Even when it comes to rapping, Kobe Bryant has never been scared to fail. To him, trying and failing is nothing. So when talk of him playing overseas came up earlier this summer, we knew it was very possible. If any NBA star was going to look into it, it had to be Kobe. Turkey sounded nice, but it never worked. Then Italy showed up and now it feels right. It feels right that Bryant apparently reached a verbal agreement to play with the Italian club Virtus Bologna. Read More »

Relevance is always an issue in collegiate athletics. Coaches will change, players will cycle through programs and records will fluctuate year-to-year; the “what have you done for me lately” mentality will always take over eventually. Lately, all signs coming out of Hollywood and the Southern Cal campus should point to throwing up a white flag on the current season. Thanks to former Trojan O.J. Mayo and the USC booster that supplemented him with compensation as a recruit, the NCAA has been sanctioned to dismiss any postseason for USC this year. No Pac-10 tournament, no NIT and certainly no NCAA come March. As USC wallows in the mud of basketball purgatory, the team actually – on the surface only I’m sure – remains upbeat about its current situation; although I doubt if Ovinton J’Anthony received any Trojan holiday greeting cards this past Christmas. Read More »

You might remember USC’s Leonard Washington as the guy who committed one of the dirtiest plays of the year last season, running down the court and hitting Blake Griffin square in the junk. But today, the 6-7, 230-pound sophomore was told that he won’t even have a chance to get back on the court and redeem himself until 2010, after being declared academically ineligible for the first semester. Read More »

Every year, in every draft, there’s a player or two or four who falls farther than expected. Whether it’s a projected Top-5 pick who sticks around until the double-digits, a Green Room guy who stays in the arena longer than everyone else, or a first-round talent who drops to the second, it’s an annual tradition.

Then there are those guys who wait by the phone all night and never hear their name. This year’s most notable snubs… Read More »

When USC lost freshmen O.J. Mayo and Davon Jefferson to the NBA Draft this past summer, they were able to ink blue-chip prospects DeMar DeRozan and Percy “ Lil’ Romeo” Miller to fill their void. Little did they know they would also be welcoming home former SoCal standout Alex Stepheson, who transferred back home to Los Angeles to be closer to his family. Read More »