OK so maybe I forgot for a little while with the NBA on its yearly break, but gee wiz that LeBron James is a silly one.  For the release of the Nike LeBron Zoom VI The Swoosh has teamed up with The King to make what is clearly one of the more entertaining footwear spots we’ve seen in some time. Looks like Bron-Bron will rake in a ton more money with this one.

Preseason basketball is here and it seems that at least one local establishment is decidedly unsatisfied with all the negative attention that Josh Howard has recieved as of late. SMU-area haunt Milo Butterfingers had this to say about the Wake Forest product, who at this point seems a far ethical cry from his fellow Demon Deacon alums Tim Duncan and Chris Paul. Not only does the bar hang this signed jersey upside-down, but they make sure as many people see it as possible by putting directly next to the front entrance. We’ll keep an eye on the status of this–maybe Josh can play his way back from the Land Down Under if he can put together some solid play after the first quarter with any kind of consistency.

P.S. Note the Barry Sanders Oklahoma State(?!) jersey that the bar also proudly displays–right-side up.

With some thanks to all who signed the petition for Dirk Nowitzki, the big German will be the his country’s official flag bearer for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  On another note, what is up with that haircut?  Of course we’d expect this type of dome artistry from someone like the “Tru Warier” Ron Artest, but the Olympic rings carved into Dirk’s head proves that you never really know what this guy is gonna do.  To his benefit, about half of his teammates are currently looking just as silly with their head rings.  Let’s see if this look makes it to the court. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. Congrats, Mr. Nowitzki.

Those of us in the good ole U.S. of A., especially in Dallas, have been lucky enough to see former MVP Dirk Nowitzki polish his exceptional hoops talent on our home turf.  Now we all have a chance to show our gratitude for the big German.  Looks like a guy named Tobias Gerhards has started a petition to get Dirk the job as the official flag bearer for Germany in this summer’s Olympics in Beijing.  At the time of this writing, the signature count is just under 4,000.  Let’s show our support for the lovably goofy giant with a sinister skill set — Dirk Werner Nowitzki. [Link: Dirk Nowitzki als Fahnenträger in Peking Petition]

With the announcement last week that the SMU football team would be sporting “new” uniforms, I felt the need to bring up the Mustangs’ schizophrenic handling of the color blue.  Now I’m not old enough to remember, but I can’t recall ever seeing the SMU athletic teams wearing anything but royal before the mid to late 1990s. But navy was the preferred hue of blue that the football team adopted in 2003. And there seems to be no explanation for this at all. For a school with as rich an atheltic heritage in the city of Dallas as SMU, it is a sad tale how much apathy has surrounded its programs since the NCAA dropped the Death Penalty on them in 1987.

Look at the school’s official colors and you’ll see that they are “Harvard Red and Yale Blue.” WHY?  That automatically dooms the Mustangs to aspire to be a copy of another school, AT BEST!  I’m sure schools with such strong ties to their colors as the University of Texas look at SMU and just laugh.  Who can tell me where the non-official usage of navy came from?

Its not just the football team, either.  In recent years the soccer teams, basketball teams, and even the cheerleaders have been seen clad in navy. Let’s hope with the introduction of these new football duds, which hearken back to the Pony Express days of Eric Dickerson and Craig James, we are now seeing the abandonment of navy, which is not even a sanctioned school color.  Oh, and by the way, with the new June Jones-era unis the school has introduced are in a shade called “SMU Blue.”

Looks like hoops are back in royal now, though.

Why oh why SMU do you play fast and loose with your colors?  What other sports team, at any level, does this?  Southern Methodist University — pick one color and stick with it. Please.  Maybe you’ll see that people care about your teams when they think that you actually do.

What do you think? Please tell me what you think in the comments.

Thanks to hombre de steel for the vintage banner photos.

Well, looks like I can add another item to the list of Reasons I Should Move to New York City.  This past Wednesday, our favorite NBA player with a prolific background in the beautiful game of soccer, Steve Nash, co-hosted a charity pick-up game in Chinatown with American soccer great Claudio Reyna.  In a display that proved that he may indeed have more pull in the world of soccer than the entire MLS, Nash was able to secure the services of such prolific international stars as Thierry Henry, Robbie Fowler, Salomon Kalou, Steve McManaman and Rob Jones.  Add to that such NBA standouts as Nash, Raja Bell, Jason Kidd, Leandro Barbosa and Baron Davis (who played in a fly pair of Reebok Pumps!) and this became one of the more amazing instances of synergy that ever was between my two very favorite sports to watch and play.

The action was expectedly light-hearted with many less-than-proficient players on the pitch (see: Baron Davis, ESPN writer Marc Stein), but a thrilling display was put on by Henry that dazzled all who were lucky enough to be steal an unobstructed view of the affair.  By all accounts of this well-documented event that I have perused online, it appears that the highlight of the show was Baron Davis, whose athletically-proficient mind outpaced his skill for the sport.  He had loads of fun, trying in earnest at times to show skill in a game not native to him and doing a surprisingly good job at times.  Let’s just say that it’s obvious that he is a professional athlete.  Both Henry and Davis were actually involved in one of the day’s more memorable moments when the Beard slapped a goal-bound shot that the Frenchman had deftly chipped on target.

My favorite thing is still the fact that Baron Davis scored a goal in a pair of Pumps, which may be the first time that has ever happened in the history of the sport.

Interested parties should check out some of the media coverage this event has generated after the jump:

***Best video I’ve seen yet of the event***

This is American Soccer

Can’t Stop Bleeding

ESPNSoccernet

Unprofessional Foul

ESPN video

With the NBA Draft just around the corner, I think it’s time that we take some time to acclimate ourselves with some guys that will almost definitely make an impact in the league. Specifically, I’m referring to the exceptional point guard from Memphis, Derrick Rose, who went mostly under the national radar due to his playing for Conference USA team Memphis. A great tidbit that I read several times throughout his freshman season was that Rose was called “Winnie the Pooh” by his grandmother when he was a kid. She said it was because he was chubby and yellow. Derrick capitalized on this someone crass reference to his skin tone, which he parlayed into the magical ballhandling persona called “Poohdini.” I was nearly sure that it was an instance of Wikipedia graffiti when I read that he had a tattoo of a wizard wielding a basketball on his shoulder, accompanied by a script application of the moniker. Research proved to be difficult, especially before the tournament, but exceptional examples prove that this is indeed true. Something about this kid’s game tells me that this will one day be common knowledge.

In lieu of the Mighty German working to get back in the Dallas Mavericks lineup before the playoffs (fingers crossed on that), we at the N. Period present this humorous morsel of flickr fodder.  The title for the above photo is “Me and Dirk Nowitzki.” Dam. Looks like some poor kid got fooled.  Try again ace!