• The FLORIDA TIMES-UNION serves up news that Maria Sharapova is back in championship form, as she wins her first-ever title on clay.

And Maria’s prize - a lovely crystal 7-11 Big Gulp cup, good for one free refill.
• Speaking of a dirtier kind of Clay - with the Sonics having possibly played their last game in Key Arena, NOTTEN THIS LIFE looks to see where most Seattle fans fall in the Five Stages of Grief.
• Darren Rovell of CNBC has an idea who Derrick Rose’s NBA agent will be - and it’s not LeBron’s bud.
• USA TODAY’s GAME ON combs through their 5 favorite NHL playoff beards.
Read more…
STEPHEN A. SMITH SOCKED BY FANS’ SILLY CINEMATICS: FAN IQ finds a fun video made at the NBA Draft featuring ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith - in sock puppet form!
A group billing itself as “The Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen” came to the Big Apple to take a bite out of His Quite Frankness, via a dingy sock puppet.
The laundry-day escapee called out his cotton-mouthed comments to the draftees as they escaped down a corridor. Some of the grandiose gems:
To Al Horford: “Some people say you’re the best forward since Slava Medvedenko!”
“
Why hasn’t my praise changed your life, Brandon Wright?”
“Because he’s been such a man of the people, and because his hair is so long, I hereby dub thee Joakim Noah, the People’s Princess!”
“
I’m Stephen A. Smith! Every thing I say is important!”
The video also has a little bonus at the end, starring another member of the Worldwide Leader’s crew:
That would be Stuart Scott checking out his new ESPN Mobile - or maybe placing a booty call.
Booty-yah!