Just wait until you see this one on Sportscenter. It was about 5.20a in Cali but I was still jumping up and down making mad noise. This play was crazy, D Wade getting the steal and chasing down the loose ball, while saving it and flying out of bounds by the three point line extended he hit a streaking KB10 with the alley!!! What followed was an emphatic two hand banger that reminded everyone that Kobe can still get up when he has to.

It was close in the beginning but a run midway through the second half all but made this an exhibition game, USA wins 92-69. These cats have a chip on their shoulder and are out to prove who are the kings. Bron-Brons dunk a few moments later was pretty nice too!

Yeop, a recession is on the way, and The Recession is on the way... here is the "Official Remix" for Put On, Young Jeezy ft. Jay. Its hot, peeps out Jay letting everyone know what is up, and listen for the thinly veiled LeBron reference... But its true, once Bron is in NY, what can you say about Jay Z?

Ummm, I guess Shaq hasn't quite let this thing go! Shaq needs to stopped rapping but he definitely shouldn't stop talking. Here's a freestyle he dropped the other day where he hit up a couple of things. How he is the greatest still, how much money he has, and ummmm how Kobe is the reason he is divorced!

How the hells does TMZ get all this stuff? I really dont care, I love it.

Well, he's no Tom Brady yet. Check this out... last night TB presented some of his offensive linemen with new cars! I'm sure there is more to this than the headline, but really I don't feel like doing the checking. But he gave millionaires cars... what is that all about?

The watches

the Q7 from Audi

Tom Brady seems like a pretty cool cat, unless you are his baby mama. Maybe not a sit and drink a beer with you kind of guy like Brett Favre, but I would definitely wing-man with that cat with a couple of kettle tonics and see what kind of ladies we can pull. We know what kind of ladies he can pull, but yeah, lets just say that I don't hang with a bunch of Tom Brady's.

Kobe really knows how to give a gift; and he really knows how to say "I'm sorry!" Last time he dropped a lil something something on Vanessa after the admitted adultery in Colorado. And from all accounts he is basically like the ultimate family man now.

After the off season drama, by all accounts Kobe has become the ultimate teammate, and after the much publicized question from Luke Walton, Kobe, said I'm sorry again thanks to the boys by presenting them with very expensive watches.

Nice watches by the way! the Jaegar-LeCoultre Master Compressor Chronograph. Sweet! I have noticed that KB24 has been wearing some really nice suits lately.

Each player has a TV and entertainment center in his locker as well as a personalized robe. Things like 360's and PS2's in lockers are pretty much standard now, but Cuban was the first to do it. The Cavs have a nice locker room too! I guess you can't spare any expense when it comes to the king. But you can tell that he went a little extra on his own space, and i like that!

Here are a few pics, more at the links above

It's not LeBron is really having a problem with The Bullets and DeShawn but Hov hooked his boy up with a nice freestyle letting DS know how you have your rapper friends represent. While he flew Souljah Boy in and had him wearing a jersey like a fan, Jay dropped bars. Listen Up courtesy of realtalkny.com, the shit is hot

Say what you want about Mark Cuban, but the guy is smart as hell. And come to think about it, if I owned an NBA team and paid a couple hundred million a year in operating cost (and $8m+ to Erick Dampier) I would be behind the bench yelling and staring down people too! Anyways, here are his thoughts on raising the age limit for guys playing in the NBA. He bases it on maturity levels of a 22 year old versus a 19 year old, which makes a ton of sense.  I echo every thing he says and this is an argument  I have had many times with my boy Justin, who stands by the theory of, "if you can go to war at 18, why can't you play in the NBA?" ... Long story short, the NBA is a private company, they can have any stipulations they want, especially if the union goes along with it. What do you think?

Kobe commercials are known to put a lot on it!

