• 

  Kareem Abdul Jabbar has a blog through the L.A. Times website. Where have I been?

• Kobe put up 30 (of his season-high 52) in the 4th quarter and OT en route to a Kidd-added Mavs shut down.
• LeBron put on his own show while shutting down the Bulls and their own new-look team.
• No word yet on where Randy Moss might land. How entertaining would it be if he landed in Big D?
• Philly’s Donovan McNabb needs a formidable receiver? What breaking news, go on…
• Atlanta won in the “L.T.’s backup” sweepstakes, and will send Warrick Dunn packing.
• Norman Chad condenses the various sports headlines to 6 words each.
• 10 losing seasons in a row and a crappy draw in divisions (nobody should have to face the Red Sox and Yankees as much as they do each year) the Orioles finally admit to rebuilding.

• The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled out a win in St. Louis, 41-24, despite losing Willie Parker for the season with a broken right fibula.
• No. 9 Pitt beat No. 7 Duke in OT, 65-64, last night, thanks to a 3-pointer by Pitt’s Levance Fields with under 5 ticks left.
• One night after taking a beatdown to the Knicks (!), the Cavs’ D helped hold Kobe’s Lakers scoreless in the last 4 minutes to hold on for a 94-90 win.
• Barry Bonds’ surgeon is set to testify for the prosecution in the charges against Bonds for perjury and obstruction of justice.
• Andy Reid and his wife talk about their latest family issues.
• If the Falcons are truly looking at Marty Schottenheimer, mark me as one who’s a bit excited; even if that just means we might get a team that’s only exciting up until the first round of the playoffs.
• ESPN Page2’s DJ Gallo gives us a rather goofy take on the college bowl games coming up.

• Apparently karma pays off. Last summer, Chauncey Billups told his friend, Kevin Garnett, to make the move to the Celtics. Last night when the two elite teams in the East faced-up, it was Billups whose last second free throws decided the win for his Pistons over KG’s Celtics 87-85.
• As if we can take him by his word, Bill Parcells has reportedly agreed to be the Miami Dolphins’ next VP of Football Operations, after turning down Falcons owner Arthur Blank (he of bad luck lately) for the same position.
• Curt Schilling wants your attention. He’s a baseball insider. Let him tell you Roger Clemens should come clean, and that Jose Canseco is a liar.
• Finally! Norman Chad has a rather entertaining take on the Mitchell Report.
• New Nats catcher and fresh name on the Mitchell Report, Paul Lo Duca missed his own baseball camp.
• How is Florida State going to recover from losing a huge chunk of their roster to scandal?

• The Vikings beat the Bears last night, 20-13, thanks to some nifty footwork and 2 TDs by young rookie phenom Adrian Peterson.
• Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams was suspended for one game after recording his 3rd horse collar tackle of the season, this time on Donovan McNabb.
• Speaking of DMac, he is denying that he told FOX’s Pam Oliver “point-blank” that “my knee is not an issue” and “the next place I go I will win.” His rebuttal included the quote, “If I’m here, or wherever it might me, I’m going to give all that I have and I did that today.”
• The L.A. Dodgers were the first to sign a player mentioned in the Mitchell Report, picking up ex-Washinton National catcher Gary Bennett. His excuse was similar to Andy Pettitte, claiming to have only used it to recover from injury.
• Speaking of the Mitchell Report, ESPN’s own baseball analyst, Fernando Vina, admitted to using HGH to recover from his injury too.

• Rich Rodriguez ditches his coaching job at West Virginia to head to Michigan.
• Clemens is pissed he was listed in the Mitchell Report. Andy Petitte, however, fessed up to part of his implication to using minor enhancements.
• The New York football Giants lost TE Jeremy Shockey in the 3rd quarter to a leg injury en route to a 22-10 loss to the Washington Redskins.
• Um… Miami won!?!? (not a misprint… wow, I know!) Funny how the Ravens damn-near beat the undefeated Patriots but lose to the defeated Dolphins…
• Tough luck for Syracuse hoops, losing damn near all of their experienced guards due to injury.

What happens when the most popular, successful, profitable franchise is burned by the same league who helped it flourish through the years? According to reports, we will find out later today, when former senator, George Mitchell, releases the results of a steroids investigation he put together in the past two years.

