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LeBron James didn’t think much of Charles Barkely’s opinion that he needed to “Shut the hell up” and show a little respect for the NBA as a whole and for the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise by keeping his thoughts about leaving Cleveland for New York after the 2010 NBA season to himself.

There has been talk that Lebron James is interested in joining the New York Knicks once he becomes a free agent after 2010, and James has contributed to the speculation with statements which many consider inappropriate and disrespectful to his team.

Charles Barkley made the following statement on TNT’s NBA studio show and Dan Patrick’s radio show in reaction to some of the comments that LeBron James made to reporters who questioned him while the Cavaliers were in New York this past Tuesday :

“If I was LeBron James, I would shut the hell up.”

“I’m a big LeBron fan. He’s a stud. You gotta give him his props. I’m getting so annoyed he’s talking about what he’s going to do in two years. I think it’s disrespectful to the game. I think it’s disrespectful to the Cavaliers.”

The statement from LeBron which Barkley considered inappropriate:

“I think July 1, 2010, is a very big day.”

“It’s probably going to be one of the biggest days in free-agent history in the NBA. So a lot of teams are gearing up to try to prepare themselves to be able to put themselves in position to get one of the big free-agent market guys.”

In response to Barkley’s comments that he needed to shut the hell up LeBron James had this to say, according to Sports Illustrated:

“He’s stupid. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

Sounds like somebody has gotten to the point of thinking he’s larger than life and doesn’t owe respect to the League, his franchise, coaches, teammates, or anybody. Somebody needs to sit him down and school him on topics like tact, humility, propriety, responsibility, courtesy, and ego management.

Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps is dating a Las Vegas cocktail waitress named Caroline “Caz” Pal. Paz is 26 while Michael Phelps is 23. The two have been dating for about two months. Paz spent Thanksgiving with Michael’s family in Baltimore so that supposedly means he’s serious about her.

I’m personally more inclined to believe he’s just having himself some sticky hot fun. Caroline Pal hardly looks like the kind of girl you take home to momma. Oh, wait - he did take her home to momma so who knows? Maybe underneath the cocktail waitress exterior is an intellectual working as a cocktail waitress to put herself through Harvard.

Caroline Pal Photos

Two years ago, while he was a student at Pennsylvania’s York College, Andrew Bradley caught herpes after  wrestling with an infected teammate. Now he and two former teammates are suing the college. They are claiming that the wrestling coach and the trainers were negligent and irresponsibly handled a herpes outbreak situation. Apparently the coach and trainers had the infected teammate tape over his sores and continue to wrestle.

Herpes is apparently common enough in wrestling that it has it’s own name, herpes gladiatorum, and there are even NCAA rules outlined for how to manage affected players so as to prevent the spread of herpes gladiatorum outbreak.

Bradley and the other two former teammates suing York, namely James Harris and Alexander Binder, are maintaining that the coaches did not abide by NCAA rules. More on this subject

There’s something about Jelena Jankovic. I’m not really sure what it is. She comes off like someone who has a slightly over-inflated ego while at the same time possessing a certain vulnerability that makes her ego easy to shatter. She generally seems like a nice girl, but one who is capable of whipping out the claws and sinking them into your flesh if necessary. Jelena wants to be big time; not just on the tennis court, but off-court as well. She wants the kind of attention that people like Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic receive. She wants magazine covers, and the big endorsements. She thinks she deserves it because she’s just as talented and just as beautiful as the other girls.

Unfortunately for Jelena Jankovic, the “it” factor isn’t something she can acquire as a prize for winning a tennis tournament, even a grand slam, which she hasn’t won yet by the way; and even if she might believe she has “it”, the magazine covers and endorsements only come when people in the media decide you do in  fact have “it” and proceed to start a conversation about your “itness” that will travel like a virus, infecting multiple millions of people with the same thought as the one transmitted via newspapers, magazines, television, internet and all other known sources of information transmission.

