Randy Kim Posts

Ross Rebagliati, the Olympic snowboarder who was famously (albeit briefly) stripped of a gold medal in 1998 after testing positive for marijuana, has found a new kind of slippery slope to navigate. Rebagliati recently announced that he will be running for political office in Canada.

Rebagliati, 38, is seeking the liberal party nomination in the British Columbia "riding" (the equivalent of an electoral district) of Okanagan-Coquihalla. The riding is currently represented by a member of the conservative party.

When is a beard more than a beard? When it's attached to the face of an international, metrosexual heartthrob who has one of the most recognizable visages on the globe.

Yes, America, it's time to beard it like David Beckham, as the English soccer star is going grizzly these days.

While in LA covering this year's NBA Finals, FanHouse's Jay Mariotti and Kevin Blackistone stopped by the AOL studios and dropped a little knowledge on this year's quest for the Larry O'Brien trophy. Is Kobe's focus sharper than it's ever been? Is Orlando just happy to have topped LeBron? And what about some series predictions? The "Around the Horn" veterans dish on these topics and more.

Check out the video after the jump.

The white whale of FMX has been the front flip. Until now. Video has recently surfaced of France's Charles Pages successfully pulling off a front flip during a training sesh.



FMX fanatics might make the claim that Jim DeChamp was the first one to pull off a front flip, but that was done on a specially modified bike. Pages pulled it off on a regular Suzuki RM250 that he would ride in any FMX competition.

Allez, Chuckie!

(H/T: ESPN's FMX Blog)

If you're Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, the last year hasn't been so bad. Think about it: You had 96 catches for 1,431 yards and 12 touchdowns during the regular season; you had three touchdowns in the NFC Championship Game, you had two more touchdowns in Super Bowl XLIII (so what if you wound up losing the game?), and you're named the MVP of the Pro Bowl. Not a bad year, right?

Well, things just got a little bit better for Larry on Friday, as it was announced that he was the cover guy for EA's Madden NFL 10 (along with Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu).

So what does Larry think about being on the cover? Why is he sure he's going to reverse the Madden Curse? What's the latest on Anquan Boldin's contract situation? And why does he think Matt Leinart is the next Steve Young? I asked Larry all of these questions and more during some time here in New York. Read the full interview after the jump.

(FanHouse is excited to work with writer Carrie Stewart, who recently scored an ample amount of time with Heat star Dwyane Wade. Stewart's full interview, which covers everything from misplaced diamonds to Barack Obama to those Star Jones rumors, is in its entirety below. Enjoy.)

Playoffs? You wanna talk about playoffs? Playoffs? (to borrow from Jim Mora Sr. circa 2001). Answer: of course you wanna talk about playoffs, with the top 16 teams set to go head-to-head starting Saturday. But I felt like taking a quick breather from all the playoff buzz to talk to one of the league's best players, if not the best (yeah, I said it; sorry, LeBron) and find out a little of what goes on in the mind of Miami's superstar.

Carrie Stewart: "You have a lot of nicknames, so what do your friends call you?"

Dwyane Wade: "Most of my friends call me 'D', some call me Wade, some even call me Flash, but none of them really call me Dwyane, so if you were my friend of mine, Dwyane would not be one of the names you would call me."

Well, when it comes to hoops promos, this one certainly tops Pink, the Black-Eyed Peas and Lenny Kravitz.

In the interest of building even more excitement for the '09 playoffs, the NBA has chosen Kanye West's "Amazing" to be the unofficial theme song for the second season. Peep the spot-on spot below; it features some, well, amazing footage of LeBron, Kobe, D-Wade and company from playoffs past.

The monstrous shark seen above was recently pulled from the break at Teahupoo, the legendary surf spot in Tahiti. Two fisherman who were out trying to catch starfish (!) reeled in the already-dead shark, which weighed in at 1.3 tons.

The hits keep rolling in for pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. Fresh off of the launch of his new MTV show "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory" and his featured role in EA's "Skate 2", the Alien Workshop rider now has two new roles: civic-minded do-gooder and Carl's Jr. pitchman.

To the first point, Dyrdek helped open a public skate plaza in downtown L.A. on Tuesday as part of the "Safe Spot, Skate Spot" program that aims to provide legal, hassle-free skateboarding spots for community skateboarders. Cool stuff. Photos and video from the event can be seen at Transworld Skateboarding.

Well known for its interesting series of "most wealthy" lists for sports, Forbes recently stepped outside of the traditional sports world and released its rankings of the top 10 highest-paid action sports athletes for 2008.

The names at the top of the list -- Tony Hawk, Shaun White (right) -- aren't all that surprising, but the earnings (Hawk alone apparently made $12 million in 2008) are nothing to sneeze at, even compared to wages earned by well-known professional athletes.

Forbes' full list, including each athlete's 2008 earnings, can be found after the jump: