• STOKKE STILL RESISTS MEDIA (WITH ESPN APPEARANCE): Allison Stokke continues to garner *unwanted* media attention today as she appears in-studio at 5pm PT on KSPN-AM’s Mason and Ireland show in Los Angeles (we know, this post is worthless without pics).

• PGA Tour player K.J. Choi says that if he wins the PGA’s new FedEx Cup, he will give 100% of the $10M first prize to charity.

And it could happen, as Choi already has won twice this year, putting him at No. 5 in the FedEx Cup standings.

• Dave Smith of Sporting News Radio has an interesting point: “How is its that hunting is legal and dogfighting is illegal? Hiding in the bushes, covering yourself in deer piss and then shooting a deer in the back of the head. … That’s a sport?”

• LARRY BROWN SPORTS has this find, via our dear friends at the NACOGDOCHES DAILY SENTINEL:

The head followed a win by the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks over the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.

• CHRISTINE DANIELS FINALLY FOUND OUT? Blind item in the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS today: “Which lady sports journalist has become locker-room gossip because of her hands-on approach to covering ball sports?

• Erin of BALLHYPE has the shocking news: Some sports bloggers are actually gainfully employed.

• DODGER PRESS PASSES SHOULD COME WITH GAS MASKS: Somehow Arash Markazi of SI.com is able to pen a piece on the pox of L.A. sports radio, Vic Jacobs, without a mention of the incredible stench emanating from Jacobs’ trademark, ferret-based headgear.

The only thing more foul than the AM radio reporter’s oft-worn yet never washed Pancho? Steve Lavin’s breath (we’re serious).

• Jason Whitlock of the KANSAS CITY STAR unveils his version of Priest Holmes: A selfish faker.

• Dave Krieger Mark Kriegel* of FOX SPORTS notes that Barry Bonds’ bagman, Greg Anderson, has done more hard time than notorious mob figure Sammy “The Bull” Gravano did (in the wake of 19 dead bodies).
(* - no more three fingers of Cutty for lunch!)

• WE’RE GUESSING NENE IS NO LONGER A FOREIGNER FAN: MONEY PLAYERS reports NBA player Nene was bilked out of millions and is “essentially broke“ thanks to agent (parasite) Joe Santos.

• BENMALLER.COM IS NO MORE: The tireless Ben Maller has now completely folded his invaluable (and free) sports news clipping service into the Foxsports.com website. SI.com has started a similiar clipping service at its new Fannation.com website.

• HERBSTREIT HUMBLE WHEN IT COMES TO UF FAUX-PAUS: GATORCOUNTY, via AOL FANHOUSE, has this exclusive admission by Kirk Herbstreit about his myriad misgauging of the Univ. of Florida last football season:

“If they want me to say I was wrong and I was a moron … no problem … I was dead wrong. I was an idiot.”

• The NATION OF ISLAM SPORTSBLOG is reporting that Jason Whitlock is departing AOL and will soon take his bookmarks and traffic to FoxSports.com.

• C.J. of the MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE reports that being the butt of an octogenerian’s joke landed Bruce Bowen an appearance on Jay Leno tonight.

• After his (soon-to-be-former) wife went after him on Tampa radio earlier this week, Elijah Dukes had the good sense to make a complete ass out of himself on the same station this morning.

• THE BIG LEAD reports today that former LAT columnist J.A. Adande is landing at ESPN.com - after spurning advances from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.

WHITLOCK ON WHY BARBARIANS LOOMING AT NBA’S GATE: Jason Whitlock once again injects a megadose of brutal truth - this time on the the NBA’s rapidly-crumbling empire.

The AOL and KANSAS CITY STAR columnist’s most-recent piece weighs in on the precipitous decline of the league and what the NBA has to do to revive flagging interest: “The NBA needs an age limit of 21 and/or a rule requiring three years of college participation …

“Rather than whining that an age limit is racist, NBA players need to understand that requiring players to go to college is good for the league and will put money in everyone’s pockets down the road.”