Originally thought to be ousting a bunch of “nobodys” for steroid use, the “Mitchell Report” is reportedly set to name one very famous record-breaking “future Hall of Fame” later today — Roger “The Rocket” Clemens. Right now, it’s just speculation, but his name does show up as a steroid user in this report, I would think it’s safe to say Barry Bonds has someone else he can compare his own case to. Clemens has the pitching records and accolades to match — and maybe even top — Bonds. Clemens was named in both Jose Canseco’s revealing book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, as well as in the Jason Grimsley houes raid that produced performance-enhancing drugs and a list of professional names of alleged users. He is arguably the best pitcher of all-time — and now, possibly, accused by the very league who made him famous? Wow. People didn’t pile on Clemens after he was named in the other steroid links, but they have to give him the same “Bonds-like” treatment if he is indeed implicated by the MLB, right?

And the Yankees… it’s all speculation and rumorville at the moment, but I will say that if they are found to have a number of indicated steroid users on their team, how can we trust that the league can handle this the right way? The Yankees are one of the most valuable sports businesses in the world. When they miss out on the playoffs, the league ratings and dollar catchers miss out. Think the league could appropriately prosecute its most important team? I don’t think so. And it doesn’t take this this report to point out this glaring fact.

Welcome to the world of sports, where everything you see may be amazing, but the behind-the-scenes “making of” sure isn’t.

• The Kevin Everett story is amazing. Originally said to never walk again, thanks to skilled surgeons and an
• Arthur Blank keeps getting lied to. A day after saying he’s staying put, Bobby Petrino hopped on a plane, resigned (By email? Postcard that’s yet to arrive?) and held a press conference announcing his new job as head coach of Arkansas. This guy’s worse than Nick Saban.
• Knicks fans are giving it to Isiah Thomas about the now infamous $11.5 million sexual harassment suit he and the organization lost.
• Kansas Jayhawks football coach Mark Mangino was named the Walter Camp Coach of the Year.

• The Falcons showed Michael Vick some love on their way to a 34-14 loss to the Saints.
• Falcons owner Arthur Blank hopped in the MNF booth last night and said that as long as Michael Vick doesn’t get too out of shape eating fried chicken and fries in jail, the Falcons may be an option upon his release. Give the man the benefit of the doubt — Blank and Vick were best buddies so we can assume they knew what food each other liked. Let’s not get too carried away on what could be interpreted as racial undertones.
• Ex-Baltimore Oriole, David Segui, admitted to using steroids and will reportedly be in the Mitchell report when released.
• A little Washingtonian excitement for the Nationals signing former Mets and Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca.
• The New York Knicks sexual harassment suit was settled out of court for $11.5 million. Lucky for them, Forbes has the Knicks listed as the most profitable NBA franchise.

• It’s official: Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison and 3 years of probation. He can’t make it back into the league until 2010 at the earliest.
• This weekend, Florida’s Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to be awarded the Heisman Trophy. There were plenty of great candidates this year but I have to give it to Tebow, scoring 51 TDs in the toughest conference in the nation is mighty impressive. His acceptance speech was perfect, too — thanked everyone, by name, including his offensive line and receivers. Now that is how you receive an individual award in a team game.
• The Patriots blew through the Steelers to make it 13-0. There’s no way the Jets, Dolphins or the Giants will be able to stop them now.
• DeShawn Stevenson made Richard Jefferson lose feeling in is face. Probably. Maybe. Ok, just a nice lil’ dunk.

• The emotionally charged Washington Redskins overcame what may be a season-ending injury to starting QB Jason Campbell in the first half and defeated the Chicago Bears, 24-16 at FedEx Stadium.
• Barry Bonds will plead not guilty today to charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He’s not a flight risk and has no prior criminal record, but will the judge set bail at a ridiculously high number? Find out after the noon hearing.
• Meanwhile, the Oakland A’s may end up signing Bonds, and would consider having him spending part of his time playing both DH and left-field.
• Jay Gibbons of the Baltimore Orioles admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs and will sit the first 15 games of the ‘08 season. Non-record-setters get some sort of immunity with baseball fans. Cute.
• Jason Kidd says he’s happy and the “he’s on strike” rumors are absurd.
• A semi-defense of the BCS system. Must be something in the air in Denver.