I do not own this picture. The Boston Jam and/or the NBA owns it all. From Fox... On Wednesday, shortly after Boston point guard Rajon Rondo responded to the hard foul by Kris Humphries on Kevin Garnett
with a flash of anger and fists, a second fight broke out among NBA
fans around the country: Whether or not the mercurial Celtics star is
worth all the trouble.
This is the third time in 10 months Rondo has been suspended. The
triumvirate began with throwing a ball at an official last season,
continued when he made contact with an official during the playoffs, and
now has been punctuated with a full-fledged fight against another
player that went to the stands — spread to the point that Nets forward Gerald Wallace
was fined $35,000 and Garnett fined $25,000 for escalating the brawl,
and left Boston without its best player for an entire half against a
very good Brooklyn team.
That Rondo is a magnificent talent is not in doubt. He is a playmaker
extraordinaire, and had been chasing Magic Johnson’s streak of
consecutive games with 10 or more assists when his ejection brought an
abrupt halt to his stretch at 37 games, nine behind the Magic mark.
From CBS Local... NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Dwight Howard doesn’t care if he’s severed his relationship with Brooklyn Nets’ star Deron Williams. The detested Lakers’ big man’s list of enemies continues to grow —
and Williams might be the next player that Howard has alienated.
“It’s my life, so if he’s upset because I made a decision for me, so
be it,” Howard told the Daily News. “If he doesn’t want to be friends
because I’m on another team, then so be it. There’s no need to smooth
things over.”
Williams expected Howard to become a free agent after Howard demanded to be traded to the Nets.
Howard continued to pout, but failed to exercise his right to become a
free agent which would have opened the door for him to join Williams in
Brooklyn.
Howard says he’s moved on and is happy to be a Laker.
“I’m here now in L.A. there’s no need to talk about what could have
happened. I’m happy with being here in L.A.,” Howard said in the same
report. “The fans have always been great here. Now that I’m on the team
the fans, from day one, they’ve just been unbelievable to me and to this
team.
I do not own this picture. The NBA and/or Vimeo owns it all. From Awful Announcing....
Charles Barkley recently told SI.com that his broadcaster career may be coming to an end in the near future.
This is surprising since Barkley has always been quite popular amongst his NBA viewers. He's jovial, witty, and seems to enjoy himself on air. In the interview with SI.com, Barkley stated that he "loves his job" and "the people he works with" which makes it even more surprising as to why he'd hang up the mic so early. And yet, Barkley says he may not make it through the end of his current contract, which runs for four more years:
"I love my job," Barkley said. "I love the people I work with. And I'm going to try to do things to keep me engaged. But I have four years left on my current deal and to be honest with you, it's going to be a struggle for me to make it for the whole four years. I really don't know how much longer I'm going to do this. I need something more, or something else to do to be honest with you."
"Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract it will be 17 years. Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me."
I do not own this picture. Hostess and/or Cup Cakes owns it all. From the Baltimore Sun... Soon after hearing that Hostess Brands Inc. was shutting down for good, Lisa Renee Clark wasted no time dashing out to the Wonder Hostess Bakery Thriftshop in Glen Burnie.
But by midday Friday, she was almost too late. The Twinkies had sold
out. Supplies of Wonder white bread were dwindling. And the shelves
appeared bare of Ho Hos. Finally spotting two boxes of the cream-filled
snack cakes, Clark snatched them up.
"So many fun, good things from my childhood are going away," said Clark,
43, a self-employed production assistant and camera operator from
Pasadena. "It reminds me of school lunch."
Nostalgia for
Hostess' iconic snacks and Wonder bread drove consumers to the outlet on
Furnace Branch Road and area grocers Friday to buy Hostess products by
the bagload.
On Friday, the 82-year-old company announced it
will liquidate and fire more than 18,000 workers, saying a nationwide
strike by bakery workers forced a shutdown of operations. And consumers
stocked up, fearing Hostess treats would disappear forever, though it's
more likely the brands will be sold off and returned to the market by
new owners. Shoppers at Giant Food and Safeway stores in the Baltimore area were buying large quantities of Hostess foods, both grocers reported.