NBA All Star weekend was great! Everything went pretty much spot on, and the Game lived up to being one of the best ever after some early game sloppiness. I was happy that KB24 got only a little bit of burn and got on up out of there. NOLA looks like things are progressing some and things are looking up. Ironically looking at the entire weekend, I am feeling okay about making a trip down there because things are pretty much getting back to normal. there is still a ton of work that needs to be done, still a lot of healing necessary but the city is looking good again and the community is responding. Check out Simmons today, a great article for which I feel the exact same way. So much so that I think I am going to spend my birthday down there this year, forget about Miami.

espn the mag article with MJ as told to Ric Bucher, Mike gives a little bit of perspective on these young cats, and the state of the game and how it is in good hands, as long as these guys stay original and try not to become MJ or MAgic or Larry.

another espn the mag article with the best commissioner in sports today, the great David Stern. Say what you want about the guy but he has taken a sport choc full of brotha's and made it in to arguably the second leading sport worldwide to futbol.

ok, one more espn the mag article about a problem particular still facing the league which is a major one, that its a league full of black players playing largely to a corporate read white audience, and how the perception, the perception is that basically all nba guys are rappers at heart who just happen to be able to hoop. its an interesting situation and one that needs to be explored and then explored some more.

The only problem I had was the Dwight Howard dunk, or throw in... It wasn't even a dunk, and they turned the lights out so no-one could see that he didn't dunk what was that about? Also, how does Shaq feel that DH just jacked his jacked nickname? Shaq even has a tattoo. And he should have lost because he had a superman onesie on.Dwight should have done the kiss the rim dunk right here.. . Its at the 30s mark.

Its getting bad for Latrell these days. My man who has made close to $100m in salary during his years in the league is in some serious financial problems possibly:

Former NBA star Latrell Sprewell's home is up for foreclosure and his yacht sold at auction to help pay off the $1.3 million he owes on the boat, according to court filings.Sprewell, who once turned down a three-year,$21 million contract extension saying, "I've got my family to feed," has apparently fallen on tough times.RBS Citizens NA, or Citizens Bank, filed a foreclosure suit last week in Milwaukee County for the $405,000 home Sprewell bought in the Milwaukee suburb of River Hills in 1994.In court documents, the bank said Sprewell owed $295,138 in outstanding payments plus interest. Sprewell failed to make his mortgage payments of $2,593 per month from September 2007 to January 2008, the documents said. Source USA Today

Man, its too bad, he was one of my favorites back in the day too. Here is a throwback to better times for Spree

One of Forbes annuals list is the valuation of the top earning black celebrities. O dot has the number one spot because between June 2006 and June 2007, Winfrey, 54, pocketed $260 million. That astonishing salary--it works out to some $712,000 a day--crowns her not just the nation's top-earning African-American, but also the highest-paid entertainer in Tinseltown, black or white. Check out the top ten list right herre...

1. Oprah Winfrey $260 million
2. Tiger Woods $100 million
3. Jay-Z $83 million
4. 50 Cent $33 million
5. Kobe Bryant $33 million
6. Shaquille O’Neal $32 million
7. Michael Jordan $31 million
8. Will Smith $31 million
9. Beyonce $27 million
10. LeBron James $27 million

I don't know if I necessarily can believe this list allt he way, because Magic Johnson should be somewhere in here. Plus, didn't fiddy make like $100 off of that vitamin water deal. I think that came after the cut off date, so next year will probably look very different. One thing that will remain the same though, Oprah at number 1

We always hear and see all the stories and big smiles when the guys signs his deal, but we never really hear the flip side of the coin. For every Lebron James with max contract and shoe deal, there are 20 guys who end up having to go back to work after the NBA checks dry up and their baby mamas come calling. Here is an interesting article in the Toronto Star speaking on what the NBA and the players association sometime deal with. Crazy

Apparently the WNBA is doing pretty well these days. I don't know anyone who watches, or even goes to these games, but according to their numbers 2007 was their most successful season to date. In 2007 the WNBA set attendance records for the playoffs (216,863 fans at 21 games) and the finals (74,178 at five games). The regular-season attendance grew by 2 percent in 2007, and was highlighted by a new eight-year television agreement with ESPN, which extends the league's relationship with the network to 20 seasons.  The league and its players union have agreed to a new CBA which includes player salary raises and a shared revenue component among its teams. They aren't making NBA money yet, but its still better than working at the local Applebee's. Plus, most of the players can make some serious guape going oversees like Diana Tuarasi and Sue Bird.  Reading a story like that, I can see why Candace Parker is talking about being the first female player to go hardship! and she can ball forreals.

