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I can hear the Rocky theme music blasting in a Northern California gym. “Dahna nah dahna nah…” Punching and speed bags being beaten and 80’s slightly homo-erotic jump roping drills being done. Who is in the gym? Is it Apollo Creed? Mr. T? Ivan Drago?

Nope, it is the new starting PG for the Golden St. Warriors. According to the Contra Costa Times, Ellis has been working out with Virgil Hunter, who is the boxing coach of undefeated Andre Ward of Oakland. In between his ball-handling workouts, Ellis has decided that boxing training is the best way to strengthen his endurance.

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From the ticker… One seed Truth & DNA Univ. routs 16-seed Backwoods Georgia Institute of Lying.

Much like Holy Cross, the duo from Georgia gave DNA as much of a fight as they could, but, ultimately, the world has learned that David did not have Goliath in his freezer.

After the famed press conference to announce the finding of Mark Eaton, the two men, Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer, apparently took a cash settlement from SearchingForBigfoot.com (which Michael has purchased in 16 languages), and turned over the iced beast.

From the Atlanta CBS affiliate:

“After the Searching For Bigfoot team and “The Real Bigfoot Hunter” Tom Biscardi began to thaw out the creature in a 1,500 lb. cooler of ice, they discovered it was a rubber suit. Biscardi contacted Whitton and Dyer and they agreed to admit the truth to the public. When Biscardi arrived at their hotel, the pair had vanished. Searching For Bigfoot believes that their motive was financial.”

Grain of salt warning: I was always taught to be wary of any site that spells Palo Alto with an extra vowel.

Carry on, gentle giant of Utah. Carry on.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are entering their 20th season in the NBA and have released their brand new uniforms for the upcoming 2008-09 season.  According to NBA.com, the new look was designed in part by the team, addidas and the NBA.

Since the T-Wolves will be horrific yet again this year, I wouldn’t anitcipate them being on too many national televised games. Therefore, unless you live in frozen Minnesota, this maybe your only chance at catching these new unis. Check them out below and let me know your thoughts.

Image Source: NBA.com

The United States continued its destruction of the Olympic games by destroying Zie Germans 106-57. Oddly enough, the game might not have been as close as the score indictates. The US man-handled Nowitizki and company from the start and they didn’t have a shot.

I must say that I have been very pleased in how they are playing. The major difference between the U.S. and the rest of the world is the U.S. is much more athletic and not neccessarily more skilled. With this type of team, a coach wants to pressure defensively, create turnovers and get out on the fast break to get easy baskets. The U.S. has gone and out and done this exact gameplan: exploiting their strenghts while hiding their weaknesses (shooting).

On the flip the side, I haven’t seen the rest of the world come out with the right gameplan to stop the Americans. They have seemed to have adapted to more of an “American” style of play. I see the recipe for the international teams beat the “Redeem Team” as the following:

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Lahaina Beach

Tickets for the Maui Invitational have gone on sale on the Maui Inviational box office site.  The Maui Invitational will be held November 24-26th this year, based in beautiful Lahaina.

Tickets are being sold initially as team packages for boosters.  So, you can purchase tickets that will get you into all three games for your team.  Single game general admission tickets are also available, or will be shortly.

Oregon and North Carolina courtside booster seats have already sold out.

If you plan on making the trip with us, be sure to book your trip on Lahaina.com.

According to a couple of undoubtedly well-adjusted men from Georgia (the state), Bigfoot’s corpse has been found.

Via the AP:

“Two men claim they’ve bagged Bigfoot, and they say the have the hairy corpse of the legendary creature stored away in a freezer. Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer say they stumbled across the corpse in the woods of northern Georgia, across the country from the remote regions of the Northwest where people usually claim to see the man-ape.

Still, the Georgia men say DNA will prove once and for all that the frozen creature is Sasquatch. They plan to present DNA test results and photographs during a news conference Friday in Palo Alto, Calif.”

Nothing like a couple of uptown Georgians going toe-to-toe with DNA. Sounds like a repeat of USA vs. Angola.

“The picture they sent out in a news release and on their Web site - http://www.bigfoottracker.com - shows what appears to be a hairy corpse crammed into a chest freezer. The accompanying announcement describes the creature as a 7-foot-7 male, weighing 550 pounds with 16-inch human-like feet and reddish hair.”

