Found this on the Yahoo Sports NBA Blog, “Ball Don’t Lie”.  Link. Great blog btw, very funny if you’re a sports fan.

Phoenix Suns forward Lou Amundson pulled a prank on Shaq recently, filling his car with packing peanuts.  Supposedly, Lou is the usual victim of Shaq’s pranks.  Lou rides his bike to games and Shaq will hire staff to hide his bike around the stadium.  Hilarious.

I wasn’t initially a fan of Amundson. Actually, i particularly disliked him because he has a ponytail. Guys with ponytails don’t necessarily belong in the NBA, or many other places. After reading this story and watching a brief video about him riding bikes (linkhere) i got to see his sense of humor and now I like him a little more.

I’ve realized i really like stories and videos where you get to see more of players personality and sense of humor. Watching baseball, I love it when they just show the players in the dugout, joking around and playing pranks on each other.  This story about Shaq is great and I wish i could read more about what goes on behind the scenes.

The book Ball Four by Jim Bouton is a behind the scenes look at the Yankees and MLB in the 60’s.  He tells about pranks and antics you don’t experience watching tv or even going to games.  One of my favorite stories is how Mickey Mantle lined up towels all the way to Bouton’s locker after his first big win with the Yankees.

More pranks and stories.

a pretty cool ad for NBA TV.   i really like the use of old footage and highlights mixed in with newer clips.

Whenever I’m watching a game with friends and this ad comes on, everyone stops and watches.  Sports fans love retro highlights, dramatic music, and a wide variety of players.  This ad holds a fans attention very well, making me curious what they’re advertising for.

Spalding does this well too.

multiple players, old and new, quick transitions, and an unknown company behind it all.  I like the ad and it holds my attention as well.  I also really like getting to see a bit of each player’s personality when they’re at the line.

Lastly, here’s a cool MJ ad i stumbled onto. (it takes a few seconds to get started).

So i’m in Singapore where American sports are seldomly shown.  Growing up I’d maybe get one NBA game a week, on saturday mornings.  Instead of Superbowl Sunday, we had superbowl monday morning.

So today i was looking at scores online and I saw the blazers were playing the suns.  I scrambled to try to find a live video feed and was lucky enough to find this site:  http://www.justin.tv/

Awesome site, live tv feed without any lag or loading trouble.  I love all these free online services today that are funded by advertising.

Turned out to be a great game.  In the middle of the third quarter the blazers were down 12 and i thought the blazers were in over their heads.  Thanks to the now common heroics of Brandon Roy (52 points!) they were able to come back and win it by 5.