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Some people never learn. D.J. Mbenga may be one of them.

Now, D.J. is a good guy and he makes a decent living as the backup center for world champion Los Angeles Lakers, but there's a reason he's a backup center. Besides a talent deficiency, Mbenga is not quick and therefore slow to rotate on help defense and recover on pick-and-rolls.

This often puts him in an awkward position, that position being Mbenga on a poster on his keister.

Such was the case again Friday when Nuggets rookie Ty Lawson went medieval on Mbenga.

(The pair of pliers and the blowtorch after the jump.)

Most struggling teams tend to gloss over their losing ways when trying to sell tickets, but with winning in short no supply this season, the 0-10 New Jersey Nets have accepted that ignoring the big, fat goose egg in "W" column is no longer possible ...

... which is why they've unveiled the "10 is Enough" promotion, which involves giving every season ticket holder two free tickets to Tuesday's game and selling a bunch more tickets to the general public for $10 a pop. Yes, losing streaks are now fuel for advertising taglines.

OutSports.com reported Tuesday that Drew Gooden made homophobic remarks to two hecklin' Clippers fans after the Mavericks' Saturday game in Los Angeles. One of the Clippers fans happened to be actor Chris Wylde (pictured, far right), who has -- no joke -- appearances on a show named Heckle U to his credit. (The plot of Heckle U, according to IMDB? Two dudes change the course of basketball games by heckling the opposing teams into submission.)

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reportedly emailed Wylde, saying the team would deal with Gooden. Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News reports that the NBA is currently investigating the matter, while ESPN's Tim MacMahon has an anonymous source who claims it wasn't Gooden who made the remark. (No word on whether that anonymous source is Gooden.)

ESPN's Chris Sheridan reports on the world's first non-uStream Stephon Marbury sighting of the NBA season. It came at Madison Square Garden, where Knicks security had to ask a paid-in-full Starbury to go to his seat. Marbury had purchased a ticket in row A (that's the second row) for Saturday night's Knicks home opener against the Sixers. The only problem was that Marbury instead tried to sit in row AA (the Spike Lee zone).

Sheridan reports that Marbury spent part of the first quarter standing and recording live video of the action (as pictured). Eventually, a Madison Square Garden security guard asked Marbury to move to his actual seat. Instead of doing so, Sheridan reports that the former self-professed World's Greatest Point Guard left the arena. Front row or bust! Hilariously, according to the New York Daily News's Mitch Lawrence, a Knicks usher mistakenly sat Marbury in the front row in the first place. Whoops.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

NBA star Ron Artest is a huge boxing fan, and this week he was thrilled when he stopped by the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood to watch Manny Pacquiao train for his Nov. 14 fight against Miguel Cotto.

In this exclusive FanHouse video, we talk to Ron, his father Ron Sr., who used to be an amateur boxer, and other fans. We also hear from Manny's sparring partners Rashad Holloway and Shawn Porter, and find out what Artest is going to be for Halloween.

Check out the video after the jump.

If you make your living as a quick change artist or riding a unicycle while balancing bowls atop your head, you might want to consider a second job.

Due to the economy, one of the many cost-cutting tactics adopted by NBA is to reduce the number of prominent halftime acts, opting against booking high-priced traveling acts in favor of more affordable local options, Fred Whitfield, chief operating officer of the Charlotte Bobcats, told David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal.

A to Z.

It sounds like the 1952 NBA All-Star Game, which featured Paul Arizin and Max Zaslofsky.

It sounds like the 1971 champion Milwaukee Bucks, who had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Zopf.

It sounds like the history of Lithuanian centers, from Arvydas Sabonis to Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

It also sounds like a good way to take a look at the 2009-10 NBA season:

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Thursday, there are 12 days remaining.

You would think that a decade into the post-Jordan world, the ubiquitous No. 23 might have become the NBA's most popular jersey number of all time. While the number is popular, it's not the most popular. Nor is No. 1, long worn by self-professed top-notch players (some of which ended up looking deluded).

The most popular jersey number in NBA history is actually No. 12, which some 327 players have worn for at least one NBA season.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

There are many basketball stars in the NBA, but few have a connection to fans like Lakers forward Ron Artest. He goes above and beyond to give back. In this FanHouse video, we catch up with Ron-Ron and 50 lucky fans who won a Twitter contest and got to bowl with Ron.

Check out the video after the jump.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Friday, there are 25 days remaining.

No one -- not Wilt, not MJ, not Red, not Magic or Bird, not Kobe or LeBron -- no one has had more impact on the NBA than a 5'9 lawyer from Teaneck, N.J., named David Stern. You'd think that'd be a sad commentary on the game, that it has been defined in the board room rather than on the hardwood.

But there's no doubt that if Stern had worked for Major League Baseball or the National Football League after earning his J.D. at Columbia, it'd be the same story. Like Wilt, like MJ and Magic and Bird and Kobe and LeBron, Stern is one of the rare stars who -- with his undeniable talent and incredible work ethic -- could not have failed.