An anonymous NBA player says guys around the league are pissed at Stephen A. Smith because of his column about Allen Iverson’s problems with gambling and alcohol. Smith’s article is titled “Iverson needs more than a prayer” because according to his numerous NBA sources AI is headed for self-destruction.

The combination of alcohol and gambling – and a once-promising career in tatters because of the first two – won’t culminate in anything short of disaster if help does not arrive in short order.

Iverson will either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away.

His statements aren’t going over well in the Philadelphia 76ers locker room.

From ESPN Insider:

Guys around the league are pissed at Stephen A. Smith right now for his most recent column on Allen Iverson, the one in which he claimed Allen is going to drink and/or gamble his life away. One of my NBA friends in Philly says a bunch of Sixers can’t wait for Stephen A. to show up in their locker room so they can have words with him.

I thought Stephen A.’s article said more about how far AI has fallen than anything else. Nobody takes Stephen A. Smith seriously anymore, but the minute he says something about Iverson it’s treated as the gospel. In April 2009 spokespeople for two Detroit casinos said Allen Iverson was never banned from their establishments. Maybe Stephen A. has some new information. As for the drinking… Look, that’s not the point right now. This is about the Sixers following through with the Code Red on Smith.

NBA Player X: Lay off Iverson [ESPN Insider]

Thanks to the Texas Open Records Act video of former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach cussing at his team and labeling players as “God squad guys” has hit the Internet. The fellas at Orange Bloods were thinking on their toes by using the act and have now blessed the world with Mike Leach in NSFW form.

Most college football coaches have given similar speeches. They probably don’t dive into the holy water like Leach did with the “God squad guys” but the cussing is the rule rather than the exception. Just ask Mark Mangino or Leach’s best friend Adam James.

There are three different reports going on when the world’s greatest golfer will return to the golf course. Tiger Woods will return for the Tavistock Cup, Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, or The Masters. In other words nobody is sure when he’ll be back. Tiger has dominated the sports news since Thanksgiving, and now TI is making sure Woods’ infamy spreads to the dance floor. The Atlanta-based rapper spit’s on Usher’s new song “Guilty” and name drops Woods.

“If she sayin’ she’s the victim in this case then what am I/ She got proof, well I got alibis too/ I never been on bullshit … she ain’t caught me on no Tiger Woods shit/ Do what I expected when she met me/ Ballin’ against the law/ Shawty arrest me then.”

There will be more Tiger Woods references in rap over the next year than there used to be “kickin’ like Pele” lines. Somebody needs to sample this:

T.I. Name-Checks Tiger Woods On Leaked Usher Song [MTV.com]

Shaquille O’Neal has reached a divorce settlement with soon to be ex-wife Shaunie that includes property, custody and support arrangements. TMZ reports the divorce proceedings will take place in a Florida court, not in California where Shaunie originally filed for separation.

It sucks to see marriages fail and even more so when there are children in the family. However, there is a silver-lining in this situation. Shaq won’t be around his kids as much anymore but his time around other NBA player’s babies (mamas) is about to increase tenfold.

Shaq and Wife Reach Divorce Settlement [TMZ Sports]

The twists and turns just don’t stop. On March 09, 2010 the Los Angeles Clippers announced that they had “severed ties” with General Manager and former head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr and named assistant GM Neil Olshey to take his place.

I have to be honest with you all when I say this, I didn’t see this announcement coming, not this soon. Sure, I know it must sound like B.S. since Dunleavy was removed as coach earlier this season, but I’m being sincere.

You see, the Clippers are owned by a man named Donald Sterling, who is infamous around the world for housing discrimination lawsuits being a “thrifty” owner with very little interest in building a winner, making sound basketball management decisions, caring about anything else but his bottom line … well you get the picture.

It’s been a common sentiment around the NBA (and within Clipper Nation) that Sterling doesn’t care about the fans of his franchise or his team’s success. He’s never been a favorite of Clips fans or most NBA followers and it’s for good reasons. The Clippers are notorious for being one of the most maligned, long-suffering teams in professional sports. We’re the butt of every joke, the regularly criticized and almost universally degraded “little brothers” of the NBA in Los Angeles. Earning that type of reputation is not easy and it involves systematic failures over long periods of time with little to no room for a brighter tomorrow.

And under Sterling’s watch, that’s exactly what’s happened. Coach after coach has failed, drafts have been thrown away with awful selections, NBA legends have left on bad terms, made claims of racial discrimination and countless other mishaps. A column by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski published today has a harshly-worded summary of just some of Sterling’s errors.

For those of us who foolishly felt optimism for the future during the short Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Elton Brand and Quentin Richardson “era”, the public face of every Clipper misstep since then was a man chosen by Sterling himself – Mike Dunleavy.

Just a few of the many Dunleavy faces that tormented Clippers fans the past 7 years.
(Diary of a Clippers Fan/YouBeenBlinded Illustration)

Knocking Dunleavy has practically been a rite of passage for Clipper fans and if we’re being honest, most of it was well-deserved. His coaching decisions, rotations and substitution patterns literally doomed away our best shot at ever winning anything back in 2006.

Legend has it that Raja Bell still sends Dunleavy and Daniel Ewing flowers out of gratitude for allowing him to end the Clippers most successful year with his 3-pointer over Ewing in the playoffs, who was a rookie at the time.

