Shaquille O'Neal files for divorce

Shaquille O’Neal is easily the most imposing player in the history of the NBA. Standing at 7 feet 1 inches and anywhere from 310 on a good day to 360 pounds, O’Neal paints an imposing figure, particularly for opposing Centers. But, off the court, O’Neal is one of the nicest, friendliest and kindest players in the league. So, as reports leaked out today that “The Big Aristotle” had filed for divorce from his long-time wife Shaunie, the news came as somewhat of a shock to the NBA community. Heat coach Pat Riley called the news devastating and saddening.

“I’m going to reach out to him today and find out how he is doing, and I hope everything works out,” Riley told a local Miami radio station. “But obviously, it is not the kind of news that you want to hear about one of your friends and also one of your players.”

Things must have disintegrated rather quickly in their long-running marriage, as the couple were just recently seen together at the ESPY awards in July, happily enjoying the celebrity-laden event. In fact, last year in an interview with USA Today, Shaunie only had the nicest things to say about Shaq.

"My 6-year-old still thinks Daddy can come through a wall. He thinks Daddy is really Superman," Shaunie told the paper. "It's hilarious the things he does to make them still believe that Dad has these magic powers. He says that when the kids grow up, he wants them to always know that he tried to be the best father he could be."

We wish the big guy, and Shaunie, the best of luck.

Team USA experience could be a turning point for Kobe Bryant

If this summer has taught us anything, it’s that Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has one of the most complex and intriguing personalities in sports. He is at the same time relentlessly loyal, extremely impulsive, and very competitive, easily influenced, sometimes hardheartedly emotional and stubborn to a fault.

Bryant entered his tumultuous summer with a bitter loss to the Phoenix Suns in the fist round of the NBA playoffs for the second straight season, flip-flopped more than former presidential candidate John Kerry on his desire, or lack thereof, to stay with the Lakers, threw a couple of his teammates, most notably Andrew Bynum, under a double-decker bus, proceeded to take a vow of silence without coming to any sort of resolution on his trade demands, and revived Michael Jordan’s original Dream Team role on this year’s Team USA squad by showcasing suffocating defensive play and, shockingly enough, mature leadership. Having begun the summer on a low note and ending it with a seemingly cathartic run in the FIBA Americas Tournament, which finished on Sunday with a triumphant drubbing of Argentina 118-81, Kobe’s roller coaster summer hit the end of the line this week.

Given the positive vibes of the Team USA experience, what is Kobe’s current mindset? Does he remain stubborn and stick to his principles that he holds so dear, and continues to demand a trade out of LA? Or, has the team-first environment and camaraderie of the FIBA experience kindled his other strong personality traits like loyalty to his team?

The second redemption of Kobe Bryant

The key is that Kobe seems to be in a positive state of mind going into Lakers training camp in October, and we believe that he’ll be there, ready to make another run. Not only will he play for the Lakers next season, but the team-first attitude that he put on display at the FIBA Americas Tournament will carry over into the regular season with his NBA squad.

"[Kobe] tried to lobby all of us (to come to L.A.)," Team USA teammate Michael Redd said recently. "We all have tried to lobby everybody to come to our teams. I told Carmelo, there's going to be no tolerance for our teams when we get back to camp."

Wondering why Kobe would be lobbying other NBA stars to come to LA, if he so wants to leave town himself?

In the coming season, expect Kobe Bryant to take yet another step forward in the evolution of his game on the court and his leadership off it. Expect Kobe to trust his teammates on the floor and be more forgiving of their deficiencies.

Unlike last season, he will no longer be alone in shouldering the pressure of the storied Lakers organization and fans. Expect Kobe to lean heavily on his long-time pal Derek Fisher both on and off the court, to relieve some of that burden. Expect Kobe Bryant, just like he did coming off the adulterous debacle in Colorado, to redeem himself and rebuild his image in the upcoming season. He alienated many of his fans with his actions earlier this summer; expect him to erase that bitterness with his play on the court and his candor off it. The Team USA experience seems to have yielded a kindler, gentler Kobe Bryant. Expect him to translate that positive experience into a productive 2007-2008 season with the Lakers.

