Josh Howard and the All-Star gala were fantastic. Rest of the night? Bum-mer.

Web Ed Patrick Michels has the facts and photos from last night’s big NBA 2010 All-Star Game announcement shindig.

Leaves it up to me, I guess, just to fill in some blanks:

*For some reason, seeing Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones on stage together made me giggle at the thought of Tom Hicks being left out.

*For some reason, seeing emcee Marv Albert on stage made me giggle at the thought of biting, sodomy and prancing around in women’s undies.

*Accordingly, everyone was dressed to the nines. Except, of course, Cuban, who was dressed to the threes. “Well, I had a suit in my car …” Cuban said. Instead, he went for the business casual approach: jeans, sneakers, Mavs' golf shirt. God love him.

*By my estimation Jerry got the loudest applause, followed by Cuban.

1-7 on Cowboys’ games this season. That’s 1 win. That’s 7 losses.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Heads or tails? It’s heads.

Gimme the New York Giants, minus the 9.

Barack Obama's already a better shooter than Avery Johnson. Here’s hoping he’s a better leader.

Although, I admit, we'd have more fun with Palin As President? – Richie Whitt

See, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

I’ve recently received several emails curious in Live 105.3 talk-show host Russ Martin. Not in his “situation” per se – we’ve already covered that from incident to indictment – but more so in the fallout, if any, from his July arrest and recent misdemeanor charges.

Since I aim to please, I did some digging and arrived at this thesis:

The Russ Martin Show is more popular now than it was before his arrest.

Disgustingly frightful. But no way he cracks our list.

Just got home from Rockets 112, Mavs 102 at American Airlines Center. Plenty of ghouls, goblins and freaky occurences at the joint tonight. To wit, Jerry Jones at a basketball game. And the ManiAACs performing a dance routine to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Perfectly synchronized, I might add.

Now, admittedly, I'm not the cutest button on the shirt, but I couldn't help but take note of some of the night's scary faces. Duuuude. I looked over here and there was Yao Ming's ominous mug. And over there was Mavs' assistant coach Popeye Jones and his frightening ears.

Got me to thinking. Some NBA talents are attractive. Others, not so much.

If you're scrambling for a last-minute Halloween costume sure to scare the Trick-or-Treaters plum out of your neighborhood, I got you covered.

The Top 10 Scariest Players in NBA history:

Say it ain't so. It's so, ain't it?

Picked up my Dallas Morning News this morning – Went into the driveway and physically picked it up. I’m a dinosaur, ridicule away. – pulled out SportsDay and had a bright idea.

For Halloween I will dress as a newspaper. Nothing scarier.

When I started at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram back in 19 and 86, sport-specific special sections were a staple of the business. For the start of the major seasons -- separate pull-out sections with all sorts of features and predictions and schedules and photos. A pain to write. But, damn, how I now miss them.

Today, it struck me. No Mavs special section in Dallas’ Only Daily. Uh-oh.

Make-or-break year for him. And his team.

Don’t believe it. The Mavericks, overnight, did not grow old and tired and shitty.

Everywhere you surf entering tonight’s opener against the Houston Rockets – especially here – you hear how Dallas will be lucky to win 45ish games and lucky to make the playoffs.

Don’t believe it. Their freshness date hasn’t quite expired.

This team won 51 games last season. The nucleus – sorry, Sarah Palin, the nuke-u-luss – returns from the group that went to the NBA Finals in ’06 and in ’07 went 67-15. Two major changes: Jason Kidd for Devin Harris; Rick Carlisle for Avery Johnson.

Bottom line: The Mavericks finish 53-29, good for 5th in the Western Conference.

Here’s how:

Debbie Downer body language. Broken pinkie. Disappointing results. The SI Jinx at work?

I'd like to call out Sports Illustrated's Peter King for turning tail on your Dallas Cowboys.

Way I remember it, once upon a time King picked the Cowboys to make it to this season's Super Bowl. (Of course, come to think of it, he always picks Dallas, right?) But in this week's column he leaps from the Cowboys' careening bandwagon, surmising that last week's gut-check win over the Buccaneers only postpones the inevitable disappointment of a season headed toward the ditch.

The Three J's put on quite a show to start the '94 season. After that, um, basically nothing.

Tonight’s lid-lifter at American Airlines Center between the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets has a plethora of sub-plots that could possibly escalate into season-long themes:

Rick Carlisle’s arrival. Avery Johnson’s departure. Jason Kidd’s last gasp. Antoine Wright’s emergence. Josh Howard’s redemption. Dirk Nowitzki’s legacy.

Or, they could all be trumped by Ron Artest’s debut.

For a Mavs’ franchise that has often shot its wad right off the bat, the ends and the means of tonight’s game will have to be pretty snappy in order to carve a primo place in Dallas history. From a bunch of expansion punks whipping George Gervin, to a triple-overtime win in Phoenix and even a loss to the Spurs that eventually led to a 67-win season, Mavericks’ Opening Night has long provided its share of lasting images.

The Top 10 Most Memorable Season Openers in Dallas Mavericks’ History:

If I were God of Sports, these guys would render kickers extinct.

God for a day? Me? Thanks, don’t mind if I do.

Richie Almighty. I like the sound of that.

Okay, first, bye-bye cancer. Hurricanes = gone. No more wasted money on explorations to the Moon. Resources once pegged for NASA and NASCAR are now tripled and funneled toward the implementation of computerized, flawless sports officiating. All road construction will be done at night. Snakes, extinct. Sharks, poof. Mosquitos, sayonara. Oh, and Chris Berman, you’re time is up. You too, Nancy Grace.

Bud Selig, you’re a janitor. College football, you have an 8-team playoff. I’m putting a stop to high ankle sprains, sports hernias and multiple retirements.

As for football? Yeah, I’ve got some plans.