Well that's one of the odder headlines I've ever written, but it's true. TMZ is saying that ESPN owes the city of Los Angeles over $40,000 business license for X Games, and they're suing the WW"L".

Kaleeeefornia and parts thereof are broke-ass broke -- and ESPN may be partly to blame.

It all boils down to this: ESPN allegedly stiffed the City of LA out of $43,159.50 in back taxes from 2004-2006. Details are a bit sketchy, but the taxes were assessed as part of production on the X Games.

In the lawsuit against ESPN filed Friday, the City claims it mailed the bill to network offices in Bristol, but nobody ever sent a check.

ESPN has since told TMZ that the "check is in the mail", but it'll be interesting to see how this one plays out. It's certainly not the time to be messing with someone's money, let alone an entire city.

Update: I mistakenly said $40 million when first posting, and after getting word from ESPN, have changed it to the correct total of $40K. That seems like a total that should be easily taken care of, and is ultimately just a miscommunication.

ESPN Accused of Screwing Los Angeles (TMZ)

You may remember that ESPN is planning on dividing its operations with a new HQ out west in the near future. While those plans are still moving forward, Sports by Brooks uncovered a possible added bonus that could come with the new digs. That bonus is Pat O'Brien. Yes....the Pat O'Brien. The ex-CBS Basketball reporter/ex-Access Hollywood host/ex-Entertainment Tonight host/drunken and drugged voicemailer.

SbB got a hold of ESPN to comment on the possibility of the hire....

A source recently revealed that O’Brien may be under consideration for an on-air position at ESPN Radio. I have no more details than that. These sorts of things can sometimes be agent propaganda, but from what I gathered from my source, that isn’t the case here.

From a sports broadcast perspective, an O’Brien hire would make perfect sense for ESPN. But of course, based on numerous, ugly off-air indiscretions by the former “Insider” host, ESPN bringing him on would be a considerable risk to the network.

UPDATE: ESPN Media Relations Director Josh Krulewitz responds to SbB about the prospect of ESPN hiring O’Brien. “Our radio content is both national and local as we (ESPN) own five radio stations including one in Los Angeles. There have been no discussions about considering him (O’Brien) for a job.”

Speaking of Los Angeles, I’ve since heard that O’Brien may have specific interest in an on-air position with the aforementioned ESPN-owned L.A. radio station, KSPN-AM. I’m also hearing that an official at that station may have been contacted by an O’Brien representative about the prospect of O’Brien hosting a show on the station.

Obviously this is all speculation and rumor, but it could be time to get Pat O'Brien back into Sports. Everyone deserves a second chance, and as far as reporters go, O'Brien was one of the better ones in the 80s and 90s.

ESPN Ready To Take A Chance On Pat O’Brien? (Sports by Brooks)

The last time we were talking about Lisa Guerrero it was because she and her husband, ex-MLB Pitcher Scott Erickson, were making some sort of movie. The former sideline reporter had basically fallen off the Sports' Map since being dropped after just one season on Monday Night Football. Well Guerrero has somehow found her way back into the Sports World, but this time it's as a blogger for the LA Times. From The Fabulous Forum (catchy) via Sports by Brooks....

One day last June after muddling through yet another one of T.J. Simers' rants -- this time targeting me -- I picked up a pen and delivered a shot of my own.

Inspired by Barack Obama and his "Change We Can Believe In,'' I proposed my change for Page 2. I asked The Times to please allow me to go head to head with T.J. in a write-off. We would each write one column a week for one month and let your readers decide who should write for Page 2. I wasn't kidding!

Amazingly, Sports Editor Randy Harvey contacted me and asked if I was really serious about wanting to write for The Times.

Yup.

In weeks to come, I'll be writing about sports from an entertainment and pop culture perspective in the Fabulous Forum on latimes.com.

So here I am, armed with pen and paper and fueled by a strong cup of joe. But mostly strong opinions.

--Lisa Guerrero

Well then. The combo of TJ Simers and Barack Obama, has to be the oddest source of inspiration for a Sports Reporter, but hey....whatever gets you back in the game right? Plus this site was inspired by Hubie Brown, so I don't really have room to talk. Good to have you in the 'sphere, Lisa!

