Houston Rockets vs. Chicago Bulls game preview

So many of these previews seem to be turning into "How can AK relate this game to his life?" Today is no different, and we're going to take a magical tour through a part of my childhood. Hold on, it's about to get boring bearable.

In ninth grade, I was starting at a small yet well-regarded private school inside the loop. My first class was English, and I was ready to dominate. After all, my grammar and spelling were pretty good and I had always done well in that class.

I didn't really get what I expected. Most of that stemmed from my teacher.

Mr. Nathan was...odd. Most English teachers wanted to throw grammar rules and vocabulary at you. They wanted to show you that the sentence about the curtains being blue (NSFW) truly reflected the downtrodden spirits of the narrator and was actually a larger metaphor for the internal struggle of man against both himself and society.

Firstly, Mr. Nathan wasn't like that. He wanted authors to get to the point, too. He hated the word "very" and took points off for its usage. He could explain things in simple ways and could turn Romeo and Juliet into a comedy (at least the first act). He taught me that the real reason for education wasn't necessarily to be successful in life; it's to get the jokes.

The real difference was that Mr. Nathan was passionate about so many things. He loved music, so naturally he played music as students filed in from their previous class. His classroom walls draped with autographed pictures of athletes and celebrities. He loved Bill Engvall's "Here's Your Sign" bit and dedicated a portion of his wall (already teeming with framed photographs, mind you) to a "Wall of Stupid" for dumb grammar and spelling mistakes. He was enamored with baseball, so he compiled a book of baseball quotes.

Mr. Nathan influenced my writing greatly. Without him, I'm not here today writing about a game when all you want to read about is Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin trade rumors. He's why I try to write about non-basketball things every once in awhile to keep myself interested. On the one hand, you probably hate that I'm not only writing about the Rockets (we'll get to them, I promise). On the other hand, it keeps me refreshed and keeps every preview from turning into "Yeah, we should win this game probably."

However, the one thing I'll never forget from Mr. Nathan is the definition of irony. We have these preconceptions of what the term means. Is it a situation that has some subtle joke? Or is it a hammer that breaks the spirit of an unsuspecting sap? You could ask Alanis Morissette, but the only situation from that song that qualifies as ironic is the man who was afraid to fly and then died when he finally took a flight.

There's a difference between something being an unfortunate situation and being ironic.

Here comes the segue!

There is some irony at play tonight when the Rockets take on the Bulls. At least, that's how Omer Asik will feel. A year-and-a-half ago, he left the Chicago Bulls for greener pastures in Houston. He would finally get a chance to get out of the shadow of top 5 center and could show off his own skills. In two games against the Bulls last year, he did just that and prompted some hilarious reaction posts from the leader in sports blogging.

Rockets vs Bulls | Lin + Team Highlights (11/21/2012) (via Blaiyan)

Omer Asik highlights vs Chicago Bulls - 20 pts, 18 reb (via danacdgo)

Asik was hailed as the franchise center in Houston. Finally, his offensive deficiencies weren't being dissected. Rather, his defense and youth were being celebrated! His departure from the Bulls may have been a death, but his his rise with the Rockets was downright phoenix-like.

Now, his last night as a Rocket will likely come against his previous team. He left one for the other to get a chance to play. Tonight, the situation doesn't come full circle but instead continues down a chain that hopefully leads to future success.

The situation isn't ironic in general. But to Omer Asik, that's the word of the day. And if he needs to know why, I can refer him to an English teacher at St. John's School who would be happy to enlighten him.

Programming note: Patrick Harrel, another SJS alum, will be writing the preview for Friday's game against the Pacers in between the 500 posts he's putting up about the pre-deadline. The man is a machine.

Tip off is at 8:30pm CST on ESPN.