Lakers will need to reward Kobe’s loyalty

Of course, all of this doesn’t take the Lakers front office off the hook in the least bit. Kobe will continue to demand for added help. The Lakers will surely need to make some moves, because Kobe will keep the pressure on high (hopefully, behind closed doors). Whether it’s using Kwame Brown’s large expiring contract to yield another front-line starter in return, or orchestrating a creative trade for a player like Jermaine O’Neal, owner Jerry Buss and GM Mitch Kupchak will need to improve the talent on the Lakers roster. They owe it to their uber-competitive superstar and they owe it to Laker fans everywhere.

Tiny Appalachian State stuns mighty Michigan

In case you haven’t heard, Appalachian State University pulled off one of the most improbable upsets in the history of NCAA college football by stunningly defeating the Michigan Wolverines 34-32 on Saturday afternoon. The game was as exciting as the score indicates, with Appalachian State blocking a Michigan field goal in the final seconds to preseve the victory.

Appalachian State University was an underdog in every sense of the word when its football team met up with national powerhouse Michigan Wolverines. Tiny Appalachian State with a student population of just over 15,000 is located in nondescript Boone, North Carolina, a town centered almost entirely around the university, while mighty Michigan with 40,000-plus students strong makes its home in equally robust Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Appalachian State mascot is a happy-go-lucky “mountain folk” named Yosef, while Michigan instills fear in its opponents with its own mascot the mighty Wolverine. The Mountaineers play in the Southern Conference, which is equivalent to the now defunct Division 1AA level, while the Wolverines came into last night’s game ranked number 5 in the entire country. And, to top it all off, Appalachian State is plain weird. The school uses this unsettling, yet oddly hilarious recruitment video, which by the way might explain the low enrollment rate at the public school.

These non-conference games at the start of the college football season are supposed to serve as tune-ups and help pad win totals for the national powerhouses. Unfortunately for Michigan, the Mountaineers decided to ruin the Wolverine’s entire 2007 season in one horrible, horrible September afternoon for the fans of the maize and blue. For the rest of us, it was among one of the most exciting and entertaining college football games in recent memory.

In The News: August 31, 2007

Team USA coasted past what was supposed to be their toughest challenge of the FIBA Americas Tournament. Led by Kobe Bryant’s 27 points, the US squad beat Argentina 91-76. Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix looks at four things we learned about Team USA coming out of last night’s game.

Louisville scored on all but one possession of the game, and Heisman hopeful Brian Brohm threw for 375 yards and four touchdowns, mostly by the start of the third quarter, as the Cardinals beat hopelessly overmatched Murray State 73-10. Despite the lopsided score the game was pretty fun to watch, as college football season kicked off last night. Here is the TV schedule for the remainder of this weekend’s college football games.

Speaking of college football, check out the 2007-2008 Maryland Terrapins football schedule.

The buzz around the Google phone continues to build. Will it live up to the hype? The image below is one of the many representations of what it might look like.

If you want one of the 60GB PlayStation 3s at $499, you better act now. Soon, all you’ll find are the new 80GB models at the usual and outrageous $599 price point.

Apparently, some Chinese Shaolin monks are a little peeved about an Internet rumor that they were once beaten in hand-to-hand combat by Japanese Ninjas. We didn’t know Shaolin monks actually surfed the Internet, what with the whole simplicity and zen of life thing. But if they are, what are they actually searching for? The world may never know. What do you think? Who would win in a fight, Ninja vs. Shaolin monk?

The MLS is to International Soccer, as Nascar is to _____?

The answer is Formula One.

It seems that former Formula One star Jacques Villenueve will follow in the footsteps of Juan Pablo Montoya and take his services to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. This exodus of once talented, but relatively washed up, Formula One drivers to NASCAR seems eerily similar to the exodus of once talented, yet relatively washed up, international soccer stars (see Beckham and Denilson) to Major League Soccer.

“You know, after Formula One, when you want to carry on racing, you want it to be at a tough level,” Villeneuve said of the move. “And in North America, the top level is NASCAR.”

We realize the popularity of NASCAR, but comparing the two, Formula One blows oval racing out of the water, especially when it comes to driver skill and their lightning quick reflexes. See Juan Pablo Montoya’s rookie success, particularly on the non-oval tracks on the NASCAR circuit. Whether this trend helps raise the profile of Formula One in the United States, or gets more Europeans to watch NASCAR, remains to be seem, but either way it's a win for the sport of auto racing.