[Ed. note - In celebration of this week's theatrical release of The Muppets, here's our thing about Muppets. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat.]

We’re still a few months away from the release of The Muppets, starring and written by Jason Segel, but my excitement couldn’t be higher. Hold on, I’m receiving a breaking news message… *squirrel in a hot air balloon drops a note tied to an acorn on the table* … it appears that The Muppets also stars Rashida Jones and Mila Kunis, so I may have an awesome heart attack soon. In the meantime, it’s Friday and now I’m all Muppety, so what the hell can I do to resolve this?

Thankfully, while looking for something completely unrelated yesterday, I stumbled across the Muppets Wiki site and started perusing the history of the happiest shows of my childhood – The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. Eventually I realized that a lot of athletes have been told how to get to, how to get to Sesame Street over the past 42 years, and it all started with Jackie Robinson in 1969. From there, children and adults who are still children at heart watched with glee as their favorite athletes stopped by to teach us about the alphabet, sharing, numbers, living in garbage cans, depression, being a giant bird, same sex partnerships with bottle cap enthusiasts, and building motor skills, among others.

After the jump, I’ve compiled an extensive history of athletes making appearances on Sesame Street and with the Muppets. If you don’t enjoy this or smile the whole way through, then I’m afraid we’ll never be friends. And that would make Big Bird very sad.

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The other day I wrote a compelling and thorough hastily organized piece about the asinine coaching carousel in the NBA and how teams just keep pulling out old retreads. The Golden State Warriors bucked that trend by hiring ABC NBA analyst and former Indiana Pacers guard Mark Jackson as their new coach and the Detroit Pistons seemed to be on the right track to renovation by considering iconic franchise bad boy Bill Laimbeer for their vacant coaching gig.

But the Pistons are still mulling other options like former Indiana University scumbag recruiter coach Kelvin Sampson and former Atlanta Hawks loser coach Mike Woodson. And now we can add to that list… Isiah Thomas.

*slams head against desk, signs Eddy Curry to a 10-year deal*

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There was a fun story the other day about how even though Isiah Thomas’s return to the New York Knicks got the kibosh from the league because of that little matter of him still coaching a NCAA team, he’s still weighing in on some of the more relevant league matters. For instance, Thomas insists that Carmelo Anthony will be traded to either the Chicago Bulls or the Knicks. Fittingly, the Nuggets already told the Knicks they don’t have any desirable pieces and talks with the Bulls fizzled after Chicago refused to include Joakim Noah in a deal. But that doesn’t mean that other teams aren’t giving it their best.

After heavy criticism for sitting on their hands during July’s free agent frenzy, the New Jersey Nets seem desperate most-willing to work toward an amicable deal for the superstar. New Jersey has already made at least one offer but Denver is demanding Brooks Lopez in any deal, and the Nets aren’t willing to give up a centerpiece player. Now someone like Jarvis Hayes, on the other hand…

Demand that we offer Lobster Dog in any future transactions, Pro Basketball Talk:

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Knicks fans surely loved the idea of Isiah Thomas returning to the professional basketball franchise that he did his very best to destroy. Thomas signed a deal to return to New York as a full-time consultant, figuratively speaking, as he intended to perform that job while remaining at Florida International as their head basketball coach.

Thomas is in violation of NBA rules which prohibit team employees from recruiting high school players, which Thomas would have to do as coach at FIU. Unfortunately, Knicks fans aren’t in the clear yet —

Thomas said in a recent interview, “If I was to leave FIU, the only positions that I would be interested in looking at would be a general manager for a team or consulting or advising with a team.” –MSNBC.

How does this asshole keep getting jobs? Just unreal. Does Isiah have jpegs of Dolan naked with Nathan Lane? I mean, that wouldn’t be anything to be ashamed of. He’s an accomplished stage actor. Oh, he’s gay? Well I didn’t know that. Oh, AND he follows the Knicks? Perv.

The man who has single-handedly saved Taco Bell’s sales in North America is ready to take his talents to an NBA front office. The Round Mound of Rebound has gone on record to say that he would, in fact, be interested in becoming the GM of an NBA franchise, as long as said franchise meets his expectations.

The itch to delve into management has increased for the Hall of Famer and he feels qualified to run his own team. But he has a list of stipulations. Barkley is not going to take over a team that has no intentions of winning.

And the Chuckster wants full control.

“I’m ready to get into management,’’ he said before last night’s game. “But it’s going to have to be a great situation. I’m not going to give up a great situation for a bad situation. I got a great situation here but I’m ready to be a GM. It’s just time for that, but like I said, it’s going to have to be under my own terms and I am going to have to have complete control. I ain’t going to work for somebody else if I am going to get the blame.’’ –Boston.com

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NBA legends Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas are no longer BFFs, apparently. This little tiff became public after news of the release of When The Game Was Ours, a Jackie MacMullan tome about the careers of Johnson and Larry Bird. Johnson alleged that Thomas, whose own brother was HIV-positive, told everyone that he was homosexual after Johnson announced that he was HIV-positive in 1991, but the fun didn’t stop there.

Johnson also tells the Web site that he helped play a role in keeping Thomas off the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.

“Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics,” Johnson said, according to SI.com. “Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. … Michael didn’t want to play with him. Scottie (Pippen) wanted no part of him. Bird wasn’t pushing for him. Karl Malone didn’t want him. Who was saying, ‘We need this guy?’ Nobody.’” –WaPo.

Whatever. Nobody’s really impressed with either of these guys anymore. Isiah’s coaching hoop at Florida Whatchamacallit now and Magic is making terrible commercials for tax shops when he’s not pretending to analyze basketball for TNT ESPN. But it goes to show that controversy and alleged gay-bashing can still make news. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to hit Quentin Tarintino over the head with Elton John.