"I can't imagine being without Twinkies," said Edythe Smith, of Annapolis, who also loaded up on Hostess Donettes and CupCakes while shopping with her daughter at the thrift shop.
Hostess, which once ranked as the largest U.S. wholesale baker, had
suffered declining sales for years as American diets shifted to more
health-conscious choices and as labor and ingredient costs rose. The
company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in
January. The Irving, Texas-based company blamed striking workers for
its latest move.
From the Bleacher Report... I do not own this picture. The NBA owns it all.
With the Los Angeles Lakers struggling at 3-5 and the New York Knicks sitting pretty at 6-0, allow me to welcome you to the NBA's version of Bizarro World.
The
Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks, two of the most prestigious
franchises in all of sports, are surprisingly on two opposite sides of
the basketball spectrum to kick off the 2012 season. Out in Los
Angeles, the Lakers are still trying to grasp an identity. The front
office ousted head coach Mike Brown after five games, turned down a
franchise icon in Phil Jackson and ended up bringing in the offensive
guru and Mr. Pringles impressionist Mike D'Antoni. As they sit under
.500 through their first eight games, there certainly has some work to
be done in order to retool this squad into a viable contender.
But
as we head east to New York, there's a bit of a different story.
Although they're not the most talented in the league, the Knicks are
currently the last remaining unbeaten. They've bested some NBA
powerhouses in Miami and San Antonio and look to be clicking in all the right places under the direction of Mike Woodson.
So how can the Lakers turn it back on and how can the Knicks maintain their exciting success?
Simple, swap power forwards.
I do not own this picture. The Chicago Tribune and/or the NBA owns it all. From the LA Times...
After the Clippers beat Miami on Wednesday, LeBron James sat by his locker praising Chris Paul.
"He's
always aware, he knows the tempo of the game, knows the score. He's
always aware of when he needs to pick his points, you know, pick his
shots or get into attack and make things happen.
"That's why I've always felt that he's the best point guard in the NBA."
Paul had 16 points and 10
assists in the Clippers' 107-100 win over the defending champions. He
opened the game up for his team, turning a 54-52 halftime lead into a
double-digit advantage heading into the fourth quarter after he scored
13 points in the final three minutes and 22 seconds of the third
quarter.
Paul referred to his third-quarter scoring frenzy as a stroke of luck.
When a reporter told him that the reigning MVP of the league thinks that Paul's humility is a bit misguided, Paul laughed.
I do not own this picture. Spongebob and/or Kid Screen owns it all. From Licensing...
Nickelodeon's first stop-motion animation will air throughout December; out now on DVD.
A new SpongeBob Christmas special episode will air on Nickelodeon throughout the festive season.
It's
A SpongeBob Christmas will be the network's first ever full-length
stop-motion animation when it airs on December 2nd at 8am and 4pm. As
well as being repeated over Christmas, the half-hour special is already
available to buy on DVD through Paramount Home Entertainment -
exclusively at Asda.
The DVD features exclusive content including a
behind-the-scenes look at the making of the special episode, while the
Nickelodeon premiere will include bonus scenes featuring a stop-motion
version of the character 'Patchy', voiced by Tom Kenny.
Work began
on the special in October 2011 at Screen Novelties production studio in
Los Angeles, where the two-dimensional cartoon characters were
translated into three-dimensional puppets.
I do not own this picture. Facebook Page "Let's Go The Heat" and/or the NBA owns it all.
From The Bleacher Report... Lost in the hoopla surrounding speculation over the possibility that LeBron James
might ditch the Miami Heat for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2014—a riddle,
wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma—was this tidbit from the
"report" filed by ESPN's Brian Windhorst on Thursday:
Meanwhile, keep an eye on Chris Paul, LeBron's best friend in the NBA. James has wanted to team up with CP3 for seven years or more. In 2005, when Paul was about to be drafted, James asked the Cavs to attempt to move up to get Paul, but the Cavs did not have the assets to pull off such a trade.
Paul
and James have only grown closer since, playing together on Team USA
four times since 2006 and winning gold medals in 2008 and last summer.
