pictures on the road. We would totally brush it off. So we started it off as a joke and said, “Hey Seth, check out our awesome tour blog,” but now we play off each other.

PM: Well, we defi nitely appreciate the humor. You’ve done covers of New Order and Ace of Base. What’s a song that you guys would love to cover live that you haven’t yet and what musical guilty pleasures are you into right now?

TS: Oh, that’s a great question. The other day I was listening to Black Sabbath and I’ve never listened to them before, because metal really isn’t my favorite genre. I didn’t know how awesome they were until I started listening to “War Pigs” and that is a song I would love to cover. But I don’t think we will ever do it. You know, I also would love to do a seventies or eighties prog-rock cover of a band like Yes. That would be off the wall. We try to straddle the line between songs we like and songs we aren’t sure about but that jog peoples’ memories.

PM

Playmaker Magazine

By Javi Perez

The show Workaholics got off to an incred-ible start when its sneak peek in March that followed the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump went so well that the group received a call from the president of the network. It was quite an impressive first impression consider-ing that the only advertising for the sneak peek appeared during the first airing of the roast.

“A lot of our moms were thrilled,” said Anders Holm, who stars as a self-named recent col-lege graduate living with two friends: Adam (DeVine) and the wacky, wild-haired Blake (Anderson). All three work at the same tele-marketing company and struggle to keep their fun-loving personal lives out of the office.Kyle Newacheck, who plays drug dealer Karl, writes and directs. He was inspired to post sketches by the group onto YouTube by the success of The Lonely Island of Saturday Night Live fame.

“We were making internet videos forever and then we did three videos called ‘The Dude’s House’ and it was just the three of us and we lived together,” DeVine said. “And from there we did this other web series where we lived together and worked together. And it did get a ton of hits and luckily somebody from Comedy Central saw it and said that they loved it.”

The network commissioned a pilot presenta-tion, which normally translates into a 12-min-ute presentation to give executives an idea of what a show is about. But the guys decided to go one step further and it paid off.

“We knew what we had done with 50 bucks before. We decided we could do a full project with this money,” Newacheck said. “Instead of showing them 12 minutes of what the show could potentially be, we all thought it was a smart move to show them 22 minutes of what the show is.”

Comedy Central was impressed enough to give the guys 10 episodes to start airing on April 6th. In an incredible sign of confidence that the show will succeed, the network has slated the show to air on Wednesday nights after South Park. Considering the positive response to the sneak peek, which had a highly-rated lead-in with the Trump Roast, Workaholics is set up to

succeed beyond their inaugural season.

“Getting the show was the coolest moment,” DeVine said. “They took us out to dinner, but didn’t say anything. Then later they got us all on a conference call, and I freaked the **** out.”

“I was working at a sandwich shop and I remember a couple of guys coming in and say-ing, ‘you can officially quit this job,’ and I was like, ‘ohhh daaaaamn,’” said Anderson, who admitted that he finished off his work day after hearing the news.

“And I’m like, I’m not gonna because I have a shift and I get a free sub and I haven’t gotten it yet.”

“For a while, we just thought it was a reality show where a crew plucked an internet sketch group out of the blue and told them they got a show,” Holm said.

For guys that grew up watching Comedy Central and with the network’s stars like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Daniel Tosh, their success does seem too good to be true.“It was probably the only go-to channel for me,” Newacheck said.

“I remember when I was a kid and South Park first came out and my buddy’s mom wouldn’t let us watch it at their house. So we’d sneak upstairs and watch it,” DeVine said.

“I hadn’t thought about this, but our show is the show that kids are going to be sneaking off to watch,” said Newacheck, who with along with the rest of the crew, enjoys the responsibilities that the network hands down to them.

So much of what they do is new and exciting. One of their “wow” mo-ments of production was when they saw Anderson’s stunt double on set during one episode. But nothing compares to when the guys got to audition actresses for the part of

“hot chick.”

“They come in and we all just start laughing nervously,” Holm confessed. And Newacheck sounded almost disappointed in their behavior during the casting call.

And while many of the gags are humorous, the funniest moments of the show come when the characters are in the most serious situation they can be in. The two funniest moments of the sneak peek episode involved the guys run-ning over someone with their car and one of them getting shot. In the pilot episode, which was screened at a free comedy show at Es-ther’s Follies on 6th street, the main charac-ters and several employees stress over having to pass a drug test after a wild weekend of partying.

