The Milwaukee Bucks were pretty persistent in their initial drafting and pursuit of Yi Jianlian who did not want to play in middle-America. They seemed to be quite smitten with him because he was talented, tall, athletic, and best of all … he was young! But what if Yi Jianlian were really 22 when drafted, not 19 as he professed to be? All of a sudden the allure and prospects go out the window, and then he becomes on par for judgment with your generic college seniors. This was an issue that was raised by Tom Ziller at Fanhouse a year and a half ago, citing Draft Express as his evidence.

Now, in the wake of a Chinese crackdown on age shaving that shows 36 players gave false ages, it’s starting to appear more and more like Yi provided the NBA a false age. As Sports by Brooks has shown, Interbasket.net even has a document (a school report you see above) that appears to show Jianlian’s real birthday — that he was born in ‘84, not ‘87. Of course, this would be nothing new in the sports world as we have come to find out. There’s a lot to be gained in the sports world being “young and talented” rather than just talented, and apparently Yi’s handlers understood that when they swindled a bunch of cash from NBA teams.

It’s like the Heisman Trophy, only better. For those of you not checking out the Extra Mustard section of SI online, you’re really missing out. Even Erin Andrews digs it. The Hot Clicks section that’s updated every day is always money for some good links and videos, and the guy who runs it — Jimmy Traina — has a pretty impeccable taste in women. They’re also putting together a First Annual set of Clicksy Awards which should be right up your alley if you’re reading this site. The categories for you to vote in include Women (sample questions being Hottest Athlete Girlfriend to be featured), bizarre stories (such as the Danyelle Sargeant/Mike Singletary interview), videos (like Devin Harris getting schooled by the V-Neck sweater guy on the playground), and highlights (like the Steelers/Chargers game screwing up the spread). The awards are like 10x better than the ESPYs and much more fun, so head over there to vote on your favorites of the year.

Each year ESPN The Mag runs a “NEXT” edition in which they try to select four major athletes who will be the next superstars. They usually select young athletes who are early in their careers thus leaving the future to chance. Some of the athletes they got right include Kobe, LeBron, and Randy Moss. The bad calls? How bout the likes of Kordell Stewart, Keith Van Horn, and Kaz Matsui. No doubt that prognostication and fortune telling is a matter of difficult conjecture leaving much up to chance. That being said, I had no hesitation in giving my opinion of who’s NEXT for ESPN the Mag. The four candidates this year are Matt Ryan, Joey Logano, David Price, and Ricky Rubio. Aside from Rubio, I’ve had lots to say on each particular athlete. Some things were positive, other commentaries, not so much. Anyway, I got to defend one of the athletes for ESPN the Mag and make the case that he was NEXT. You can probably guess who it is and hopefully my argument was strong enough to have him bring home the honor. Check it out at ESPN the Mag.

Normally I don’t like to mix politics on the site here, but I thought there were a few interesting points raised by this issue. California has a proposition in its upcoming election that would ban gay marriage statewide. Surefire Hall of Fame second baseman and current Dodger Jeff Kent has donated $15,000 in favor of the measure — a good indicator of how some athletes would feel about gays in the locker room. In addition to Jeff Kent, one of the greatest proponents of the proposition seems to be members of the Mormon church. That’s where Steve Young comes in. Young went to BYU and is a Mormon, but his wife is a staunch supporter of gay marriage and he’s not stopping her:

Former San Francisco 49ers’ Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, who ironically just had his number 8 jersey retired by the team, has two official “No On 8″ signs in the windows of his house in Palo Alto.

On Friday, there were also three Halloween-themed signs in Young’s yard that also urged people to reject the gay marriage ban.

In addition, records show Young’s wife, Barbara, has donated approximately $50,000 to the “No On 8″ campaign aimed at defeating Proposition 8.

Barbara Young made it clear that she’s the one behind the political push and that Steve supports whatever her interests are. No word yet from the Mormon church on the matter, but you can be certain they’re not too happy with the Young family right now. I mean, wasn’t that university freaking named after Steve’s family??

(the tombstone pictured was actually a decoration piece at the Young household for Halloween, according to CBS)

Normally I wouldn’t reward showboating with the notoriety that comes with an appearance here at LBS, but when I saw this on SportsCenter Friday night, I knew I had to post it up. The vid wasn’t available over the weekend, but looks like it’s finally made its way onto YouTube and into my hands via The Meaningful Collateral. Only in the CFL will you see something like this:

Reminds a lot of that scene in Baseketball where they talk about modern athletes and celebrations getting out of hand. Looks like it only took 15 years to get to that point. I guess next up would be all the players lining up with arms locked and doing the Radio City Rockettes kick in unison.

OK, so I’m a little hazy on all the details here, but as far as I understand things, Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo has a notorious lady friend. The girl in question is 26-year-old Brazilian hottie, Fernanda (do any of them have last names??), and apparently in addition to banging Ronaldo, she also peddles coke and serves as a hooker in her spare time. Sports by Brooks alerted me to the story that was uncovered by News of the World. Now how did News of the World confirm this story? That’s where this greatest job ever stuff comes in.

Apparently one of their writers was assigned the duty of pursuing an evening with Fernanda. He got her naked, got her to offer coke, documented the whole thing on video. He even got her to bring a friend, with whom Fernanda put on a show. Honestly, if this is what undercover reporting is all about, sign me up. Does anyone have a job application to the World? I’m not even joking. What I wouldn’t give to have an assignment where I’m getting a hooker naked. To see the whole documentation of the evening, including a NSFW pic of Fernanda, visit the News of the World site. Link includes NSFW pic. The pictures of Fernanda below however, are safe for work.