Lisa Guerrero: Not just on the sidelines (LA Times)
Lisa Guerrero: From MNF Sidelines to WTF Writing (Sports by Brooks)

Back in May, Vin Scully hinted at a retirement, or at least a reduced role for next season. The 80 year old stated that he wanted to spend more time with his wife, but today there are reports that he's definitely coming back for yet another season with the Dodgers. The LA Times is reporting that the longtime announcer will be back for his 60th season as the team's announcer and that his wife, Sandy, has given the plan her blessing....

Vin Scully will be back for his 60th season as voice of the Dodgers.

The Hall of Fame broadcaster said he received the blessing of his wife, Sandy, to postpone retirement. Scully, 80, is in the final season of a three-year contract.

Scully said he does not intend to re-sign for more than a year, adding, "I'm really weary talking about beyond this afternoon. . . . There's a beginning, a middle and an end for all of us. I know that I have a lot more yesterdays than I have tomorrows."

Because of the amount of time his wife will have to continue to spend alone, Scully said he felt he had to talk over his plans with her. He intends to keep the same work schedule, which includes games at home and as far east as Colorado. "She pays a terrific price," he said. "What it means is that Sandy is so selfless and unselfish and she would go through it again because she knows how much it means to me."

Well that's good news all-around isn't it? MLB and Dodger Fans get Scully for at least another year and he's still in good with the missus. I personally don't think Vin has lost that much off his fastball, and even if he does he should always have a spot in the Dodgers' booth.

Vin Scully says he'll be back next season (LA Times)
Dodgers Annoucner Vin Scully Hints At Retirement (Awful Announcing)

I don't know how you could hate someone who gave us one of the most memorable calls in Baseball history, but apparently Jeff Kent's ire knows no bounds. In an interview with LA Times' TJ Simers, Kent decided to rail on Vin Scully and the rest of Sports Media. Via SbB....

"Vin Scully talks too much," Kent said.

Now that's funny, the guy who normally doesn't say much, this time saying way too much.

"You can't say that," I told Kent, and he said he had just spoken to 200 women (at a Dodgers function) "and I told them the same thing, and they laughed.

"We all love you, Vin," Kent added with a mischievous grin, "but you still talk too much."

Ran that by Scully. He had nothing to say. NEXT WEEK, I presume, Kent will go after the Pope. Now how would Kent know what Scully is saying? If he's playing second base, the consummate pro that he is, why is he listening to the TV or radio? How do we know he doesn't have Scully and Charley Steiner mixed up?

Then who has the problem?

"Scully is making the same point everyone else is making," I said. "He says the stats indicate you are having success hitting behind Ramirez -- tell me that isn't the case."

"See my answer to the first question," said Kent, and sometimes you wonder if he sleeps with his bed against a wall forcing him to always wake up on the wrong side. "Listen, I'm so tired of talking about this stuff. It diminishes my whole career and all the hard work. I take it as an insult. I'm 40. You don't get better when you are 40."

Kent's batting average has increased by more than 20 points in the past 10 days since hitting third. Manny being Manny has rejuvenated Kent. It's so much fun telling him that.

"It's so pathetic," he said. "You guys write about things happening in a week's time. That's why we don't like you. Baseball is a six-month game. What did I hit last year? Without Manny? How do you explain that? What's my career average? What will I be hitting at the end of this season? Everyone says I'm hitting now because some guy says so on TV?" he says, and first time someone has ever called Scully "some guy."

Oh well, time to push all his buttons, Kent ranked No. 47 on the all-time RBI list only because they walked Barry Bonds ahead of him so often.

"You write too much," cracked Kent, who can be both funny and deadly serious in the same sentence.

I'd have to guess here, but egging on Jeff Kent like that must be fun, but it also has to be pretty dangerous. The guy probably has a gun rack in the back of that truck of his and he has been known to fly of the handle at times. But seriously, calling Vin Scully is sacrilege, especially doing so while you're playing in LA.

This is one fight Jeff Kent isn't going to win (LA Times)
Jeff Kent Would Like Vin Scully To Shut His Mouth (Sports by Brooks)

Bill Plaschke really wants Elton Brand to stay in L.A. and for some reason he decided to make a creepy Youtube video to get his attention. From Fanhouse via SLAM....

This is close to the oddest Youtube video I've ever seen and in a medium that has Kige Ramsey you know that's saying a lot. I'm not sure but I think it's pretty unprecedented for a city's columnist to openly call out a player when he's trying to sign a contract.