But that style doesn’t define the vibe of the show as the characters pull pranks on each other and make fun of one another at every opportunity. Wherever the laughs are coming from, you’ll enjoy Workaholics when it officially premieres on April 6th at 9:30 p.m. central time.

PM


With the NBA regular season drawing to an eventful close, we here at Playmaker Magazine feel it is only right to hand out some end-of-season hardware to the NBA teams from Texas. Whether it’s an NBA-best record, eleven straight seasons of fi fty wins or more, or a amazing late-season playoff push, all the squads from the lone star state deserve recognition.

TO THE HOUSTON ROCKETS...By Adam Sweeney

MVP: KEVIN MARTIN, SHOOTING GUARDLast season, Daryl Morey went look-ing for a player who could both mimic and replace the production of Tracy McGrady from years before. His pursuit ended when he made a move to get Kevin Martin, the crafty scorer from Sacramento, also causing a bit of controversy by giv-ing up Carl Landry, the Rockets’ sixth man. It was rocky at fi rst but the move seems to have paid off, as Martin is having the best all-around season of his career. With the loss of center Yao Ming for the season, the Rockets desperately needed a number one scorer and Martin has been more than up to the task. In fact, no Rockets player has seemingly ever had the ability to get to the free throw line like Martin. Mar-tin’s ability to get to the charity stripe not only gives extra points to an offense ranked third in scoring, but it helps to extend the game when the score is tight.

Kevin Martin isn’t going to win games with his rebounding or defense, but he knows how to score and that is what matters most for a team who needed an alpha dog on offense. Even on off nights, Martin fi nds a way to put up points and his playing style is a perfect representation of the Rockets as a whole. Against the odds and sheer bas-ketball logic, they fi nd a way to win.

BREAKOUT PLAYER: KYLE LOWRY, POINT GUARD

Coming into the 2010-2011season, the Rockets looked like they had their starting point guard for years to come in

continued on page 27

TO THE DALLAS MAVERICKS...By Bradford Harrison

MVP: DIRK NOWITZKI, POWER FORWARD As he has for the last eleven straight years, Dirk Nowitzki averaged over twenty-one points for Dallas this season, as well as shooting nearly 52%

from the fi eld, a career best. When Nowitizki went down with a knee injury in midseason, the Mavericks went 3-8 in the eleven games he missed or played limited minutes in. Was it not for this absence, Dallas conceivably would have continued to build on the league best 24-5 record they had at the time. Nowitzki has hit several game-winners this season, and has been the reliable offensive force the team has counted on for the last thirteen sea-sons. His experience and steady constitution will be necessary for a deep playoff run.

BREAKOUT PLAYER: TYSON CHANDLER, CENTER

Nary a few years ago, many NBA observers thought Tyson Chandler was near the end of his usefulness as a player. After missing nearly half of the 2008-2009 season to injury, Chandler was shipped off to Charlotte, where he languished, starting only twen-ty-seven games last year. But his breakout tenure at the World Basketball Championships, combined with his surprising role as leading rebounder and defensive enforcer for the Mavericks has lead to a sort of career resurrection. When Chandler doesn’t play, the Mavs defense is merely average, and he has been the recipient of many highlight reel alley-oop passes from Jason Kidd this season. A player that averages a double-double is welcome on any team, but it’s the passion that Chandler plays with that separates him for other above-average centers in the league.

GAME OF THE YEAR: JANUARY 19, 2011DALLAS MAVERICKS 109, LOS ANGELES LAKERS 100,

Defeating the two-time defending world champions at home is a great win by any stan-dard, but this particular win set off a tear, with the Mavericks winning eighteen of their next twenty games. This game in particular, was a shining example of the Maverick “win-ning formula.” Nowitzki had a solid game, but it was the combination of Jason Terry and Shawn Marion combining for forty-four points. Tyson Chandler also acted as a tough-as-nails defensive presence in the middle, even fi ghting through the effects of a league-wide stomach virus. This cohesion will be vital when facing the likes of the aforementioned Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

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TO THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS...By Javi Perez

MVP: TONY PARKER, POINT GUARD

Even as Tim Duncan’s value was shown when he went down with an injury and as great as Manu Ginobili has played this sea-son, the team MVP has to go to Tony Parker because of his inability to go cold and get the Spurs their most crucial points when they’re needed.

