With the defending NBA champions the Dallas Mavericks, starting off the year with a shaky start. They still got the opportunity to meet with President Obama today at the White House. Unfortunately, they will be one player short for this team effort. As it turns out, Delonte West has a couple of arrests over the last two years – one for being under the influence of prescribed medication – and is “banned” from stepping foot in the White House after the President’s security team ran a routine background check.

West responds:

After his omission West took his frustrations out via Twitter. He has since deleted those tweets.

Derrick Rose is close to adding a nine figure endorsement to his new $94 million dollar basketball contract. Rose could become the highest paid shoe endorser in the NBA today with his Adidas contract for 250 Million dollars. If the deal officially falls through, Rose will be rocking Adidas attire for the next 10 years. Rose has already surpassed LeBron James in sales, soon to be closing in on Kobe Bryant. I guess these shoe contracts run in the Chicago Bulls family.

March Madness is in full swing and basketball fanatics nationwide are neck deep into brackets, Cinderella squads and praying their Final Four picks do not get upset. However, one of the overridding stories has focused on two gentlemen who played in one of the more memorable college basketball seasons in recent memory – Jalen Rose and Grant Hill. Rose – a member of the legendary Michigan “Fab 5” – made some very controversial comments about African American Duke University basketball players – including Hill – being “Uncle Toms.” Jalen has profusely said the comments were how he felt as an 18 year old freshman, but the words have prompted a firestorm of controversy both in and out the sports world.

Grant Hill took the time to respond to the comments through an op-ed piece in the New York Times. However, the entire piece was unable to fit due to space constraints. The former All-American took to his own site to publish the entire letter. Read a portion below.

I am a fan, friend and long time competitor of the Fab Five. This should not be a surprise because I am a contemporary of every member of that iconic team. I have competed against Jalen and Chris since the age of 13. Jalen, Chris, and Juwan are my friends and have been for 25 years. At Michigan, they represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and positive way. The very idea of the Fab Five elicited pride and promise in much the same way the Georgetown teams did in the mid-80s when I was in high school and idolized them. Their journey from youthful icons to successful men today is a road map for so many young, black men (and women) who saw their journey through the powerful documentary, Fab Five.

It was a sad and somewhat pathetic turn of events, therefore, to see friends narrating this interesting documentary about their moment in time and calling me a bitch and worse, calling all black players at Duke “Uncle Toms” and, to some degree, disparaging my parents for their education, work ethic and commitment to each other and to me. I should have guessed there was something regrettable in the documentary when Jay Williams and I received a Twitter apology from Jalen before its airing. And, I am aware Jalen has gone to some length to explain his remarks about my family in numerous interviews, so I believe he has some admiration for them.

To read the entire editorial, click here.

It seems like everyone is gearing up for NBA All Star Weekend and everything it has to offer both on and off the court – the rookie/sophomore game, skills challenge, three point contest, dunk contest, the actual game and the 75,000 parties. Skullcandy will be releasing their Special Edition NBA All Star Aviator headphones geared to both the players and fans.

During All-Star Weekend only – February 18^th-20^th – a limited number of brown and gold version Special Edition Aviators, featuring ear caps laser-etched with the Official NBA All-Star and LA2011 logos, will be available exclusively at Los Angeles area Apple Stores. Price: $179.95.

The 24 players in the All Star Game will have personalized headphones in both all-white and all-black. They will have their jersey number and personal signature laser engraved on each ear ear cap.

After his controversial remark about Miami Heat superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone, Lil Wayne cleared the air while attending the team’s most recent victory over the Indiana Pacers. At least he did, somewhat.

Courtside again Tuesday, there was the appearance of a dialogue, or at least acknowledgment from James.

“That’s a question you need to ask him,” James said, when asked if they were back on speaking terms. “For all the fans that come and watch us play, we just try to do our job and win ballgames.”

James was seen offering a “What’s up?” nod toward the rapper.

NBC-6s Adam Kuperstein approached Lil Wayne, an AmericanAirlines Arena regular, to ask if he and James now were cool and received a response of, “Oh, yeah, yeah.”

