An unexpected head cold knocked me out this weekend and sent me to my couch to watch all three “EPIC-sodes” of MTV’s Made this weekend.. so no review of Ratatouille today but I’ve learned that apparently the lead singer of Yellowcard is considered a “superstar” by some.

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Apple Fanboy News..

Wired’s Cult of Mac blog spent the weekend performing an autopsy on the iPhone.

Tech blog CrunchGear is reporting that Apple will roll out MacBooks with “iPhone-like multi-touch functionality built into the touchpad later this year.” Is Steve Jobs squashing his beef with tablet computers?

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columist Bob Smizik believes Pirates fans should continue to criticize management despite the way Saturday’s walk-out kind of fizzled out.

The Knicks are hoping Zach Randolph can steady his “up and down life.” New York City is the perfect place for that, don’t you think?

Browns center LeCharles Bentley says he’ll be ready to go for training camp this year after a knee injury caused him to miss all of last season and threatened his career.

John Feinstein labels July “the worst month in sports.”

Madden 08 and NCAA Football 08 runs better on the XBOX 360 than on Sony’s PS3.

Four magazines that cover the NFL, including Athlon Sports and The Sporting News have picked the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.

Seriously, fire Larry Bird. Their lone draft pick is expected to remain in Europe for the next three years.

The Orlando Sentinel’s David Whitley says Grant Hill owes it to the Orlando Magic to stick by the franchise that stuck by him.

The Houston Rockets are also courting free agent forward Rashard Lewis. Who would you want to play with Dwight Howard or all-around good guy and team player Tracy McGrady? Decisions, decisions.

Warriors fans are seriously bummed about the departure of Jason Richardson.

Newsweek’s Mark Starr wonders what happened to summer sports.

If you haven’t been there, the Portland Trailblazers website is amazing.. www.nba.com/blazers …

The Worldwide Leader Pat Forde picks up some college football preview mags.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Ted Miller wonders if there isn’t more to the sudden resignation of Mariners manager Mike Hargrove than meetings the eye.

 ranks the NFL owners 1-32. Dan Synder is a top-five owner.. No, seriously..

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Well-rounded news..

Universal Music Group is going to inform Apple that it will not renew the deal the company has with Apple’s iTunes music store.

An early review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The Chicago Tribune’s Julia Keller debates the “Great American Novel.”

A woman works at Los Alamos has admitted to using U.S. Government computers to stalk Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington. There was a fantastic story on this in last month’s Wired Magazine.

A British research group has determined that 68 percent of people who attend rock shows experience some kind of hearing loss afterwards. Earplugs people, they look lame but they could save your hearing.

New York Magazine is beginning to question its allegiance to “Entourage.” One of the questions The Daily Intelligencer poses is whether or not the show has always “been this obnoxious.” The answer to that question is yes. I hate, hate, hate, hate Entourage. With shows like Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Deadwood, HBO has come to be known for its outstanding original programming. HBO is a Fox show that happens to air on HBO. There’s nothing clever about the series and none of the characters have ANY redeeming qualities.

The Bottom Line is going into the prognostication business with a mini mock draft. This is how I think the first 5 picks of tonight’s draft will shake out. Feel free to comment with your own top 5.

1. Greg Oden - C - Ohio State

2. Kevin Durant - F - Texas

3. Al Horford - F - Florida

4. Corey Brewer - F- Florida

5. Mike Conley Jr. - Ohio State - G

WHEN MASCOTS ATTACK! 

The Indianapolis Star is reporting that the Pacers’ mascot, Boomer, is being sued by a man who underwent recent back surgery and said the mascot tackled him during a free throw shooting contest and caused serious, perhaps permanent injury.

Last night, I tuned in, for reasons unknown to even me, to watch the NBA’s Slam Dunk contest. I was interested in seeing how Tyrus Thomas would respond in the wake of his labeling of the slam dunk prize as “free money.” Before that, I was subjected to the skills competition. What I was witnessed to was the most lackadaisical, borderline disrespectful display that I’ve seen in a while. What I was was Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James downright jogging through the obstacle course. This is why people are so turned off to the NBA. It was a joke to see LeBron James, the face of the league, trot through an obstacle course, trot to the bench and put his warm-ups back on. If the players don’t care about what they’re doing then why should I or anyone else? Where’s a lockout when you need one?