The media does not believe Jelena Jankovic has “it”. Her face just isn’t pretty enough. Neither does her figure exactly fit within the measurements required for an “itness” label; but Jelena wants to be a superstar nonetheless. You can tell by the way she acts. The tennis court is a stage for Jelena. She uses it to try to prove her “itness”. She tries just about everything she can think of, once even changing her panties on the tennis court during a changeover; but even while videos of her antics end up on youtube, people don’t watch for the same reason they would watch if a video surfaced of Maria Sharapova or Ana Ivanovic changing their panties on the tennis court. Jelena just doesn’t have that kind of mass appeal.

What I admire about Jelena Jankovic is that she doesn’t seem to care if you agree or disagree that she has “it”. ‘She’ believes she’s a superstar and that’s all that seems to matter to her.

Jelena was recently featured in a documentary that aired on TV in Serbia. A film crew followed her around for 14-months and captured evidence of the “demanding, glamorous and exciting elements of Jankovic’s life,traveling to tournaments in Madrid and Berlin, while striking a balance with her life at home in Belgrade.”

You can read more about the documentary Jelena’s World, but keep in mind that it’s in Serbian. www.jelenajankovic-film.com

The question: Will Roger Federer succeed in winning all four Grand Slams in 2009?

The Answer: Considering Roger Federer barely managed to get the one grand slam title he did win in 2008, and considering he is moving steadily towards old age as calculated in tennis career years, while players like Raphael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are in their prime, it’s hard to imagine Roger Federer will win any grand slam at all in 2009, much less for him to win all four. The opportunity for Roger Federer to win all four grand slams came and went in 2006 and 2007. In both those years Federer was still dominating men’s tennis and the only champship that wasn’t guaranteed was the French. When Federer found himself in the 2006 French Open finals against Nadal it was an opportunity to win his first real grand slam by claiming all four individual grand slam event titles in the same year. Unfortunately Nadal proved unbeatable that year; but Federer had another opportunity the following year when he met Nadal in the French Open Finals again. However, much to the disappointment of Federer and everyone rooting for him to win his first French Open title, Nadal pretty much crushed his hopes in a 6–1, 6–3, 6–0 show of disregard for Federer’s grand slam interests.

Ever since he lost his second French Open title in a row to Raphael Nadal and then went on to struggle against Nadal in the finals at Wimbeldon that same year, managing to claim the trophy after coming very close to losing it, Roger Federer has not been the same player. He started 2008 by getting ousted from the Australian Open in the semis, beaten by  Novak Djokovic 7–5, 6–3, 7–6(5). He followed up that loss with a number of other uncharacteristic losses in non grand slam tournaments. He managed to get to the French finals again but was flogged senseless by Nadal; and the biggest shocker of 2008, Federer also lost Wimbledon to Raphael Nadal.

Throughout 2008 Roger Federer lost matches to players who had previously not been able to get a set off him. He lost his air of invincibility. He became merely mortal, and at times he seemed unsure of himself against rising players. Too many people have beaten Roger Federer in 2008 to make an argument that he is still unbeatable; and considering the players who are beating him consistently are on the rising end of their careers while he is arguably on the declining end of his, it seems highly unlikely that Federer will manage to do what he wasn’t able to do while he reigned supreme as the king of the grand slam tennis courts. He wasn’t able to win a true grand slam while in the prime of his career and he’s not going to win all four majors in 2009. He’ll be lucky if he comes away with two, or even with one.

Image credit: James Marvin Phelps aka mandj98

Maria Sharapova has won 3 grand slam championships. One of her trophies was earned in 2004 when she first burst onto the scene at Wimbledon, stunning Serena Williams and the rest of the world in one of the biggest upsets ever in the history of women’s tennis. Her second grand slam title would come two years later at the US Open Championships of 2006; and her third would come two years after her second at the 2008 Australian Open.

Having secured 3 grand slam victories, Maria is safe from ever being referred to as a “one slam wonder”; but considering how high the expectations had been set for Maria after she beat Serena Williams at Wimbledon at the age of 17, it is arguable that Maria hasn’t really lived up to the hype. Maria Sharapova has never dominated women’s tennis, and her times spent as the WTA’s #1 ranked player have always been short-lived. With her 2008 season cut short due to injuries, one wonders what the future holds for Maria Sharapova with regard to her tennis career.