Source

“She’s my first female best friend’’ - Shaq on Girlfriend Hoopz

Shaq and Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander are in Love and the Boston Globe caught up with the pair to get all the intimate details on their budding love affair as well as the new reality show. Hmmm Shaunie and her Boo featured on Basketball Wives and now Shaq and his Lady Love heading to a TV screen near you. Guess it’s just a coincidence huh?

Nikki “Hoopz” Alexander is about to embark on her next entertainment project, a reality show that will have cameras following her life in the suburbs and her foray into the athletic-training business. Hoopz wants to become a guru for women’s health and self-defense, and she’s already meeting with her production team and concocting episodes.

She’ll be able to offer plenty of good reality, between the glittery events she and Shaq attend, their suburban life in Sudbury, their penchant for playing games and just goofing around

Yesterday (Jan. 30) Kevin Durant drew a rare technical foul in the first quarter of his game for jawing with Miami’s Chris Bosh. And that’s not all the mild-mannered Durant had to say.

When asked about the verbal spat between the two after the game, Durant didn’t mince words for Bosh. He called the former Toronto All-Star forward a “fake tough guy” who talks because he’s on a good team now.

“I was talking to my teammate and he decided he wanted to put his 2 cents into it. I’m a quiet guy, a laid-back guy, but I’m not going to let nobody talk trash to me. He’s on a good team now, so he thinks he can talk a little bit,” Durant said.

“There’s a lot of fake tough guys in this league and he’s one of them,” Durant added.

Durant says he was upset because Bosh got involved in his conversation with a teammate. Bosh says Durant was telling James Harden that next time, he should dunk on Bosh. Bosh had fouled Harden on the previous play to prevent a fast-break layup.

“I think he was telling Harden to dunk on me, or dunk the next one,” Bosh said before giving a cleaned-up version of the exchange. “I expressed that, `No, he’s not going to dunk that.’ And he expressed, `Yes, he is.’ It just kind of went back and forth.”

Durant said he considers Bosh “a cool dude” off the floor, but “once I step on the floor, all that stuff goes out the door.”

“I don’t think it was anything to get a tech over,” Bosh said. “It was just talking. He stood his ground, and I respect that.”

“All of us, we’re all so competitive, and when we get into circumstances in the fourth quarter, there’s going to be tough calls on both sides,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

(Well, competitive experiences DO activate testosterone.)

Wiz khalifa‘s untelevised performance of Black & Yellow at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh for the opening of the AFC CHampionship Game between the Jets and the Steelers. Jets still should have won that game.

The legend that is DJ Steve Porter remixes some autotune on New York Knicks fans giving their video drops on the #1 reason to vote Amare Stoudemire and Raymond Felton into this year’s NBA All-Star Game. The celebrity Knicks’ fans included Drake, Amber Rose, Fabolous, Tracy Morgan, Judah Friedlander, Whoopi Goldberg, Vinny and Pauly D from Jersey Shore, Adam Adrock, Jerry Ferrara (aka Turtle), and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

From kidnapping Brett Favre, to firing head coach Brad Childress, to witnessing the most impressive streak in sports history ending – Favre’s 297 consecutive starts which started in September of 1992 – and to now having a giant crater in the Metrodome’s roof, this has been the season from hell for the Minnesota Vikings.

Yet, it’s that last straw which may be the most outrageous. Inside the Vikings’ dome, the temperature would have been around 70 degrees. Now, if the game is played at nearby University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium, the temperature is slated to be a balmy zero degrees with a wind chill factor making it feel -10 below. And the stadium does not have a heating system under the field which would melt the ice come Monday night. All in all, the entire situation is messy and could be the most numbing (literally) atmosphere for a football game in years. At least as long as I’ve been alive.

I’m well aware this is Mother Nature and there is no way to stop snow from falling in Minnesota during the winter. But this is the exact reason why I say Superbowl 2011, or any other Superbowl for that matter, does not need to be played outside in a cold weather city (SB 2K11 isn’t, by the way).

Judging by the way the Bears played last week in frigid temperatures, and given the fact the Vikings will be starting a third string quarterback in the worst possible conditions, it wouldn’t surprise me if the game ended in a 6-3 score. All bets point to Chicago, but -10 below levels the playing field more than any MVP candidate ever could.