The B-Block

Rusty Hardin successfully argued for the names of some of Deshaun Watson's accusers to be made public. 

Make no mistake. He could get those names without doing this in court, but he had to stop the media blitz somehow. Accountability was his only chance.

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In just one week, the narrative about Deshaun Watson's NFL future focused on whether the Texans would grant his trade request -- and if so, where to -- jumped to something totally different.

Watson is accused of assaulting and harassing more than a dozen women, as 16 lawsuits had been filed against the quarterback as of the time of this recording. 

The cases raise serious questions about the market for specialized and illegitimate sex work, consent and why fans think they know athletes so well.

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The NBA All-Star game never seemed like a good idea. Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons being ruled out the day of the game, because of contact tracing to their barber, only confirms that. 

What's it like rooting for a Rockets team without an All-Star?

And the bad luck continues for the Astros pitching staff. 

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In the latest episode, we look back at what the city of Houston went through during a winter storm; Astros spring training coming as relief for Houston sports fans; DeMarcus Cousins' future with the Rockets; and the only worthwhile Deshaun Watson trades to consider. 

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It caught no one off guard or by surprise. The exact timing, though, was somewhat ironic. Essentially one month to the date of Andre Johnson openly criticizing Jack Easterby and the organization, J.J. Watt and the team announce he’s being released. 

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The Texans were the first of seven teams to fire their head coach this season and the last to replace him. They decided on David Culley as the fourth head coach in franchise history.

Much of the reaction locally focuses on Culley's anonymity, the Texans' tendency to bungle processes and an idea that Jack Easterby is behind the scenes manipulating everything. 

But as far as Culley goes, don't underestimate or dismiss his journey to get here. 

If you can acknowledge the NFL's troubled hiring practices and building a pipeline for minority candidates, you have to consider where Culley falls into that ecosystem. 

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And that’s if they couldn’t give the job away. It would have to mean Eric Bieniemy isn’t all in. It would have to mean Leslie Frazier doesn’t want the job. 

Matt Eberflus, Jim Caldwell, Marvin Lewis. 

Outside of this unusual circumstance, you have to consider the position your league is in right now. 

When the NFL is having to force teams to interview minorities for these positions, minorities WITH experience, you can’t just start considering white dudes with no experience.

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It's been reported Deshaun Watson wants out and there's a belief around the league he may have played his last game for the Texans. 

Trading Deshaun Watson sounds outrageous, but the Texans have not made it 100 percent clear they're against it. Also, who could blame Watson for wanting out of this mess. 

We get in a little bit of lab work to understand this much: Watson's had questions about the team direction even before their losing 2020 season.

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James Harden is the primary reason for the Rockets' success for most of the past decade. Then he set the organization on fire. 

Now, first-year general manager Rafael Stone is doing his best to put it out, sending Harden to the Brooklyn Nets to team up with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. 

The Rockets got back a haul and can finally imagine a post-Harden future. 

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The Texans have a new GM and the people who care about them can’t even enjoy it. So much for the search firm and casting a wide net.

No one in Houston is excited about this move and it has nothing to do with Nick Caserio and whether he can actually do the job.

What this is really going to come down to is whether Nick Caserio is good enough at his job to make up for the lack of trust and belief in Jack Easterby and Cal McNair.

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