He leads all NBA guards with points in the paint and can beat anyone off the dribble with his speed. But he’s turned it up a notch with his ability to confi dently make a mid-ranger jumper given to him by defenders when switching on screens. Most teams fi gure that they can live with him taking that shot, but he’s made them pay this season with one of the highest fi eld goal percentages of his career.

BREAKOUT PLAYER: GARY NEAL, SHOOTING GUARD

It’s a wonder that San Antonio is able to pluck a diamond from the rough every season. Gary Neal is this year’s version that makes every other team wonder how they missed this guy.

Sure, he steps up and makes three-pointers at will. The Spurs have had players like that before, but what makes him different is his unwavering confi dence. Lots of Spurs three-point specialists have had their struggles and you can tell when they’re in a funk. Not Neal. If he’s 0-8 in a game, he’s going to fi re his next shot attempt like he hasn’t missed.

You can’t teach that kind of confi dence and Neal pulls it off while also knowing the right time to shoot. He rarely tries the patience of Gregg Popovich, which is why he’s been given such an important role in the Spurs offense in just his fi rst year with the team.

GAME OF THE YEAR: DECEMBER 16, 2010SAN ANTONIO SPURS 113, DENVER NUGGETS 112,

While a buzzer-beater win over the Lakers in L.A. and a special blowout of the much-hated Miami Heat in San Antonio rank among the memorable, the best came in Denver on Decem-ber 16th. Carmelo Anthony hadn’t been traded yet, and he had a solid performance, but the biggest plays (good and bad) came from Manu Ginobili in the fi nal minute. Over the course of the fi nal eight seconds, “Pistolero” fumbled the ball into the hands of Carmelo Anthony for a one-point Denver lead, made the go-ahead bucket on the next possession and then drew a charge on Melo to seal the victory.

It was surreal to watch every one of those events unfold and watch the crowd and players react. The building exploded on the Manu turnover, then did so again when it looked like An-thony hit the game-winning shot only to fall into shock when realizing that Ginobili drew the charge on the play.

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Houston Rockets, continuedAaron Brooks. Then the bottom fell out as Brooks was limited due to an ankle injury and his own per-sonal inability to adjust to Rick Adelman’s offensive philosophy, to the point where he walked off the court in the middle of a game and was suspended for doing so. Enter Lowry, who took advantage of the opportunity and hasn’t looked back. Since the All-Star break, the feisty guard has averaged 17 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds a game, even winning the Western Conference Player of the Week award for the third week of March.

How valuable is Lowry? Well, some stat-heads in the NBA community like ESPN’s Zach Harper, who we’ve worked with before and turn to for hoops knowledge, believe he should garner MVP consider-ation. That is probably asking a bit much consider-ing he wasn’t a starter for a majority of the season. That said, Lowry has become a much more effi cient scorer, improved on his assist to turnover ratio, and the Rockets would be nowhere near a playoff spot without him.

GAME OF THE YEAR: FEBRUARY 5TH, 2011 HOUSTON ROCKETS 95,

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 93 (OVERTIME)If the Houston Rockets grab the eighth spot in the Western Conference and make the playoffs, this will be the game the team will look at as the point where they turned their season around. The playoffs seemed like a pipe dream for Houston Rockets fans at this point of the season, with the 24-28 Rockets looking up at the 28-24 Memphis Grizzlies, who the Rockets are currently in a battle with for the fi nal spot in the Western Conference playoff race.

Down by fourteen in the second quarter, the Rockets rallied behind Kevin Martin’s 31-point offensive out-burst, which included 15-for-15 shooting from the free throw line, to come away with their fi rst over-time victory in six tries on the season. The game also helped earn the Rockets a tie-breaker over Memphis, as they won the head-to-head series for the season. That tie-breaker could be the difference between a fi rst round battle with the San Antonio Spurs and an early vacation.

“We needed this game, big-time,” Rockets for-ward Luis Scola told reporters. “This team is right ahead of us, or one of them. If you want to be in the playoffs, you need to beat them. It’s a game that we wanted.”

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Playmaker Magazine

playmaker magazine april 2011

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