Four-Point Shot, the Hard Way: Kid Dunks Ball...and Self

Via the entire Internet by now, judging from the number of YouTube hits - but also Ace of Spades.

Cross-posted.

NPR: Obama's Fat Lip Gives Him "Street Cred"

Here's my theory: The goofball stepped on a rake in Michelle's organic garden.

If you have video or photographic evidence to the contrary, by all means lay it on me.

Just three weeks after getting a shellacking in the midterm elections, President Obama got a fat lip.

The president played basketball yesterday with some friends in the gym of the Fort McNair Army Base, and reportedly took an elbow in the mouth from an opposing player who went up for a shot.

It took 12 stitches to close The First Fat Lip, if you please. I'm not sure that Joe Frazier needed 12 stitches after the Thrilla in Manila, though the White House stressed that a smaller filament was used, which increases the number of stitches, but leaves a smaller scar.

I wonder if having a larger scar wouldn't actually fortify President Obama's profile, as he contends with Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Vladimir Putin. Imagine a president with a gnarly, vivid scar telling the rulers of China, "Nice country ya' got here. I'd hate to see something happen to it if you didn't stop foolin' around with the value of your currency. Know what I mean?"

As recent presidential injuries go, President Obama's is almost valiant. His immediate predecessor, President George W. Bush, famously choked on a pretzel. President Bill Clinton tore a tendon stumbling on the steps of Greg Norman's house after a round of golf.

But an elbow in the chops is a battle ribbon in basketball. Mediocre players don't have to worry about their dental work. An elbow is given to aggressive players who swing their own sharp limbs to grab a ball or push off a defender, although the White House stressed that the president was elbowed inadvertently.

Sounds like the NPR writer is getting Obama mixed up with Shaq.

Yeah, I'm definitely going with "stepped on a rake".

Final answer.

Cross-posted.

Chris Lofton: A Real Profile in Courage

For all the bad actors you see in sports it's heartwarming to read about University of Tennessee basketball star Chris Lofton. This should be mandatory reading for all those who cavalierly throw the word courage around.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Chris Lofton has beaten the odds his entire life.

One of the most prolific 3-point shooters in college basketball history, Lofton can still recite all of the things he supposedly wouldn't or couldn't do when he came out of Maysville, Ky., four years ago.

"Too short. Too slow. Not quick enough. Couldn't dribble well enough. Couldn't play defense," Lofton rolls off with his easy smile.

When it came time to pick a college, despite earning the prestigious Mr. Basketball honor in the state of Kentucky, Lofton was spurned by the two basketball powerhouses in that state -- Kentucky and Louisville.

Undaunted, Lofton headed south and carved out a record-setting career at Tennessee -- one that helped put the Vols back on the basketball map. The 6-foot-2 guard, who looks about as unassuming on the court as the team equipment manager until you see him shoot the ball, was in many ways the face of the Vols' renaissance in men's hoops. They won a school-record 31 games this past season, vaulted to No. 1 in the polls for the first time in school history and made their second straight Sweet 16 appearance.

It was truly a memorable career, one that Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl guarantees will someday lead to the retiring of Lofton's No. 5 jersey.

But Lofton's greatest conquest came off the court.

He beat cancer.

The three-time All-American, in an exclusive interview with ESPN.com, revealed for the first time publicly that he played his senior season at Tennessee after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from one of his testicles in March 2007.

Read the whole thing.

Preston Taylor Holmes at Six Meat Buffet has more.

Jewish basketball team gets an unlikely ally

I thought I had posted this earlier but I see I didn't. There is a high school team from a Jewish school that may be forced to forfeit it's championship game because the Colorado High School Activities Association has already rejected the team's request to move the game to any day but Saturday - a day on which the players are not, by Jewish law, permitted to play sports.

My congratulations to the members of Colorado's Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy basketball team on their successful playoff run. With one more victory, they'll reach the regional championships on Saturday, March 8th.

Well now they have picked up an unlikely ally, CAIR. Yes that organization that is an unindicted co conspirator in the Holy Land Charity case, or at least a local chapter of that organization has issued a statement of support for the lads.

"In a nation as religiously diverse as America, it is important that we all make the extra effort to accommodate the beliefs and practices of others," said Amina Rubin, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. "Student athletes should not be forced to choose between their faith and participation in sports."

There is one distinct difference however that needs to be made. While the school is using the proper channel to address the matter they are not seething, rioting, threatening to burn cars or espousing any sort of violent reaction should the athletic board not concede to their request. I don't think the same thing could be said of a certain other religion who apparently are bereft of any sense of humor.