Uh, Yes. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert needs to shut up. I’ve never seen so much basketball on national and public media involving the pomp and circumstance leading into the Lebron James team choice, and the subsequent response on all sides. Before I could get into the morning news, a morning meeting partner told me that Gilbert called James “everything but a child of God” (Note: the important part is to project what Gilbert said behind closed doors, and what that really says). I’m not going to waste space going into specifically what Gilbert said.

Sports can always be a great lens for life, and outbursts such as Gilbert’s, and Kanye West’s “George Bush Doesn’t Like Black People!!” serve to announce an issue that probably deserves some pondering and discussion, in order to resolve the issue or concern. Everybody deserves to be heard.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Modern Sport and the African American Experience, a new anthology by Indiana University sport sociologist Gary Sailes, contains 19 essays about male and female athletes, "trash talking," the glass ceiling and other topics related to how sport and African-American culture intertwine.

"African-American culture has a very special relationship with sports," said Sailes, associate professor in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. "For a lot of African-American youth their career is sport."

Sailes, also an adjunct professor in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at IU, teaches a course, "Modern Sport and the Afro American Experience," for which he regularly compiled a reader for his students.

"There was not a single book out there with what I wanted to do so I figured I would have to do my own anthology," Sailes said.

On Friday July 2nd, the Minnesota Midtown Lady Monarchs beat the Lousiana Pochatoula Hurricanes (55-29) to win the 2010 11U AAU Division II Girls Basketball National Championship title in Franklin, Tennessee out of 64 teams!! The National Champion Midtown Lady Monarchs are coached by Tim Randle and Michael Winston Jr.

www.midtownladymonarchs.org

If I’m not mistaken, soccer/futbol has just gained a new generation of fans through the display put on at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Obviously, you can count me in this group of new fans because not only do I want to watch more soccer (especially international competition), but I’m salty about quite a few things post-World Cup – you’re only salty if you care, so like I said, count me in.

Perhaps the biggest factor that has provided such a grand opportunity to engage with the Worlds’ most popular sport, is the setting; if you didn’t know the beauty of South Africa (and the whole continent for that matter), then like Biggie said, “…now you know, (Brotha).”

When it comes to the barbershop, it’s all about opinions. Everybody can say what he or she wants top say, and most seem to be cackling and grumbling, but in my humble opinion it seems like the Timberwolves are in good hands all around. My positivism certainly flies in the face of sensible opinions, which put heavy stress on last year’s 15-win season of drudgery, and the fact that many key players aren’t fully weaned of their NBA Similac bottles. Add to this the fact that second year General Manager David Kahn seems to be implementing a Wall Street derivative investment strategy when it comes to drafting new players, and I can understand the 24hr news cycle opinion that heads should roll.  But caution was given as Kahn stated at the Post-Draft Press Conference, “It’s going to be a long summer.” And fortunately beyond that, I’m here to provide some Zen that can only come from a Lakers Fan basking in the frequent Championship glow of the season past…and I too would like to thank Ron Artests’ psychiatrist.

- Tie for Top Honor is Only Second Time in 34-Year History of Collegiate Women Sports Awards -

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Collegiate Women Sports Awards today announced that for only the second time in its 34-year history two female athletes have tied for the annual Honda-Broderick Cup, its top honor designating the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. This years winners, both of whom were presented with their prestigious awards at a special ceremony today in Los Angeles at UCLA’s J.D. Morgan Center, are volleyball star Megan Hodge, a senior at Penn State University and basketball standout Maya Moore, a University of Connecticut junior. Both athletes were selected as winners of the Honda-Broderick Cup by voting among 1,000 NCAA member schools and the Board of Directors of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Program.