The Miami Herald is reporting that there’s a chance that Scottie Pippen, who recently announced his intent to rejoin the NBA, could land with the Miami Heat.

For those of you keeping track at home, the Heat roster currently features the following players and ages: Gary Payton, 38, Alonzo Mourning, 37, Eddie Jones, 35, Shaquille O’Neal, who turns 35 next month. What’s next? I mean, are the Heatin negotiation in Shawn “The Death Stick” Bradley?

I’m not going to blast Pippen for coming back or criticize him for “ruining his legacy” or any of the other reasons people don’t like to see players come out of retirement. If he actually believes he can still play at a high level and wants to give it a shot, I say ‘Why Not?’ If he, or anyone for that matter, thinks that he’s going to log serious minutes and make any kind of significant impact on the floor, they’re nuts.

15, 373 points. 7,095 assists. 1,428 steals. All of Tim Hardaway’s statistics wiped away by four words:

“I hate gay people.”

It seems like every newspaper, sports talk radio show and sports blog has picked up on the story that I first heard about while laying in bed last night after watching ‘Lost.’ My stomach churned as I listened to Hardaway tell Miami Herald columnist and sometimes-ESPN talking head Dan LeBatard describe his stance on homosexuality in NBA locker rooms. In the wake of former NBA center John Amaechi coming out of the closet, it seems that anyone who ever wore an NBA jersey has been asked how they’d feel if one of their teammates was gay. The responses have ranged from surprisingly refreshing (Charles Barkley) to awkward and quasi-homophobic (LeBron James) to ignorant and flat-out homophobic (Shavlik Randolph) to revolting and bigoted (Hardaway).

I certainly don’t think that Hardaway’s comments are in anyway indicative of the way the majority of NBA players, or for that matter the majority of Americans, feel about homosexuals in any workplace.

All Hardaway did when he told LeBatard that homosexuals had no place in this country was diminish what was an otherwise respectable NBA career. Was Hardaway one of the greatest point guards ever to play the game? Not by a longshot. However from this point forward, when someone mentions the name “Tim Hardaway,” you won’t think of a no-look pass or his patented cross-over, you’ll think of the moment when Dan LeBatard challenged Hardaway’s comments as “flatly homophobic” and bigoted and Hardaway branded himself forever as a bigot.

Here’s a link to a transcript of the conversation posted by the Miami Herald.

As I work my way up my news reader, I happened across an article about Chicago Bulls rookie Tyrus Thomas. I had heard grumblings yesterday about comments Thomas made to a reporter from the Chicago Tribune about his desire, or lack thereof, to compete in the NBA’s slam dunk contest during All-Star weekend.

Thomas was quoted in the Tribune as saying, “I’m just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day.”

When asked if being around some of the game’s greats could be beneficial for a rookie, he responded, “I’m just into the free money. That’s it. I’ll just do whatever when I get out there.”

In a follow-up to that story, Thomas appears to have taken a stand-up attitude about the whole thing. He didn’t claim he was misquoted by the reporter but rather said that he’s going to use this as a lesson that he needs to be careful about what he says and how he says it and that he couldn’t fault the reporter for doing his job.

I’m mildly amused by Thomas’ comments because I think this is a reflection of what the slam dunk contest has become. Everything that can be done, for the most part has been done. The only innovative thing I’ve seen recently was when Steve Nash demonstrated his soccer skills in helping teammate Amare Stoudemire in the dunk contest. I think the dunk contest needs to be discontinued and replaced with a skills competition or something of that ilk. I know it will be hard to part ways with the dunk contest because of the nostalgia and great moments attached to it (see, Jordan and ‘Nique, Dr. J., Cedric Ceballos dunking blindfolded, etc.) but I think the times has come to move forward and start a new tradition.

In today’s piece in the Chicago Tribune, Thomas said he was going to donate any slam dunk winnings or additional money he would receive for participating in the dunk contest to his high school. That is something I don’t believe for a second. Maybe I’m a little cynical but I firmly believe that had this story not come to fruition and had Thomas not described his slam dunk contest check as being “free money”, that check would be finding it’s way to the Tyrus Thomas pocket fund.

Thomas has since found out some of that “free money” from the dunk contest is now going back to the Chicago Bulls who have fined the rookie from LSU for his comments.

Here is the link to the Chicago Tribune article today….