Paul will be a free agent in 2013, and his situation could influence
James' plans a year later.
LeBron, it seems, is buddy-buddy with CP3, perhaps even more so than he was with Dwyane Wade (and, to a lesser extent, Chris Bosh)
prior to the summer of 2010. James has never played with a great point
guard before, though that may have as much to do with how his teams have
viewed his abilities as a floor general more than anything else
I do not own this picture. The New York Post and/or the NBA owns it all.
From USA Today...
Carmelo Anthony is renewed.
The New York Knicks forward is averaging 27.3 points and 7.3 rebounds a
game and playing the best defense of his career.
The result: The
Knicks are the last unbeaten team in the NBA at 4-0. But that's not good
enough for USA TODAY Sports' NBA power rankings voters.
In our first in-season power rankings, Anthony trailsLeBron James
of the Miami Heat, whom the Knicks beat to open the season, in MVP
votes while New York comes in second in our team rankings to the San
Antonio Spurs.
From EW... I do not own this picture. Skyfall and/or Fandango owns it all. Of all the marvelous feats that make Skyfall
such a thrilling addition to the James Bond movie canon, the greatest
may be that the 23rd entry conveys the melancholy of loss, mortality,
and future-shock anxiety, while at the same time leaving us plenty of
space to enjoy one of the most complexly unhinged villains in Bond
history. Bounding back four years after the sour stasis of Quantum of Solace
and 50 years after Mr. Bond ordered his first martini on screen, this
freshly oxygenated entry — the third starring the totally captivating
cool cucumber Daniel Craig as Agent 007 — is both an elegy and a mission
statement. It's also a great, long-lasting jolt of pleasure.
I do not own this picture. Stepien Rules and/or the NBA owns it all. From CBS... LeBron James is very familiar with Mike Brown. He played for him in Cleveland
for most of his career. And upon the summer of LeBron's imminent
departure in the wake of the decision, in an effort to convince him to
stay, Brown was fired as Cavs coach. The perception has always been
strong that James was responsible for that decision, that were he to
return to Cleveland, there would have to be a new coach.
James has, from time to time, defended Brown publicly, and Brown, for his part, has hinted that while Kobe Bryant's
work ethic is superior (and who is it not to?), he had nothing bad to
say about James. After the Lakers fired Brown on Friday, James began to
tell reporters why he didn't feel it was fair before PR cut him off.
From ESPN:
"I think it's unfortunate," James said Friday after the Heat's
win in Atlanta against the Hawks. "I just don't think he got a fair
shake, honestly. With the shortened season last year, and five games
into this year, he didn't really get a full season."
From the Bleach Reporter...
Well, this is certainly surprising news. WWE look to have dropped one of their longest-running and most popular Divas, Kelly Kelly, from the roster.
Over at the official company website, WWE is reporting that Kelly Kelly (real name: Barbara Blank) has been released from the promotion:
WWE
has come to terms on the release of WWE Diva Kelly Kelly as of today,
September 28, 2012. WWE wishes Kelly Kelly the best in all her future
endeavors.
Kelly, a model with no prior experience
in the industry, signed with the company in 2005. Upon being called up
to television (she debuted on WWE's ECW show on Syfy in early 2006), she
was initially used strictly in an eye-candy role.
twins, among others.
I do not own this picture. Apple and/or Pocket-Lint owns it all.
From TechRadar ...
Update: We've spent two weeks with the iPhone 5 now and we've updated the review with our thoughts - see what you think and make a decision whether you still do / don't want to buy one.
The excitement of the rumour mill, the titillation of every leaked photo led to higher than ever levels of expectation over the iPhone 5 features, and while the announcement was greeted with some derision at the lack of perceived headline improvements, the record sales tell an entirely different story.
Given the underwhelming changes to the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 launch really needs to re-energise customers to prove Apple can repeat the game-changing trick it managed with the iPhone 4.
The iPhone 5 price is predictably high, so consumers will need to bear that in mind too when looking for their next smartphone.