I like athletes who come up with clever ways to keep themselves out there in the public. Chris Bosh and his team may be taking a lesson or two from Bron-Bron and the Four Horsemen. Here is a hilarious clip of him politicking to get on the All-Star team. It may have been a joke to begin with but its turned into a little bit of a watershed moment as the Wall Street Journal reports on how athletes are beginning to take steps in their own marketing and image creation, as opposed to letting someone else control the content. All of this of course can be aimed at driving traffic to the athletes own personal website. I like this idea though because you are marketing yourself right, so it makes sense that you have the most control and the riches that may come along with it. Here is a Nike supported ad done by Steve Nash that is talked about in the piece.

Wow... Mike and Nike have done it again... In the picture Mike is holding the new sneaks, the Air Jordan XX3. The shoe will be in limited release at first with a price tag at $230 if you can find them, the reason being is that they are originally only going to be sold at 23 retailers... Unless of course one of those retailers is footlocker. After the initial run, the shoes will settle at a tag of $185. There have rumors circulating that this is the last pair or J's since Mikes number was 23 and this is edition number 23, so you may even catch me in line trying to buy a couple. Imagine what the price for a crispy pair of these would be on eBay in a month or so. More pics from the freshnessmag post:

There are endless possibilities here too with the Air Jordan Sneaker game these days... Since nike can't get away with the eBay prices for their shoes, well, sort of... how about like series of shoes. Imagine a big game series: the shoes where he dropped 55 on New York, the shoes from the 63 on the Celtics, the sneaks from the shot over Craig Ehlo, and the shot over Byron Russell. Or like a series of each pair he wore in the finals. And then of course, the collection of every pair made from 1-23, a write up on each one, a dvd of all the commercials, maybe throw in a signed 8x10 or something, and a few jerseys all enclosed in a big ass glass case.. If i had the loot i would buy that shit...

check out jumpman23.com and waste some time looking over the history of Jordans... My top five goes: Jordan III, Jordan IV, Jordan IX, Jordan XII, and Jordan XVIII, What about you?

As being rumored damn near everywhere, Jay Z might be starting a record label with Apple. Now, I am a huge J fan, and this is the reason why. There have been rumors about this for more than a year now, starting with speculation a while back about him and Beyonce being fed up with the deals and labels that they are on. It is obvious to all that the "record industry" needs some help. The music business is doing fine, but the obviously record sales continue to decline. Most artist are just putting out albums almost as advertisement so that they can go on tour and make a ton of money off that. Apple has made and absolute mint off of iPods and the iTunes store, and there is a history of beef there between the record labels and Steve Jobs. These rumors definitely have been fueled by the fact that Jay left his post as the president of Def Jam after his contract didn't get renewed to the terms he wanted, but this just seems to make too much sense. The only hiccup I can see is that Jay still owes DJ one more record under his recording contract, but given that he put out American gangster in about a month, seems like that isn't going to be a problem. I for one would applaud a move like this, because everyone loves music, and we need a change in how things are getting done.

In other Jay Z news, 40/40 in Vegas opened New Years

and it looked like quite a party.

and quite a spot

with quite a crew of VIP party-goers

I like Dr. J's style, a cigar and some henny, not bad, and we know the Thicke's can party with the best of them

The craziest thing about all of this is that the NY Post is saying that the reason Jay left DJ is because he is wanting to focus on his business ventures exclusively, which includes the planned J Hotels and potentially five more 40/40 clubs. Right now he has the Midas touch, so whatever he is doing is looking like it will turn out just fine. Good for him!

I used to not like Mark Cuban because I thought he was some spoiled rich kid who bought a basketball team with some dot com money, and for the most part, he was. But as I began to look at him, and read up on him, I've come to find out that he is much more than that. He didn't just get lucky and get rich in a few months from some jackass idea in his dorm room, but he was a tried and true entrepreneur who learned a business and took advantage of an opportunity with a great plan, and wisely sold out to the highest bidder at the right time. If you haven't done it already, throw him in google and read a few articles on the guy. The Mavs wont be winning a chip anytime soon, so maybe that is why I like him more now, but Mark seems to have his head on straight. Check out his Success and Motivation series on blogmaverick.com, its a good read and I like to check back in and read it every once and a while. My favorite quote of his, and me and my guys talk about it all the time is, "you only have to be right once!"

