Larry Brown Sports

Dirk Nowitzki has been one of the NBA’s best players for the last decade. As you know, his career reached its peak last season when the Mavericks won the NBA Finals and Dirk took home Finals MVP honors. However, Nowitzki has been battling a knee injury this year and has not been himself. Although he’s turned it on lately with 24 points against the Cavs and 30 against the Pacers, Dirk does not feel as though he has done enough to deserve an All-Star spot this season.

“Not really,” he said according the Dallas Morning News. “I mean, averaging whatever, 15, 16 points, I don’t think you should be an All-Star. But we’ll just have to wait and see. I think there’s a lot of great young talent in this league that deserves to go. I think LaMarcus Aldridge has been stiffed the last couple of years. He’s a great young player, fun to watch. You know Blake (Griffin); and (Kevin) Love is playing great, so there’s a lot of talent at my position. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Nowitzki was not named a Western Conference All-Star starter last week, but the coaches have yet to vote on reserves. He is right about his position being fairly stacked this season, so coaches would merely be showing a veteran some respect if they selected Dirk as a reserve. The man is honest if nothing else. Well, we know he’s plenty else.

A professional MMA fighter from Scotland died last week after being crushed by a cow carcass in a slaughterhouse. That’s probably not what you want your obituary to read, but then again, if you’re dead, does it really matter what your obit says?

23-year-old Alexander McCrae had been working at the slaughterhouse for about a month and was an MMA fighter on the side. He had just began a professional career and aimed to go full-time, according to the Daily Record.

But on Thursday, he was crushed by a cow carcass that fell on him. His death is being investigated, but they believe he “suffered a heart attack when a carcass fell from a hook on a conveyor system and hit him on the head.”

McRae’s friends say they thought it was a joke because that’s the type of guy he was. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Death by falling cow carcass. It doesn’t get much worse than that.

via Off the Bench

Now that Tim Tebow has been named the starting quarterback for the Broncos, fans no longer have to worry about launching billboard campaigns persuading the organization to play him. Instead, underwear company Jockey is taking advantage of his status as franchise savior. They announced Saturday that they’re putting up this billboard in Denver next week.

It’s clean, it’s simple, and it supports Denver and the Broncos. I like it.

Helmet knock to Eye on Football

Cole Hamels made two starts last month despite pitching with poison oak on his legs. True story.

Hamels told FOX MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal that he contracted poison oak while fishing on teammate Roy Oswalt’s property in Missouri during the team’s June 20th off-day.

What was pitching with poison oak on both legs like?

“It felt like razor blades on the back of my legs every time I’d take a step,” Hamels said.

Ouch.

The Phillies lost in both starts despite Hamels pitching well. He gave up two runs over eight innings in a 4-1 loss to the A’s on June 25th and he departed after four scoreless innings five days later against the Red Sox. Hamels had to leave that start early after getting hit on the hand by a line drive.

In a star-studded rotation featuring Cy Young winners Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, Hamels has stood out this season. He’s gone 10-4 with a 2.40 ERA and a league-leading 0.95 WHIP. It’s the type of season Hamels needed to re-establish himself as an ace, and the type of courage he needed to show to prove his toughness to his teammates.

And now Hamels joins these two pitchers as guys who have pitched through tough maladies this season.

I guess UNC Asheville soccer player Lassi Hurskainen must have seen Johnny McEntee’s trick shot video for UConn and decided it was his best bet to get the attention of scouts. Hurskainen is a junior goalie for the Bulldogs and his team only went 4-13-1 last season. Such a poor record would leave most people to believe that the squad doesn’t have much talent, but one would think differently after watching this trick shot video by Lassi Hurskainen:

The gig seems old by now, but honestly, I can watch displays like that all day and still be amused. At some point, watching trick shot videos will be more exciting than watching actual games.

Thanks to Scott Bowers for the tip

During the week, it was the Batman portion of the dynamic duo who had used twitter to start a controversy describing sexual escapades. On Sunday, it was Robin responsible for the mini-controversy.

Less than an hour before Cincinnati’s game against Tampa Bay, Terrell Owens sent out a tweet from his account. “A lucky fan wearing my jersey 2day will get a signed football by Me & Ocho Cinco! My asst will pick U out!! Good luck!” was the tweet.

Nice gesture, T.O., but that will probably cost you with the league. The downside of having a half million followers is a few are bound to point out when your tweets are illegal, at least in the NFL’s eyes. I’m sure he’ll use the “my assistant sent the tweet,” but as long as it came from his account he’ll be in trouble.

And if the Bengals lose, expect all the questions to come about Owens not having the proper focus. This is what you invite when your mind is on your twitter account just before kickoff.

After shopping around her sex tape last week, Devon James (aka Mistress No. 15), finally sold the video to a company for $350,000 plus royalties. The tape is set for a November release but according to the newly launched website, it will be available for pre-order beginning October 15th. I know you can’t wait. The Tiger Woods sex tape site is TigerTapeXXX.com and it’s sure to see a boost in traffic in the coming weeks. Site looks great, doesn’t it?

I’m still wondering where Tiger’s lawyers are and when they’re going to put a stop to this whole operation.

UPDATE: Looks like Tiger’s lawyers have no reason to worry, as this baby is a hoax. We said we should assume there is NO tape until proven otherwise, and it looks like we were right.

Either LA Times Magazine is writing some fat checks, or west coast athletes couldn’t care less about their public image. Chances are the former is more true but whatever the case, Andre Ethier was somehow coaxed into making the same mistake Kobe Bryant made a few months back.  As soon as opposing fans catch wind of Ethier’s strange photos, I’m sure he can expect the same type of heckling Kobe got from Utah Jazz fans.

We’ll never understand why athletes agree to do these types of things.  You could argue it’s just for the money, but I can’t imagine Alex Rodriguez would do anything he doesn’t want to do in order to make an extra buck when he’s making over $30 million a year in salary.  Yet he agreed to take a ridiculous photo for Details Magazine where he was pretty close to making out with himself in a mirror.  Below are the funny Andre Ethier pics and the Kobe Bryant white hot photos.  I still think Kobe’s are way worse, but it’s up to you to decide.  Thanks to Deadspin for the Ethier pics.  Enjoy:

Sources:
Andre Ethier Gets Ridiculous Kobe Bryant Treatment From LAT Magazine — You Know The Drill [Deadspin]
Kobe Bryant White Hot [LA Times Magazine]
Dre’s Anatomy [LA Times Magazine]