So now that Cleveland has lost LeBron James, the city doesn’t know what to do with their basketballs. I guess if they don’t have any more entertaining basketball players to watch, they can just throw the ball at the rim until they find something entertaining.

Kevin Durant has taken Team USA under wing, but the man wants no credit. In an age where American athletes are taking reality TV show deals, it is nice to see a guy who wants to just get down and play with balls – pause.

The week began with Team USA officials talking extensively about Kevin Durant being such a key part of this summer’s team. But then they became quite aware Durant doesn’t like that kind of talk. Not that anything has changed about how much Durant is appreciated on the team that will play in next month’s World Championship in Turkey, it now just won’t be discussed as much. “Well, he’s probably more comfortable without it being said,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said Friday about the Oklahoma City forward’s reluctance to be dubbed the face of the team. “So that’s the bottom line. So we won’t say it.”

pic and info: FH

The greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, watched, as did millions, as LeBron James said good bye to his home town and headed for sunny South Beach, Miami, Florida to play for the Heat. MJ, like many others, believes that making such a shift wasn’t the best thing the young star could have chosen. This is a nice way of calling James a coward:
“There’s no way, in hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry (Bird), called up Magic (Johnson) and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team’…In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.” said Jordan.

pic and info: FH

For over a decade it has been no secret that the NBA’s Western Conference has always had a lot more depth than the East. With the Spurs, Jazz, Nuggets, along with this year’s champs, The Lakers, and more all hosting impressive line-ups, it was no small feat to make it out of the Western Conference finals. This has all changed as Amar’e Stoudemire, and Carlos Boozer have moved to colder climates and LeBron James has stayed East.

“Yes, the Western Conference still has won nine of the past 12 NBA titles and 10 of the last 11 seasonal inter-conference battles. Yet there finally is starting to be some chortling in the East. After losing the conference regular season match-up for nine straight years, the East finally broke through in 2008-09 to win 51.3 percent of the games between the conferences. The West came back to win 54.7 percent of the battles last season (it didn’t help that New Jersey and New York, in trying to clear salary-cap room, weren’t trying to win). But this summer has shown the East could end up being the dominant conference this decade.”

pic and info: FH

FanHouse has put together a list of some of the most brutal, nastiest, ugliest submissions from MMA fights this year. Everything from triangle chokes, to guillotines, to heel hooks make their way to the list which can be viewed here.

With most sports the All Star game is nothing more than a circle-jerk of celebrity and fan-boy-isms. In Baseball, the dynamic is different, as leagues play for the World Series home-field advantage. For the first time in 13 years, the National League will have the edge come October.

“Charlie Manuel told us: ‘Let’s go out and kick their ass,’ ” said San Diego Padres pitcher Heath Bell. “That’s what he told us before the game. And that’s what we did. I don’t care that the score was 3-1. All that matters is that we won. Finally.”

The National League halted its record winless streak in the All-Star game at 13 games Tuesday, using the same formula in the 3-1 victory at Angel Stadium that carried it to its previous All-Star victory, at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium in 1996.

pic and info: FH

Steinbrenner is not only the greatest team owner that ever lived, the New York Yankees team owner was cooler than Snoop Dogg performing “Gangsta Party” on the North Pole.

“He was an incredible and charitable man. First and foremost, he was devoted to his entire family — his beloved wife, Joan; his sisters, Susan Norpell and Judy Kamm, his children, Hank, Jennifer, Jessica and Hal; and all of his grandchildren,” the Steinbrenner family said in a statement. “He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again.”

pic and info: FH

Popular basketball video game franchise NBA 2K has finally leaked an image of what the latest installment’s cover will look like. The game, featuring the greatest player of all time (Kobe who?) on the front, will drop October 5th for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve most likely heard by now that Spain won the World Cup. In what was a match full of yellows and even a red card, Spain’s Xabi Alonso got a possibly permanent reminder of the final when Netherlands’ Nigel de Jong kicked him in the chest during the first half. De Jong somehow got only a yellow card for this, plus a meeting with Jaden Smith about the Karate Kid sequel.

Before he could be called a Cavalier, but now it just seems like there is no name for a player on the Miami Heat. Dwayne Wade finally has his ’super’ team as he has been joined by Chris Bosh and LeBron James. Now, hopefully James gets to South Beach and shaves that Abe Lincoln beard.