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Radio talk show hosts are often accused of saying outrageous things, and often by people who didn't even hear them say the supposedly outrageous thing in the first place. But when speaking about a famous athlete who was forced to retire after contracting HIV, and saying that they think he "faked AIDS," I think we can all agree that's going a bit too far.

Such is the case with Minneapolis radio hosts Chris Baker and Langdon Perry, who attempted to make this joke at Magic Johnson's expense. Listen for yourself to their ridiculously insensitive comments, then we'll reconvene.



"He's the only cured AIDS guy ever." Nice. Predictably, Magic himself was not amused. His response to these clowns, after the jump.

A couple of days ago, I told you about how Luke Walton had a full fledged stalker on his hands. The woman was doing it all, from vandalizing his car, to following him to his house, to making a "gun gesture" towards him with her hands. Frightening stuff for sure, and even more frightening when you take a look at her mug shot.



Good Lord. It goes without saying that you have to be deranged to do some of the things that this woman, 34-year old Stacy Elizabeth Beshear, has been accused of doing. But to look like this, and truly believe that she and Luke are supposed to be married one day?

Let's go ahead and say that, just this once, the "insanity plea" is something the judge should seriously consider.

Luke Walton has been teased by his teammates from time to time for being a "pretty boy" that the ladies are fond of, but one female took things way too far. An obsessed fan was apparently following Luke around town doing the full blown stalking thing, and Luke told Kevin Ding of the OC Register how it all played out. Some of it definitely sounds a little scary.

"She seemed nice enough (when she first began appearing regularly outside the Lakers' El Segundo practice facility for autographs), and there are a lot of people who are out there all the time. I would sign stuff for them most of the time, but every once in a while you're in a rush trying to get somwhere after practice. So one time I waved and said I had to be somewhere. And I saw her reach her pen out, and I didn't think anything of it, and when I got to my house, I saw I had a big blue mark all down the side of my car from her Sharpie pen. So then I was like, 'That's messed up. I sign stuff for her all the time. Now she does that; I'm not going to sign anything for her anymore.' That's before I knew she was stalking me."

"It was more an annoyance than anything else until recently when she did that gun thing (gesturing at him with her hand as if shooting at him). And then I was like, 'All right. Now she's crossed the line."

I would have thought that the Sharpie incident, along with the whole "sitting for hours in a parked car with tinted windows in front of my house" thing was crossing the line, but a freaking gun gesture?! Yeah Luke, I'd say that's definitely crossing the line.

Yesterday I mentioned how I thought Lamar Odom's comments regarding the proposition of him becoming a sixth man this season -- although he might have been kidding around -- were a little stiff. Apparently Phil Jackson thought so too, and the two talked a bit to hash things out. Odom backed off his comments a bit, but made it clear he wants his minutes this season.

"We talked a little bit. At the end of the day, that's out of my control. He's going to do whatever he wants to do. But I wouldn't suggest that, especially in a year when I want to be on the court, for obvious reasons. - I would take it like he bumped his ... head. Nah, that's a joke. I don't mean that. I would take it as this: He's trying to motivate me a little bit. I'll take it as a challenge."

Nice spin, Lamar. And the "obvious reasons" that Odom makes mention of are in the millions: as in, the millions of dollars he hopes to secure in his next contract, which he will be signing before the start of next season.

Contract years are not the time that players want to hear that they'll be receiving less minutes in a role off the bench, but Jackson says the minutes might not even change, that it would be more of a role like the one super-sub Manu Ginobili has on the Spurs.

There was a little bit of talk over the summer about the idea of Lamar Odom coming off the bench this season. With Andrew Bynum back in the mix, it seemed like a delightful possibility; one that would especially help the Lakers offensively when their second unit was on the floor. But you can forget all that. Odom was asked about it at the Lakers' Media Day yesterday, and hinted that Phil Jackson might have a screw loose if that's what he was thinking:

"He must have woke up and bumped his head. He probably hit his head on something -- boom," Odom said about Jackson. "To start off like that, you've got to be out of your . . . mind."

I have no proof of this, but having heard athletes speak for many years now, I'm guessing that the ellipsis between the words "your" and "mind" might just have been an expletive. And while I'm sure Odom was speaking in a lighthearted tone when he said this, it's still kind of disrespectful to Phil Jackson, isn't it?

We're not exactly sure how serious Phil was about moving Lamar to a sixth man role, or how serious Odom is about having no desire to go there. But it's definitely something to keep an eye on, as Odom is due for a new contract next season. If things go south between Lamar and his coach, Odom may very well find himself in another uniform before February's trade deadline.