Maria Sharapova is only 21 years old. She should have a good decade of competitive tennis left in her, but have we already seen the best of Maria Sharapova? She’s been competing at a high level since the age of 17 but has only managed to win 3 grand slam trophies, and she won them with 2-year intervals between victories. She may be one of the highest paid woman in tennis but, much as it was with Anna Kournikova, it’s her face and figure that have won Maria multi-million dollar endorsement contracts, not her tennis.

Maria Sharapova is no new-comer to tennis. She may be “only” 21, but in tennis that’s middle age. She’s already grown into her body and is unlikely to change much physically from here on. Unless she suddenly decides to bulk up and comes out on court one day sporting prominent biceps and quads and a new manly walk, we’ve probably seen the best of what Maria Sharapova is capable of producing on a tennis court. We might see her match some of her best performances if the conditions are favorable, ie she plays a better player on a day when the better player is not playing her best tennis; but we’re not likely to ever again be rendered speechless by the brilliance of Maria Sharapova’s tennis the way we were at the 2004 Wimbeldon Championships.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban of insider trading.

It seems Mr. Cuban recently sold shares of mamma.com based on information that was privately divulged to him. Mr. Cuban allegedly sold the sahres in order to avoid losing $750,000 back in 2004.

Cuban had promised to keep the information mamma.com shared with him confidential; but according to reports, less than 4 hours after the information was shared with him, he broke his promise and placed an order to sell his shares.

SEC Division of Enforcement Deputy Director Scott Friestad said in a statement. “It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to non-public information to improperly gain an edge on the market.”

In response to the allegations Cuban posted the following statement on his blog: “I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.”

On Yahoo answers, member Scrubs wanted to know “What happened to wta tennis ranking? Its completely screwed up! Jelena Jankovic’s being number 1 is ridiculous.”

Scrubs isn’t the only person who seems to take issue with Serbian Jelena Jankovic holding the #1 position in the women’s tennis association rankings. Even some of Tennis’s most noted analysts have hinted that Jankovic is merely the beneficiary of a crazy ranking system that will allow a player of average talent to reach the #1 position not because she is the best player on the tour but because she is the most active and is able to win enough tournaments to collect the points needed to make it to the  top.

As rsv1973 said in answer to Scrubs’ question: “If you play a brutal schedule, reach many semis and a few finals, you will rake up points to get to the top”.

Jelena Jankovic is known for playing many tournaments and reaching at far as the semis in most. Add that to the fact that there really aren’t any women in professional tennis right now who are dominating the field. With Justine Henin gone and the Williams sisters hardly what they used to be, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic not living up to expectations, points are getting pretty evenly distributed and this helps an active and consistent player like Jelena Jankovic.

Tennis analyst Mary Carillo had this to say on the subject:

“It is a very Hingis-like No. 1.”

“She stopped winning majors but picked up enough other events. Like Hingis, Jankovic plays enough events to win enough points to get there.”

The Associated Press reports that 41-year old Dennis James Smith and his wife 39-year old Donna Smith of Alabama were shot to death at around 7PM on Saturday in Owassa, Southern Alabama over an Alabama-LSU football game.

The shooter is alleged to be 28-year old Michael W. Williams. According to the reports there was a dispute at Williams’ home over the game. It seems Dennis Smith, an LSU fan, might have telephoned Michael Williams, an Alabama fan; and for some reason Smith and his wife went over to Michael Williams’ home. An argument erupted which turned into a physical altercation; then Smith allegedly went to his car to retrieve a pistol. In response the threat Williams went for his shotgun and fired the weapon, shooting the male. The  female then allegedly threatened Williams, and Williams responded by shooting her dead as well.

More details

Venus Williams has claimed her 39th career title winning the season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Doha over Vera Zvonareva. The elder of the two world renowned Williams sisters who took the sport of tennis by storm in the earlier years of their professional careers has won the WTA Tour Championships for the first time. She beat her opponent 6-7 (5-7) 6-0 6-2.

Venus pocked $1.34 million dollars for her win and has now surpassed Martina Navratilova on the list of top prize money earners in women’s tennis. She is now #4.

In an interview after her win Venus told reporters:
“It was a hard-fought match right down to the end, we were both wanting it so bad. I’m glad I got it.”

Image: gettyimages