The beauty of sports is you never know what you’re going to get when you show up to the arena. What we saw last night at the Garden was nothing short of a burial for the exquisitely-awful tenure of Isiah Thomas as frontman of the New York Knicks. You could see it in the first few minutes. While the Celtics scrambled on defense and worked the ball on offense, the Knicks stared at the ground, refused to call out screens, and completely disengaged from their “coach.”

In all my years of watching basketball (and I have probably covered well over a thousand games) I have never seen a more pathetic performance at any level, ever. It was great. (more…)

Your condensed guide to today’s daily papers.

The federal government botched something? You’re kidding: An independent review of the federal findings about the safety of the BU biolab call the previous study “not sound or credible.” These sobering new findings won’t stop construction on the new facility, however. [Globe]

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Your long day of corporate drudgery is over. Get out and enjoy the city! Here are a few ideas to get you started, lovingly picked by Boston Daily.

Say hello to our new friend, A Frog to Be Named Later, at tonight’s Official Tree Lighting Ceremony on Boston Common.

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It’s renovation time at the State House. This time around it isn’t Gov. Deval Patrick’s office that’s undergoing a redesign. Former drape-hater Sal DiMasi told the media that his office needs an update in an attempt to control the spin.

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The screechy Mitt/Rudy slapfight has suddenly splintered into a proxy battle, and the result is pure fun for local political junkies. Yesterday marked the coming out party for “Romney Reality Check,” a Giuliani-aligned attack group consisting of local Republicans that plans to fan out and attack Mitt Romney for being a lousy governor (and, one hopes, a treacherous flip-flopping swine of an individual). For now, they’re hitting his economic record. (more…)

Taking you around the internet for your afternoon enjoyment.

He doesn’t want a pony, he wants the whole farm: The details of Gov Deval Patrick’s $2.9 billion bond bill have been released. It will fix roads and bridges, extend the Green and Blue Lines, create commuter rail service to New Bedford, repair the Fitchburg line, and improve regional airports. It also slices and dices. [Boston.com]

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Last night, we joined a small crowd to celebrate the lighting of the Copley Square Christmas tree. Starbucks-toting students, harried professionals looking to capture the holiday spirit, and the stroller set were well represented. As the Salvation Army Brass Band played carols, we noticed something we don’t normally associate with holidays.

A giant frog.

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While Tom Menino is dealing with a surprising amount of fallout after his decision to oust Boston Public Library head Bernard Margolis, Gov. Deval Patrick finds himself the victor in his bid to demote UMass board chairman Stephen Tocco.

Our controversy-hungry souls are disappointed that Tocco didn’t come up with his own “I didn’t think this was Venezuela” comment for the governor, but we don’t have much time to mourn the lack of comedy. We’re too busy trying to figure out why the governor wanted him out.

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We didn’t catch last night’s CNN/YouTube Republican debate live. Instead, we chose to watch America’s Next Top Model, which we hoped would spark some good fights in the tension-filled go-see episode. It seems the better option for our cat-fight viewing pleasure would have been watching the Republican candidates duke it out.

Much like former governor Mitt Romney, we were wrong.

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This month’s issue of Boston magazine includes a profile I wrote on Charlie Jacobs, the Bruins executive vice president and the youngest son of team owner Jeremy Jacobs. It’s out on news stands now, and you can also read it here. But because they occurred too late in the process, there are a few noteworthy things that you won’t find in the story.

During my reporting, I sat down with Charlie several times, spoke to his current and former employees, and watched him address both the fans and the media. As the weeks went by, Jacobs’s apprehension about the piece appeared only to grow. The day after the story went to press, a lawyer retained by Jacobs sent us a letter inquiring about some of the sources for the article.

The most unusual turn of events from a journalist’s perspective, though, came the day before deadline. That’s when Wendy Watkins, a marketing executive from Delaware North — the company that oversees the Bruins and all of the various other Jacobs family business concerns — called one of the magazine’s sales reps to ask whether or not the story about Jacobs was going to be “positive.”

If so, Watkins said, the Bruins might be interested in buying a series of ads. If not, however, the deal would be unlikely.

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