But his primary target for the decline of big-time basketball is the insidious system that is AAU basketball: “The league and the players association also should work with the NCAA on doing something to eliminate AAU basketball.

“Our players are too raw and too difficult to coach because AAU basketball — and its undisciplined style of play — has become more important and influential than high school basketball.”

Our favorite part of the piece? Whitlock asserting that bottomed-out TV ratings will aid - not injure - the league in the long run: “The good thing is that eventually the rank-and-file NBA players will begin to suffer financially, too. The TV ratings are going to damage David Stern’s ability to negotiate the kind of TV contracts necessary to support the salaries of the average NBA player.”

Wot? Whitlock actually thinks that making Speedy Claxton work for his money is a good thing?!

WHITLOCK DOESN’T WANT TO SLEEP ON IMUS’ WET SPOT: NEWSDAY reports KANSAS CITY STAR (and rising media star - to the dismay of insanely jealous journo colleagues and his land-locked KC readership) columnist Jason Whitlock has turned down WFAN’s offer to take over Don Imus’ cratered morning radio show time slot.

Excerpt: “(Whitlock is) passing (for now) on a chance to take over the WFAN morning slot from Don Imus, … citing concerns about moving to New York and living the morning radio lifestyle.”

So Whitlock turned down a huge media gig worth millions per year because he didn’t want to endure live in the rotten Big Apple and go to bed at 5:30pm sharp every afternoon?!

Meanwhile, WFAN claims it did not offer the job to Whitlock, instead spinning to Newsday that the AOL contributor (who was fired by ESPN after making dead-on disparaging remarks about Scoop Jackson) “was only one of a number of candidates” seen by WFAN Operations Director Mark Chernoff.

Jeff Flanagan of the KANSAS CITY STAR reports MSNBC also spoke to Whitlock about “the notion of a simulcast on MSNBC” but he turned down that possibility as well, apparently content to dodge tumbleweeds in Kansas City and wait for the next sports related racial brouhaha to bubble over.

UPDATE: Boomer Esiason is trying out for the gig all next week.

AOL COLUMNIST WHITLOCK LIKENS MANY BLACK NBA ALL-STAR VEGAS WEEKEND VISITORS TO “THE BLACK KKK”: Black columnist Jason Whitlock publishes another provocative column emanating from his frightful experiences at the NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. He likens blacks who terrorized the city for the days he was there as “The Black KKK“.

Excerpt: “We have a problem in the black community, and it didn’t make its debut at All-Star Weekend Vegas. What was impossible to ignore in Vegas was on display in Houston, Atlanta and previous All-Star locations.

“With the exception of Louis Farrakhan’s 1995 Million Man March, it’s been on display nearly every time we’ve gathered in large groups to socialize in the past 15 or so years.

“The Black Ku Klux Klan shows up in full force and does its best to ruin our good time. Instead of wearing white robes and white hoods, the new KKK has now taken to wearing white Ts and calling themselves gangsta rappers, gangbangers and posse members.

“Just like the White KKK of the 1940s and ’50s, we fear them, keep our eyes lowered, shut our mouths and pray they don’t bother us.

“Our fear makes them stronger. Our silence empowers them. Our lack of courage lets them define who we are. Our excuse-making for their behavior increases their influence and enables them to recruit more freely.

Read on …

WHITLOCK TO KC READERS: YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH: One of the most widely-read pieces of sportswriting hovering in cyberspace presently is KANSAS CITY STAR columnist Jason Whitlock’s equal parts scary-sad-hilarious account of NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas.

The column was last updated very early this morning, and his since been passed around more than Anna Nicole Smith days before her death. (I discovered it at the perpetually updated TheBigLead, who have their own thoughts on it).

The headline and sub-hed of the online-only piece lets you know what you’re in for: “Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend ‘Police Were Simply Overwhelmed’ in Sin City.”

If only his hometown newspaper readership got to read it.