Oh and Elton, you don't owe crap to the Clippers. Do what you want to do.

L.A. Times Columnist Really Wants Elton Brand to Remain a Clipper (Fanhouse)
L.A. Sports Media Begs Elton Brand to Stay (SLAM)

So a funny thing happened on the way to get Van Gundy to announce his celebrity crush on-air last last night....he got her name completely wrong. I wonder last night as to why he even brought up Nick "Latchey" when talking about Alyssa Milano, and now we have the answer. He was trying to mention ex-MTV VJ Vanessa Minnillo who is currently dating the ex-Boy Bander.

Hot Clicks' Jimmy T talked to Van Gundy this morning and this was his response....

UPDATE: 11:49 a.m.: We just got off the phone with Jeff Van Gundy. He says he did mean Vanessa Minnillo, not Alyssa Milano. He said Minnillo was sitting behind the broadcast team and "her beauty made me starstruck and I just choked" when Mike Breen asked him which celebrity he wanted to meet. We also asked Van Gundy if Milano was there, would he go with Minnillo or Milano. "Minnillo. That girl, wow," was his answer. When asked if he pronounced Nick Lachey's name wrong on purpose, Van Gundy said, "no, I had no idea how to say his name." Lastly, we figured we'd get a prediction from Van Gundy. "I said Lakers in 6 before the series and I still think it'll be Lakers in 6.

Completely understandable getting choked up by the beauty of either of them if you ask me and no one cares about Nick Lachey anyway. Too funny. Now the only question left to answer is....Who would you choose?

Van Gundy's Blunder (Hot Clicks)

It was Plaschke calling out Pierce for overacting his knee injury last week and today it's TJ Simers who has words for Curt Schilling. Schilling wrote a very interesting piece on Kobe after watching the L.A. guard courtside and Simers decided to calmly disagree. Just kidding, he called him a "jerk of all trades" and "gutless"....

Curt Schilling is gutless.

He sits courtside in Boston for Game 2, eavesdropping on the Lakers' bench -- and how would he like someone listening to what they have to say in the Red Sox dugout, and then makes it appear on his blog, "38 Pitches," that Kobe Bryant is some kind of jerk who berates his teammates.

But whatever, there's no bigger sissy than a hit-and-run blogger.

If Schilling has got something to write, let's see him come to Los Angeles, stand outside the Lakers' locker room and get cussed out by Vanessa Bryant like every other blogger. Talk about bloody socks.

He writes nice things about Kevin Garnett, which makes you wonder who gave him the courtside tickets, and also writes that he "saw a seven-footer (Pau Gasol) who grabbed like four rebounds and spent the entire game whining about getting fouled."

OK, so everything he wrote wasn't off base.

TJ doesn't really debate anything that Schilling says in the article and even agrees with what the pitcher said more than once. I agree that Kobe doesn't need any motivation (as evidenced by his work last night), but this article reads like a crappy defense of your best friend rather than a journalistic piece. Simers also said that L.A. should put LA Pitcher Jason Schmidt courtside for games. Huh?

I understand not liking Schilling but this whole piece was just a collection of opinions and random thoughts. Kinda like a blog about your favorite team and player! But a blogger would have called Schilling a "douchebag" TJ, not something weak like "jerk". You're getting close though.

I know Boston writers aren't the moral compass of journalists, but could you whine maybe just a little bit less L.A.?

Schilling reaffirms that he's a jerk-of-all-trades (LA Times)
Manny, JD, Papi, Lester and the NBA Finals (38 Pitches)

I've become a huge Mike Breen fan over the past year or so and I thought the lead had yet another great game yesterday. His line about Cassell passing twice "already!" cracked me up and the guy does a great job babysitting for his wacky analysts.

With all that said, he still forgot where he was at the end of the game last night and I had to post the video....

Mistakes happen but it always amazes me how in the same statement you could say "Staples Center" and "now the Series shifts to L.A.". Also ESPN's live shot of the Staples Center late in the fourth quarter could have confused him just a bit. I think everyone wants to be in L.A. this time of year.

I'm sure most of you read or heard last Friday but Bill Plaschke wrote the Paul Pierce faked his Game One injury and even went so far as to label it "WWE-like" in its execution. Obviously Boston fans were upset, and let him have a piece of their mind. Plaschke wrote a detailed piece yesterday about some of the comments and it's pretty hilarious. Here's a section....

