Snoop Dogg's Closet from Snoop Dogg

Many NBA contracts have explicit incentive clauses that stipulate increased pay if certain performance criteria are met. You know, if "Player X grabs X amount of rebounds" or "Player Y plays in X amount of games" they get a bonus. Well, Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger combed through some current NBA contracts and found a few of the most unique/ridiculous performance-based incentives out there. Some oddball favorites: * Adonal Foyle(notes) gets $500,000 if he wins MVP, and another $500K if he wins MVP of the NBA Finals. * Luke Ridnour(notes) gets an extra $1.5 million for winning Defensive Player of the Year. * Mario Chalmers(notes) gets $19,580 just for showing up for summer league, and for going through a team "skill/conditioning program." * Rafer Alston(notes) gets an additional $325,000 if he makes the All-Star team. * Matt Bonner(notes) gets $100,000 if the sum of his field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and his 3-point percentage matches or exceeds 169 percent. Seriously. D'Alessandro has more, but none of them come close to this strange small print once written up by the Oakland Athletics: "In 1972 owner Charlie Finley offered his players $300 if they'd grow mustaches as part of a Father's Day promotion. All 25 did, and the 'staches became a team trademark. Rollie Fingers even had a clause written into his contract that he would be supplied with wax for his handlebars." Paging Adam Morrison's agent ...

Dana White: 'Shaq wants to fight Brock Lesnar' By J.E. Skeets Where does one go after dunking on a 13-ton shark? What's the next step after defeating Damon Jones with a plastic knife and killer dance moves? Well, if you're Shaquille O'Neal(notes) you challenge the UFC heavyweight champion of the world. UFC president Dana White joined "Into The Night with Tony Bruno" to discuss UFC 100's impressive ratings, the possibility of a Brock Lesnar-Fedor Emelianenko match, and the desire of The Big Diesel/Witness/Twitter to step inside the octagon with the Coors Light-drinkin' champ. Sports Radio Interviews transcribes the gold: "Shaq texts and Twitters me all the time saying he wants to fight Brock Lesnar. He's been training for 10 years; Shaq's probably the only dude in the NBA that can actually fight ... I told Shaq, I said listen, 'Win another NBA championship this year and then we'll talk next year.'" White's right; Shaq's yearning to get in the cage is nothing new. He's been training with Jonathan Burke of Gracie's Gym for 10 years now, where he does the full gamut of MMA, boxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and wrestling. Cagewriter spoke with Burke in May who said that O'Neal "works his tail off" during drills and "has way more talent with this stuff than people would imagine." And again, he dunked on a freakin' shark! It's a long shot to ever happen, but Shaq vs. Brock ... I would pay good money to see that.

Now that's a flagrant foul. Former New Jersey Net star Richard Jefferson bailed on his stunning fiancιe -- pulling the plug on his posh Manhattan wedding at the 11th hour without even alerting some of the guests, The Post has learned. The cold-footed forward's decision to ditch onetime Net dancer Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols was so last-minute that some of his oblivious friends had already shown up last Saturday at the swank Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle for the $2 million wedding that never happened. Jefferson -- who was traded in June to the San Antonio Spurs -- dumped Nichols just before the weekend, according to sources. She immediately called her family and friends to say the ceremony was off. But Jefferson waited much longer, his friends told The Post. "He called about two hours before the wedding. It was nuts," said one Jefferson pal. He never showed up at the hotel, but "all his boys were there," the friend said. "He gave his best friend the Black Amex [credit card] for the night." Jefferson's guests made good use of the credit card to party on their pal's dime. Nichols did check in to the hotel on what was to have been her wedding day, and was upgraded to a suite on the 45th floor with a king-sized bed and a Central Park view, according to a source at the Mandarin. The would-be bride was stunned, but "not entirely caught off-guard," by Jefferson's unsportsmanlike conduct, according to a family friend. "She just wants to keep this as quiet as possible and move on. She's doing just fine," a Nichols family insider said. Neither Jefferson nor Nichols responded to requests for comment. http://www.nypost.com/seven/07152009..._al_179316.htm

N.B.A. Has Tough Year and Tough Talks Ahead By JONATHAN ABRAMS Published: July 14, 2009 LAS VEGAS — Commissioner David Stern said Tuesday that less than half the N.B.A.’s teams turned a profit last season and that some owners had argued that a worst-case decrease in the salary cap of 5 percent might be too optimistic. The league’s board of governors convened here and will meet again Aug. 4 with the players union in hopes of jump-starting negotiations toward reaching a new collective bargaining agreement. The current one expires in June 2011. Last week, the league predicted that its salary cap could drop to between $50.4 million and $53.6 million in 2010-11, which would represent a loss between 2.5 percent and 5 percent in basketball-related revenue. On Tuesday, Stern added that teams could face at least a 10 percent drop in ticket revenue next season. “We are anxious to get going,” Stern said of the negotiations. “We’re not planning on a miracle here, but on the other hand, we’d be prepared to accept one.” Stern also announced the appointment of a labor-relations committee of 10 owners that would be headed by the San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt. “There is complete agreement that we need to look for a system that keeps our players — as well paid as they are — at the top of the heap, but on the other hand returns the league to profitability at the same time,” Stern said. Some observers predict that the next collective bargaining agreement will feature drastic changes and that players will be forced to make concessions because of the economy. In response to the league memorandum that the salary cap will probably decrease next season, Billy Hunter, the executive director of the union, cautioned that it could have a chilling effect on future signings. “If it later turns out that the league did not have a good-faith basis for making these projections, the N.B.P.A. will pursue all available legal remedies, including a treble damages claim for collusion,” Hunter told ESPN.com last week. When asked about Hunter’s statement, Stern smiled. “We’ve been in touch,” Stern said. “He knows that we welcome him saying whatever he needs to say, but the facts are out and you’ll see our numbers and our projections out there.”

sportsguy33Link: http://tinyurl.com/nclxhw ... as I wrote in Feb, a 2010-11 lockout is looming. Renewal numbers much worse than they are letting on.

sportsguy33Also: Stern knows from last experience that 50% of the stars can't survive without steady income coming in. He can break them. And he will.

sportsguy331 more link: My "No Benjamins Association" column from last Feb. Everything happened as predicted. http://tinyurl.com/aamsly

sportsguy331 more note: Disaster looming in Phi, Indy, N.O. & Milw. Renewal numbers horrendous. Notice how they haven't made any moves?

sportsguy331 Effed up with last post: "Disaster looming in Phi, Indy, N.O. & Milw." Meant N.J. not N.O. Brainfart. The perils of quick-posting.