Kansas Citians read a dissimilar accounting from Whitlock, published Monday, and titled: “All-star weekend a perfect party“. (login/pass)

The KC column did speak to the naughty nature of the weekend, “It felt like occupied territory and the French Quarter. You were overwhelmed by the smell of weed, the use of profanity and the N-word-a,” but was bereft of the crushing rhetoric in Whitlock’s online AOL piece.

Whitlock AOL scriptage: “The game needs to be moved overseas, someplace where the Bloods and Crips and hookers and hoes can’t get to it without a passport and plane ticket.”

The AOL piece focuses on out-of-control urban youth and their in-your-face lawlessness. Coupled with the deflating on-court activities, Whitlock concludes the weekend a complete loss.

Hardly the “perfect party” that titles Whitlock Kansas City piece (yes, I know, he didn’t write the headline).

In fairness, Whitlock’s KC Star column was probably written on Saturday and Sunday, and sent out late Sunday night, before an explosion of law breakers rocked The Strip. But the question is, why the different overall tone in describing the weekend’s activities?

I have a feeling Star editors may have something to do with that. Along with the obvious, that Whitlock was merely writing to his audience, which apparently he doesn’t think can process properly anything outside the 913 and 816 area codes (KC is my hometown by the way, and in some ways, I agree).

Finally, if the columns aren’t all that different, then why is everyone gone viral on one (AOL), and nary an IM about the other (KC Star)? Maybe if the Star didn’t have its pesky registration function, it might’ve been a different story.

This week’s NFL Truths by Jason Whitlock sees Big Sexy hand out the first bojangling warning since calling out Scoop Jackson in an interview with The Big Lead.

When Stuart Scott introduced the world premier of Jay-Z’s new video “Show Me What You Got,” Whitlock believes the SportsCenter anchor crossed the line from hip broadcaster to clown:

“Stu, you are not Big Tigger and you ain’t on BET. Its ‘Monday Night Football’…Consider this a bojangling warning.”

Hater in the house!

Jason Whitlock of ESPN.com writes this week that Mark Cuban reminds him of Ron Artest.

Bingo. Besides basketball talent, assaulting fans and exhibiting rapping talent akin to Kevin Federline, the two seem separated at birth.

Another sure thing: Whitlock wasn’t clever enough to come up with the phrase "Cuban Whistle Crisis" on his own.

When asked by Petros Papadakis on KMPC-AM in Los Angeles if the Winter Olympics are meaningless, NBC Olympic commentator and KMPC host Fred Roggin joked, "I’ve always said that I’ve made my career by being the king of nothing. If the Winter Olympics are meaningless, then I’m certainly in my element." Roggin during the same interview on U.S. Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir: "I’m glad I only saw him on tape, so I didn’t have to embrace him."

Strangely, Roggin didn’t express similar thoughts and/or opinions on his NBC-sponsored Olympic blog posted on NBCOlympics.com. I’m also disappointed that Roggin didn’t note that he was also shooting a buddy movie in Turin with Jason Whitlock and David Arquette. The same day, Papadakis whacked Reggie Bush on his KMPC-AM show - which also happens to be the USC football radio flagship station: "He’s a Eric Metcalf, Dave Meggett. "He had 30 touches against Oregon this season and couldn’t walk for a week. … What’s going to happen when he has Ray Lewis trying to disconnect his arms from his body?" "If you’re not a good between-the-tackles runner in college, how are you going to do in the NFL? Chad Morton was a better between-the-tackles runner in college than Bush, and he’s a returner in the NFL."

One advantage that Bush does have over Morton though: He doesn’t wear makeup.

ESPN-TV’s Jason Whitlock claims we can learn about the Raiders’ struggles from Jerry Rice’s hair: "They don’t care about each other. … That’s the only explanation for Jerry Rice’s corn-over hairstyle.

"Jerry’s going bald, but he won’t accept it. He’s been wearing some sort of cornrow, dreadlock combination hairstyle that makes him look like a balding chia pet.

"If Jerry’s teammates cared about him, if they cared at all about the dignity of one of the game’s greatest players, Lincoln Kennedy would wrap Jerry in a headlock, while Charlie Garner chopped that mess of Jerry’s dome."