"You disgust me. You are a whore." Virtually all the vile missives were from angry Celtics fans, who weren't content to enjoy their team's opening victory in the NBA Finals against the Lakers.

"Die, you lily-livered ass." Are we in Boston or Deadwood?

"I wonder how many dried-up spit stains you've got on that cheap tie of yours, you stuttering, stammering slob."

"You better have extra security with you Sunday because Celtic fans who recognize you from ESPN will want to take a slap at you, and if I were there, I know I would."

Of all the humanity-questioning notes, the most disturbing was apparent from a subject line that contained three words that could not be printed in this newspaper.

Then the writer really got mad.

"I hope you . . . get cancer and die," he wrote. "Why don't you just die or quit, you ugly fat (bleep). I'm going to find out where (a relative) is buried and me and my buddies are gonna dig (the) skeleton up."

I guess these are the responses you get when you call one of the best players on a team that hasn't been relevant in quite some time a faker. The rest of the article details his responses and interaction with some of the folks and is actually a good read (if you can stand one sentence paragraphs). I just thought the collection of responses was just too funny not to post here. People are so brave when writing emails. It's like the new liquid courage and it's very entertaining, well that and a little scary at times.

Nasty attacks should be banned in Boston (LA Times)

I don't know how else to say this but calling something your "Passion Bucket" just doesn't sound right to me. Well tonight the Lakers will be handing out Passion Bucket cards for tonight's game and the directions to fill them are highly entertaining.

First a quick timeline....

Jan. 2, 2008 - Brand spanking new UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel drops the phrase on the Dan Patrick Show when discussing his program’s, um, passion. DP stops mid interview and immediately loves the word.
Jan. 9 - Bob Costas use the phrase on HBO’s Inside the NFL, after promising on the DP Show to launch the term.
Jan. 13 - Rich Eisen uses the term on the NFL Network, also at Dan’s behest.
Jan. 17th - Rich Neuheisel came back to the DP Show to discuss the phenomenon he unknowingly unleashed. He requests to be referred to as “PB”.
Jan. 21st - Kobe Bryant uses the phrase twice on TNT.

Now onto the card itself.....



So wait, it's just a mood ring? That's disappointing. They should just give out buckets to everyone and see what happens.

(Thanks to PP for the images)

This video is from Insomniac's Lounge and is by far the most odd and hilarious attempt at an analogy. The announcer is the Lakers' Stu Lantz commenting on how Kobe is just cold blooded and it starts off good....but quickly derails...

"See, that's one thing I like about that #24: When he gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth-to-mouth. He pulls the plug. A lot of guys get you on mouth to mouth- I mean on life support- they wanna hug and kiss and..revive ya. Kobe says, "Not havin' it. I get ya there, I'm stabbin' ya in the heart."

Hug and kiss you? Stab you in the heart??? You're already on life support and I've already pulled the plug but just for good measure...I'm stabbing your ass (and in the heart)! Too funny.

Kobe's Moved From Rapin' To Heart Stabbin' (Insomniac's Lounge)

Make sure you last until at least the 2:40 mark....

Wow. Things that can't be unseen....(must wash eyes with bleach)

YouTubery: 'Freaky Prince' Sings, Dances for Kobe (The Sporting Blog)

I got lambasted the last time I made fun of an NBA Player's training videos (hey, I didn't know Steve Nash was going to win back-to-back MVPs), but these were too good to pass up. I found a link at The Basketball Jones which led to a site where Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic has a Basketball training section. Not only are they helpful.....they are also hilarious....

"The shot fake can be really effective and you can look like a hero on the court because the guys will just jump around you and you're going to be like...How? What's going on?"- Sasha

With training like this I would have gone further than just being an MVP of Navy Basketball Camp and 10th man on my High School Basketball team.

Basketball Training (Play Sports TV)
All In (The Basketball Jones)

There are some things that should never be brought out of the time capsule. I enjoy throwbacks and the theme nights just as much as the next person, but there's absolutely no reason that the shorts players wore in the 80s should used for games today.

Well the Lakers didn't listen to me Sunday night.....

There should never ever be even the slightest chance of someone seeing balls during a Basketball game in the 21st Century.

(More photos to come....Sasha Vujacic is really disturbing me)



Update: Those wimps.....they changed at halftime and are back to wearing the modern shorts.