I always find it interesting how, at the time a story's developing, details are often few and far between. But months later, a bunch of facts come out (or at least one person's version of them) that end up clearing the whole thing up. Such is the case with the Mavericks' firing of Avery Johnson.

We heard rumblings of a rift between Avery and some of his players during the playoffs, and thanks to Mark Cuban, we now know just how bad things got in Dallas:

"I knew after I had so many people asking to be traded," Cuban said. "I mean, I had to deal with either the players and moving them or the coach and moving him."

Cuban said the players did not speak in generalities. They told him they didn't want to come back if Johnson was still the coach.

"As you started looking deeper and deeper and deeper into things, we didn't have a choice," Cuban said. "I didn't want to fire him. That wasn't my goal."

Cuban went on to say that definitely more than five, and "close" to more than seven players asked to be traded if Johnson were to remain the coach. Between that and the melt-down during the playoffs, I suppose Cuban had no choice. Even after making a trade last season that seemed to change the Mavericks' roster for the worse, it appears that Rick Carlisle might have a better shot than his predecessor at guiding the team to some playoff success.

Stories from a trip to Media Day for the Phoenix Suns.

Steve Nash was in good spirits as he sat down for his Q & A session with the media today, and in between some serious basketball talk, the conversation turned to a more lighthearted topic. Nash was asked about the hilarious video he shot with Baron Davis over the summer, and if it was part of his own off-season workout routine. And since the first line of that video refers to Baron's large, um, backside, I asked Steve what he thought about Baron recently going on the Jenny Craig diet plan.

Let's be honest. Too many dinners with Magic would adversely affect anyone's waistline.

A couple of days ago, some pictures surfaced of a husky Baron Davis frolicking on the beach with a bikini-clad Jessica Alba. The fact that Baron was hanging with Jessica is not news; Baron played high school ball with Alba's man Cash Warren, and they've all been friends for some time. What was news however, was the fact that Alba seemed to be more physically fit than the NBA star who recently signed a free agent deal to join the Clippers.

According to the bastion of journalism that is People magazine, Baron is aware that he's a bit chubby, and is currently in the process of doing something about it. Inspired by the company's spokesperson Queen Latifah, Baron has taken up the Jenny Craig diet plan.

"I know Queen Latifah, and when I saw her out there using it, I thought maybe I could use it, too, to work on my health and fitness goals and inspire others," he tells PEOPLE.

During the NBA off-season, Davis let his fitness slide. "In the off-season, it's kind of hard to maintain day-to-day," he says. "I don't want to get up and cook. And when I pig out, I'm the type of person where there's no limit to what I can do."

Exactly how someone the size of Queen Latifah is qualified to represent a weight loss company is, for some reason, unclear to me. Let's just hope Baron's results are a little more evident when he's finished with the plan. And as an aside, if I were Chris Bosh, I certainly wouldn't be holding back with the fat jokes right about now.

[via SbB]

It's the off-season, and some of the NBA's biggest stars are looking to unload real estate. We have photos, and we'll be sharing them in our House of the Day series.

With Shaquille O'Neal's (just about) cross-country switching of teams last season -- and maybe due to the divorce proceedings that were eventually halted -- his place in Star Island, Florida recently hit the market. The asking price is $29 million, and when you look at the specs it's easy to see why.

The home sits on 2.5 acres, and besides the fact that it's located on an exclusive artificial island, it has such amenities as a tennis court, a dock, a guest house, an indoor basketball court, and a pool complete with Superman logo (naturally). Oh, and there's the sentimental value of owning the house originally built by Rony Seikaly, which is really something that you can't put a price on. A couple more photos after the jump.

Apologies, ladies: the NBA's quirkiest superstar is officially off the market. We found out yesterday that Gilbert Arenas has gotten engaged, to his long-time girlfriend and the mother of his two children, Laura Govan. Normally I wouldn't be encouraging any NBA player under the age of 30 to tie the knot, but since the relationship has gone through seven plus years of ups and downs, I suppose the two know what they're getting themselves into.

Gilbert gave the Post a gratuitous and innocuous quote on the matter:

"Life is about growth and getting smarter about the choices we make," Arenas said in an e-mail. "Being a husband and father will require both of those!"

Indeed it will. The couple has had an on-again, off-again history, with a breakup as recently as November of last year. And when you consider the fact that they overcame a messy paternity suit just a couple of years ago, the marriage is likely to withstand just about anything. And hey, if nothing else, it'll give Gilbert something to do while he's not playing basketball over the next few months.