Charles Barkley, You Magnificent, Middle-Finger-Flipping Bastard! You know what? Ernie Johnson was just asking for it to play out this way. You just don’t ask to see Chuck’s fingers without assuming he’s going to give you the Middle Finger Salute. There was no way Barkley was going pass up the opportunity to flip EJ the bird. Talk about walking right into something. Charles Barkley is awesome. Enough said. [Sportress of Blogitude]
More fun stuff following the jump.
* Indy Star Pulls Duke Illustration From Paper; Was It Really a Big Deal? This story feels like something of a media Rorschach test. The Indianapolis Star, not exactly a small-town rag, had the illustration to the right in its sports section today. (Click the image to enlarge.) Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s image is made to look like it’s been scrawled on with a pen by a scornful fan of the opposition. It’s an illustration that accompanies a story titled: “Despising Duke.” And of course, in the illustration, it’s supposed to look like someone wrote in “Duke Is No Good.” [The Sporting Blog]
* Beard of Truth Episode 4: The Beard of Werth. Beard Of Truth, which was launched by Tauntr staff last spring, returns for the first episode of the 2010 season. In episode four, Youk’s beard honors a fallen comrade, Jayson Werth’s once glorious beard, which was chronicled on the excellent jaysonwerthbeards.tumblr.com. [Tauntr]
* National Anthem butchered before Lakers game. This is singer-songwriter Keri Hilson, who inadvertently rewrote the national anthem during this rendition before a recent Lakers game (video’s after the jump). I’m not here to bury Hilson, even though she probably got her just desserts for trying to showcase herself instead of just singing the damn song. No, I want to put on my waist-high old man pants and rant about the crowd who just decided that Hilson’s gaffe was reason enough to abandon the tradition altogether. [With Leather]
* Tim Tebow on whether or not he thought the conversation about Urban Meyer failing him was overblown. “Absolutely. Coach Meyer’s number one job is to win football games and do what they are paid to do; That’s win football games and win championships and so far Coach Meyer has done a great job of that. A lot of other coaches can learn from that as well. His job is to win championships and take young boys and making them into men. That’s what he does. It doesn’t matter the philosophy of offense that he runs, he does a great job of taking young boys and making them men and winning football games.” [Sports Radio Interviews]
* Shawne Merriman gets “Punk’d” on Total Access. When he hit the “TA” set with host Rich Eisen, he may have forgotten that it was April Fool’s Day. Eisen brought that fact into sharp focus by spoofing Merriman with an official-looking memo decreeing that the league was setting stricter penalties in motion for any planned on-field celebrations. Merriman, whose “Lights Out” dance is a legend in the originator’s own mind, was not amused. [Shutdown Corner]
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