Bill Clinton is still my guy, and he really might be the reason I vote for Hillary in next year's election

Funny story here about how Bill is still a bigger draw than Hillary, and by a long shot.

Good article here comparing Bill's first run at President and Obama 's

Threw some pictures in here because blog readers love the photo's

That last one got me to thinking... Can you imagine the parties that they would've thrown together back in the 80's? I love random celebrity pairings.I am sure they would have nothing on the OJ, Marcus Allen, AC, Ahmad Rashad, Rick James Parties though!

Magic does the damn thing. Lets applaud him for being one of the few modern day athletes who takes a stand on national and world causes. He's got more dough than all of these cats, with a net worth that has got to be knocking on the door of a $billi, but he is using it and his influence to make a difference.

Great article in this months Golf Digest on El Tigre called, The Year of Living Dangerously

...And on that title when I was at the Tiger Woods Invitational, aka The Target World Challenge, the other day and I was lucky enough to cross paths a few times with Mr. Woods, it got me to thinking: Why don't we ever hear any crazy car jacking, shoot out type of stories with the Tiger Wood's and Alex Rodriguez's of the sportworld? I keep hearing how athletes are becoming targets because of their money and random guys envy, but the more i think about it, that doesn't fly. Who has more money than Tiger, or A-Rod, or Bron-Bron? We all know how much they make, or can approximate from what we read in the paper. But we never hear about shoot outs and home invasion with them do we? You can bring up google earth right now and probably find their homes. I know that Alex Rodriguez made about $187.5m from his last deal and could make almost twice that in the next 10 years. I know that Bron is building a castle somewhere outside of Cleveland and that he has a condo close to the Quicken Loans Arena that he stays at the night of games because he doesn't want to drive out to the country late at night. To make it even more broad, Will Smith makes about $25m when he attaches his name to a movie script, and his life has been drama free since he left Philly to hang out with Uncle Phil. I hate to say it, but there has to be something about the guys that are getting caught up in this. It's not a stretch to probably say that they aren't "bad guys" but I do think that maybe they aren't making the best decisions. But even that assessment is difficult though because I am not talking about the guys who are getting their houses broken into, and I don't think we can even fault the guys who are "out to dinner" and get jacked for their necklaces. But there has go to be something there right? It has to be more than just random crime. Unfortunately, I don't know what it is. Why must this stuff even happen at all. Why does one man or woman believe that they deserve to steal what someone else has rightfully obtained? What happened to a hard days work and earning. The guys, these athletes, have talent which they are being rewarded for. Yes, I will give you that guys like Mark Blount or Tim Thomas some of them don't deserve it, but I know that most of them work very hard at being really good at what they do. It's not their fault that our society places their jobs in such a high regard, or high enough that we are willing to spend a weeks paycheck on tickets to a game and all that comes with game night. But it is our fault that society places a premium on getting and not earning. Look at this whole housing debacle, if the brokers, and appraisers, and agents, and underwriters, and hedge fund managers, and homeowners weren't only worried about "getting more" we wouldn't be in this mess.

Ok, being a celebrity doesn't suck. I don't care what anyone tells me. Those are some Playstation Air Force 1's right there that KB got last year when NB07 came out. I don't know how I am just getting hip to them because they are hella fresh. Anyways, apparently Kobesta is saying how happy he is that he wasn't traded, and I like it! I am sure he realized how much of a baller Andrew Byrum is becoming. The kid is dropping just about a double double in about 25m a game. Once he can figure out how to stay out of foul trouble, he is going to be a real beast. Honestly, if Timmy and Lord Knows are considered forward, AB can easily be considered the second best center in the western conference... and to me he might be number one next year if he is giving me 18 and 10. Yao can ball, but he is all O. Anyways a couple of quot-ables from the interview are:

"I'm happy to be here," Bryant said. "My guys and I -- we have such a tight bond. Business and basketball sometimes can cloud things, but when you get here in your element and you're around your teammates and just having a good time with them and thinking about them and not about the business of the game, that's when it becomes fun."

and

"Sometimes you have to kind of put a fire to them a little bit so that they understand that we're playing for higher stakes," Bryant said of his teammates. "Once they understood that and saw me come into training camp saying 'Look, I'm tired of playing for the playoffs. I'm not playing for that. I don't know what you guys are playing for, but I'm not playing for that.' Once they understood that 'Hey, this guy's head is on a championship level, this is where we need to get,' then it kind of ignited another side of them and they started looking at this thing a little differently.

umm ok, so he lit the fire under their asses. I still think it could've been done a better way. Anyways let see what they do tonight against a depleted Spurs team... this is just the kind of game that the Lake Show takes a bad L in. Games starting. Late`

What the hell is Omarion thinking right there? Damn!

