Links: Yao Ming, Phil Jax, More Diet Pills

by Lang Whitaker

I did not see 300 this weekend, because I thought it was about Tom Glavine. Actually, knowing what it was really about, I really didn’t have a lot of interest in seeing it to begin with. Then last night I saw where it made like $70 million this weekend, so now the peer pressure is on. Guess I’ll have to see it eventually.

I watched a ton of NCAA action this weekend. This is always the weekend I start watching, just so I can get at least a cursory glance at the best college players. I hadn’t watched Durant very much this season, and I see why everyone’s so high on him, though I don’t think he’s the next Michael Jordan or anything. And why does Durant always look like he needs a haircut?

Is it just me or does Durant look a little bit like a younger Clifford Robinson?

I wrote more about the college guys for my SI.com column today, mostly because I wanted to give some love to one of my favorite college players, Lee Humphrey.

In other news, the new issue of SLAM is nearly dunzo, so hopefully I’ll have more time to post pretty soon.
• After sounding all tough and hard after Ron Artest’s arrest, the Kings allowed Ron to return to the team after missing all of two games. In some ways, this might actually be what’s best for Ron. In other ways, this might be what’s worst for Ron. Either way, it’s definitely what’s best for the Sacramento Kings, so it’s probably not that surprising that they rushed him back. Good to see the Kings taking such a strong stand, though.

• Linkstigator Regan sent along this great clip from a recent episode of Mad TV. It’s “The Ballad of Yao Ming.”

• I love Phil Jackson. After Kwame Brown was late to shootaround on Sunday, Phil decided not to start him, then told the media that Kwame admitted to not having a good excuse. Phil then suggested that Kwame should’ve blamed his tardiness on Daylight Savings Time, which actually seems like a plausible excuse, at least to me. (And everyone who was mad at me a few weeks ago for ranking the Lakers low in my Semi-Dirty 30? They’ve lost six in a row. Also, Kobe apparently confused Kyle Korver for a foreign player.)

• Runner-up for Funniest Honesty From An NBA Executive goes to Joe Dumars. Joe D said he investigated Lindsey Hunter testing positive for taking diet pills but decided that Hunter had just made a mistake.

“When they told me what the name of it was, being “phentermine” that was illegal, I said, ‘Lindsey definitely didn’t know he was taking that; he can’t pronounce that.'”

Neither can I. But what’s more interesting is that Dumars seems to gloss over Hunter’s original assertion that he’d taken the diet pills by mistake while looking for cold medicine.

• Just as our Andre Iguodala feature story drops, the Philly papers bring us…an Andre Iguodala feature story. I like how Dre calls out Dick Vitale.

• Isiah Thomas got a new contract. Great.

• I still haven’t watched the debut episode of Stephon Marbury’s new talk show “Stars on Stars,” but I have it DVR’d and will check it tonight. The New York Times gave it an unflattering review.

• Earl Watson hit a referee with a ball during the Celtics game last week. Luckily, he hit him in his good eye.