He had a coaching record with the team (215-325 in 6 1/2 seasons) that would have earned any other coach a pink slip years ago. Ask Byron Scott and Avery Johnson, who had far better records, about how fast a coaching change usually happens. Aside from just wins and losses, Dunleavy also chose a guy like Yaroslav Korolev with the 12th pick in the 2005 draft, ahead of no-name stiffs like Danny Granger, Nate Robinson and David Lee.

I’ve bashed Dunleavy just as much as most others, whether by yelling at the TV or looking down at the team bench from the stands and muttering curse words to myself mixed in with shots at “The Dunce” or “Dumbleavy.”

Heck, I even called it “a glorious days in Clipper history” when his firing was announced back in February. I say all that because although I felt happy to know he was finally gone, it was a bittersweet moment, precisely because of how long it took to fire him.

And the blame for that gross mismanagement falls directly onto Sterling. He always seemed to be the last one to notice that Dunleavy deserved to be fired, giving him chance after chance to keep falling on his face. To add insult to injury, when the time finally did come to fire him, he didn’t even know how to do that the right way. According to an article by Ramona Shelbourne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, “Dunleavy still doesn’t know exactly what happened.”

“I come back to my locker around 7 p.m. and there’s a million messages on my phone,” Dunleavy told her. “This guy comes up to me and said, ‘What’s going on? They just said on TV that the Clippers severed ties with you?’ I had no idea what they were talking about. I’m like, ‘Wow. I haven’t even talked to the Clippers.’”

Surprised? Baron Davis wasn’t. Just another day of business for Sterling. Yeah Dunleavy’s gone, but the boogeyman still lurks over the Clippers. Kelly Dwyer over at Ball Dont Lie sums up how I feel with these few sentences below, taken from his article on the firing.

“The Clippers? They’re a bunch of (curse word)s. They kicked this guy to the curb just as he leaves them what will be a little under $17 million in cap room once the team’s cap holds and draft picks are sussed out. Did Dunleavy deserve to be sent home, in both positions, long ago? Sure. But only a team like the Clippers could turn this guy into anything somewhat slightly resembling a sympathetic figure.”

He’s right. So just like all the other times being a Clips fan has ruined some dream of mine, here I sit just a day after seeing Dunleavy disappear from Los Angeles feeling unfullfilled and cheated. Like a sucker who had tickets to a show they were waiting years to see only to arrive and find out it was all a scam. I thought I’d be happier today, thought that I’d be excited about next season and the opportunity for a new coach, a new GM and a big name free agent.

While some look at the firing as a possible “mission statement” to usher in a new era, I’m not buying it.

Instead, I’m sitting here stuck with the unwanted knowledge that Donald Sterling remains as the owner of my favorite team. Yup, even without Dunleavy, they’re still the Clippers after all.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

You Been Blinded has teamed up with BetUs.com for the duration of March Madness. Videos featuring picks from the BetUs experts will be posted every Wednesday and Friday. First up is Gary Payton. The Glove gives his pick for the SEC tournament although he’s not really going out on a limb.

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Illfonic is a Denver-based video game company co-founded by Raphael Saddiq of Tony!Toni!Tone! fame. Their first title is “Ghetto Golf” which is described as “Billy Madison” meets “Friday.” They don’t have a publisher for the game yet but they’ve still managed to get some good, unintentional press.

The Illfonic office is located next door to a medical marijuana store. A couple of nights ago the weed shop’s burglar alarm sounded and the police responded. Unfortunately they went to the wrong address and ended up mistakenly removing the Illfonic team from their office at gunpoint. The video and “Ghetto Golf” screenshots are below.

Turns out it was a false alarm in the marijuana store so the cops didn’t completely screw-up. Here are a few screenshots of “Ghetto Golf”:

Former Michigan basketball player Dommanic Ingerson should’ve told Oakland police he was playing Ghetto Golf and lost his ball in Lake Merritt. It wouldn’t explain why he emerged from the water naked, but it might have provided him with an alibi.

Indie Dev Team Handcuffed In Marijuana Mistake [Inc Gamers]

It’s just about time for the 2010 NCAA Tournament and there will be times when there’s no television around but you want to watch March Madness. No worries. CBS has March Madness on Demand which features all of the games (including the championship) streamed live for free. Now you don’t have to call in sick to work because you can slack off on the clock and watch the games. If you don’t have a computer there’s an iPhone app for that.

The iTune’s store has a March Madness on Demand app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It works over EDGE, 3G and Wi-Fi networks and costs $9.99. That seems a little high when you consider you can get the entire MLB season for 15 bucks. There’s a March Madness on Demand Lite app that’s free but you only get scores and news.

“The Peninsula” is Qatar’s self-proclaimed “leading English daily” and I’m sure it’s a fine paper, but they’re either unfamiliar with Brett Favre or their sports editor is a Packers fan. The paper previewed the upcoming Laureus World Sports Awards which they call the Sports Oscars. Kevin Spacey is hosting the event, and I’m pulling for Jessica Favre in the World Comeback of the Year category .

Screen sic’d:

It’s not as bad as the time the First Coast News dubbed Lito Sheppard “Lita” while propping him for a charitable effort but it goes to show that the entire world is sick of Brett Favre’s offseason drama.

Stage set for Laureus award [The Peninsula]

Floyd Mayweather loves attention almost as much as he loves money. Don’t believe me? Watch this video of Mayweather after a recent appearance in LA and your mind will change. Money May seems like he’s on a natural high as his fans beg for autographs and follow him with cameras. And it sounds like the recession is touching Floyd’s pockets if he’s running around yelling “I need me a Toyota.”