Jay Z is going to be running Las Vegas for a weekend ... link right here... and he speak on his tenure at def jam here

Some funny shit here on youtube, Kenny Smith has his jersey retired on Inside the NBA Overtime, linked here

Peter Vesczey writes an interesting piece on Jamal Tinsley here at NY Post

I used to be mad at AI for causing the whole bad hair trend in the NBA.Don't get me wrong his were fly at first, but then everyone started wearing them. Just like me with the dreads, but then i cut them off. anyways, you can't help but love his take on the "athletes as targets" trend right now. Some great perspective from the Answer here

Jose Calderon from the Toronto Raptors has a blog and its pretty good take a look here

Los Angeles is considering limiting the size of houses being built. Just trust me this is a good thing. Where I live its getting out of hand. I guess its fine if these houses are in Bel Air and Brentwood, areas that have the space, but when they are in Sherman Oaks and Studio City... its not good!

A nice piece on the George Mitchell Barry Bonds witch-hunt steroids investigation. Check it out here

A great take on the biggest issue in hollywood, the writers strike. Read on here. I have wondered out loud why someone with deep pockets like Mark Cuban hasn't been snapping up these guys by the boatload with production deals.

Woooow!!! Gilbert Arenas is making it rain on them hoes in his latest blog entry. He has definitely broken the unwritten rule of speaking about someone else's money, but at least these cats aren't actually on his same team. There are going to be some haters out there, but stuff like this is funny, and true! For example, Gil speaking on the Emeka Okafor contract situation:

"...he turned down $12 million, Okafor said he wants Dwight Howard’s money … I mean, you ain’t Dwight Howard."

and on a story an assistant coach told him about Andre Iguodala:

"...When he was in Arizona, he said he was like 9-for-11 from the field and he apologized to the team for shooting 11 shots. From that day on, I just called him Scottie Pippen. He’s a Scottie Pippen type of player. A great, overall player. He’s your glue player. You need a superstar and then you need him. So $12 million is good for you. Nothing more and nothing less. Be happy with the $12 million."

the best part about it is that he is speaking nothing but the truth, and he can do that because he has been there. Remember when he came out as a second rounder and was a free agent after his second season. He had to settle for a little bit more than a mid level deal, then he played his ass off and got paid. He probably has one maybe two extensions left and he is going to get skrilled up. He put people in seats, and he drop 25 a game. I am all for one getting all the paper that they can get, but you don't want to be unreasonable. It like these dudes are always worried about what other cats are making. I don't know if we can blame the agents for this totally because a lot most of the time, the athletes that are hella good, believe that they are better than they really are. Its just interesting to finally hear it from on of them. Hopefully he doesn't take too much flack for this, but we know that he will.

and we will give Chuck the last word because he is dropping knowledge, like always:

"... max players put people in them seats. If you’re not putting people in them seats, you are not a max player."

and I have a feeling he will be here for a while. Forbes Magazine has ranked the top earning stars under 25, hollywood included, and here is your list...

1. LeBron James, $27 million
2. Reggie Bush, $24 million
3. Maria Sharapova, $23 million
4. Michelle Wie, $19 million
5. Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, $17 million each
6. Daniel Radcliffe, $15 million
7. Hilary Duff, $12 million
8. Avril Lavigne, $12 million
9. Carmelo Anthony, $10 million
10.Keira Knightley, $9 million
11.Carrie Underwood, $7 million
12.Scarlett Johansson, $5 million
13.Mischa Barton, $4.5 million
14.Dakota Fanning, $4 million
15.Emma Watson, $4 million
16.Rupert Grint, $4 million
17.Miley Cyrus, $3.5 million
18.Lindsay Lohan, $3.5 million
19.Mandy Moore, $3.5 million
20.Frankie Muniz, $3 million

follow the link to the slideshow provided by Forbes