From Paste Magazine... I do not own this picture. Game Informer or Halo owns it all I think a lot of people were asking the wrong question when they pondered whether 343i would make as good a steward of the Halo franchise as had Bungie. What I wanted to know was whether or not 343i could drag Halo out of the miserable hole that was Reach. During the first few months of Reach, you could wreck ¾ of the player-base by abusing armor lock. Then, the top players perfected their jet pack skills so that anyone who didn’t know how to fly-and-headshot was hopelessly outclassed. It made the game a lot harder to come back to if you have a life outside of playing Halo, because Bungie essentially doubled the amount of basic movement and control literacies that become rusty with disuse.
Many people are concerned about Halo 4‘s new multiplayer progression system. In most of the match types, you have to customize your own loadouts. 343i made the ridiculous decision to lock many of your choices with a “Spartan point” currency system. It’ll take five hours to gain access to everything, then maybe another five to finally unlock it all. God knows how the armor specialization system works, because it was feature-locked during the review period. You need to select a primary weapon, a sidearm, a grenade, an armor ability, a defensive perk, and an offensive tactic. Pretty much everybody I played against during the review period went for what’s sure to be the “vanilla” build for the foreseeable future: battle rifle, magnum, frag grenade, shield recharge (defensive), and quick reload (tactical). Plasma pistols and grenades don’t feel quite as accurate as they once did.
From Variety... I do not own this poster. Wreck It Ralph and/or Fandango owns it.
A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Walt Disney Animation Studios production. Produced by Clark Spencer. Executive producer, John Lasseter. Directed by Rich Moore. Screenplay, Phil Johnston, Jennifer Lee; story, Moore, Johnston, Jim Reardon.
Voices:
Ralph - John C. Reilly
Vanellope - Sarah Silverman
Felix - Jack McBrayer
Calhoun - Jane Lynch
King Candy - Alan Tudyk
Taffyta Muttonfudge - Mindy Kaling
Markowski - Joe Lo Truglio
Mr. Litwak - Ed O'Neill
Gen. Hologram - Dennis Haysbert
In the tradition of "Toy Story," "Wreck-It Ralph" imagines the secret lives of children's playthings, only here, it's videogame characters who come to life after an arcade closes its doors. Tired of being bad, a Donkey Kong-style demolition expert quits his destructive day job to become a hero, inadvertently wreaking havoc as he travels from game to game in search of redemption. With plenty to appeal to boys and girls, old and young, Walt Disney Animation Studios has a high-scoring hit on its hands in this brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed toon, earning bonus points for backing nostalgia with genuine emotion.
From Maleficent to Scar, as long as there have been Disney animated movies, the villains have stood out as their most memorable characters. Flipping that dynamic, a la "Wicked," the story team behind "Wreck-It Ralph" -- director Rich Moore and scribes Phil Johnston ("Cedar Rapids") and Jennifer Lee -- decided to position a classic 8-bit baddie as the center of their affectionate homage to the world of videogames. The fun begins at a "Bad-Anon" sharing session, where various villains have gathered -- in Pac-Man's ghost home, of course -- to commiserate about their sorry lot in life.Unlike humans, these hard-coded characters don't enjoy the benefits of free will. Instead, they have been programmed to be aggressive -- and ultimately beaten by the heroes in their respective games. For Ralph (John C. Reilly, a naturally comedic star with a voice ripe for animation), that means being thrown in the mud and having to sleep in the junkyard every night while Fix It Felix Jr. ("30 Rock's" ultra-peppy Jack McBrayer) parties with the Nicelanders. Lucky for Ralph, he can hop the train to Grand Game Central, a giant surge-protector terminal where digital creations are free to mingle after dark, offering licensed cameos from Q*bert, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tapper for the benefit of those old enough to remember them. But Ralph mustn't forget the key rule: "If you die outside your own game, you don't regenerate, ever."
On Wednesday, shortly after Boston point guard Rajon Rondo responded to the hard foul by Kris Humphries on Kevin Garnett
with a flash of anger and fists, a second fight broke out among NBA
fans around the country: Whether or not the mercurial Celtics star is
worth all the trouble.