Someone please inform Mark Eaton’s family…

According to the New York Post, Stephon Marbury’s preferred destination to play next year is not in his beloved New York City but the Italian soil of Milan. He says, “Milan is definitely where I want to play basketball at. That’s where I fell in love with Italy.”

Well, of course he wants to play Milan. Bottom line is that nobody in the NBA wants him on their team and he thinks he can save face by saying he “prefers” to play overseas. He is a PG who doesn’t look to pass, can’t score anymore and is a cancer on the team. Why would an NBA team want him on their team and take that risk?

I know what you are saying, “Geez Jaime alittle harsh on Marbury why would Milan want him?” Well, he will be a superstar over there in such an inferior league to the NBA. People will cheer for him and love him. He will take as many shots as he wants and play no defense, both attributes he covets doing. The Milan team will be looking for somebody to fill the seats and bring excitement, which I will say Marbury can do over there. In Italy, he will be the “Star-Bury” he has longed for his entire career.

Of course, for Marbury to get to Milan the Knicks will have to buy out his contract. He is due to make approximately $20 million next year. That’s right $20 million.  Therefore, no matter what, if Marbury plays in Milan, sits in his basement drinking beers or sulks on the Knicks bench he will receive $20 million!  The problem with Marbury and I have said this since day one is that he only cares about himself. He played to get a big contract in the NBA and then never cared about winning or his teammates. I think this quote from the post sums up Marbury, “There’s no place but America where you can make 20 million dollars for free. I can’t get mad if they want to go in a different direction and want to pay me…”

Arriverderci Stephon!

Image Source: NY Post

The toughest challenge of the Olympic tournament thus far for the United States is this morning against Greece.

It is a little disappointing to see how flat the team has come out in what should be an emotional game against the team that beat us in the world championship in 2006.Not a lot of fire being displayed early.

4-4 - Jason Kidd apparently offended the officials prior to the start of the game and proceeded to pick up 3 touch fouls in the first 90 seconds prompting analyst Doug Collins to “compliment” the Greeks for “selling the calls like you often see players do in soccer”.Curious early officiating continued with Kobe Bryant being called for an unsportsmanlike (flagrant) foul on a reach in foul 90 feet from the basket.

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As many of you know, I am the type of person where if I come across something that I like, I want ohers to share in my enjoyment. Well, I just finished reading Can I Keep My Jersey?” by basketball journeyman Paul Shirley and highly recommend it.

For those of you who dont know Shirley, he played his college ball at Iowa State with the likes of Marcus Fizer and Jamal Tinsley. Just as many kids growing up, his dream was to play in the NBA and after college he goes for the promise land. As a 6-10 white stiff, he is just on the cusp of making the league and the book chronicles his journey between playing in Europe, the minor leagues of the U.S. and the NBA.

I have decided to try and put a quote together descrbing the book, so Shirley can one day use it on the back of his book cover. Here goes it:

“Shirley’s memoir is sarcastic and self-deprecating. He is candid in his story-telling and opens up the inner workings of professional basketball and the NBA, including the behind the scenes look at NBA locker rooms and the players he shared it with. His story is the other, not so bright, side of being a professional basketball player.”

Shirley also has his own column with ESPN.com.

The U.S. Men’s Olympic team defeated the mighty Angolans today 97-76. Though the game was a blow-out, it doesn’t compare to the thrashing the “real” Dream Team put on Angola back in 1992 when they won 116-48. Either way, the game was a yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn! Here is the boxscore for you stat fanatics.

In more fun fact news, guess who has the best selling jersey in all of China?

Yao Ming? Nope.

Lebron James? Nope.

Caveman Chris Kaman? Nope, just seeing if you were still paying attention.

Kobe Bryant? Yes. He had the #1 selling jersery in China last year. Behind him is Garnett at 2, McGrady at 3, Pierce at 4 and Iverson at 5. Apparently, besides Garnett, the Chinese love no defense and ball hogs. Yao Ming is ranked 10th on the list and believe that he is not higher because all of China already has his jersey. I am just guessing.

Image Source: * ESPN