It's been another stellar week here at Best Damn. To recap the week backstage behind the scenes, here's our feature producer, Matt.

Happy belated birthday to John Salley, who turned 42 on Tuesday. What do you get a 7-foot tall, ex-pro athlete who has four NBA Championship rings and played alongside Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal (to name a few)?

The gift that keeps on giving. A Special Edition copy of Napoleon Dynamite. Why Napoleon Dynamite? It was a free giveaway to all of our audience members. We snagged an extra copy and put it in Sal's dressing room. The Best Damn Sports Show Period spares no expense when a birthday rolls around. The man has four NBA rings for God's sake, what else does he need?

Salley might have left somewhat empty-handed, but the guys working on the production staff did get a treat Tuesday afternoon. Jessica Simpson made an appearance on the FOX Lot.

The buzz traveled at the speed of light. I went down to the Commissary to look for myself, and found a large group of Best Damn staff members ogling at Jessica from the sandwich line. For some reason it took everyone an inordinately long amount of time to place their orders. I must say, the divorce process is treating Jessica very well.

Tonight we are airing the Top 50 NBA finishes from this season. Hoopheads will enjoy this one. Not going to give too much away, but if you are a Carmelo Anthony fan, set your TiVo now. As former Virginia Men's basketball coach Pete Gillen once said, "He's on TV more than "Leave it to Beaver" reruns!"

There's two seconds left on the clock and your team is down by a bucket. Who do you want taking the final shot on your team? Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson? I take Valpo's finest, Bryce Drew. Ole Miss has never been the same since.

Speaking of great finishes ... where were you on March 28, 1992? I was sitting on my living room couch witnessing the unreal finish to the NCAA East Regional Finals between Duke and Kentucky.

Christian Laettner's shot was phenomenal, but the real MVP of that game was Thomas Hill. He had 19 points and 3 rebounds, but that means nothing to me. T-Hill earned that MVP by weeping like a baby on national TV after Laettner hit the turnaround jumper. I dare you to find a better reaction in all of sports than Thomas Hill's TEARS OF JOY. Not gonna happen people.

Don't believe me? See for yourself (click here).

Sidenote: How great are the NBA playoffs? I am officially onboard. Thanks to TiVo, I fly through each game in about an hour.

For all of you scoring at home this is my 3^rd TiVo reference. Yes, it is the best electronic invention in the last 20 years. No I am not being compensated for this plug.

Thanks Matt -- make sure to hook us all up when your TiVo advertising dollars roll in ...

Stay tuned to Best Damn next week, with guests like Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Phil Gordon, Vince Vaughn, Artie Lange -- plus Best Damn Beatdowns next Friday!!!

 

 

Sunday May 14th

Another great week here at Best Damn.  We talked NBA playoffs with our correspondent Jalen Rose and Mavericks swingman Jerry Stackhouse.  The authors of "Game of Shadows" came in to get grilled by our guys about Barry Bonds. Plus, Hollywood luminaries Denis Leary & Kurt Russell checked in.  But of course, this week was all about Mothers.  Here to tell us about the week that was our good friend Bernie...

Another wacky week at Best Damn. Pretty soon I'll just take out the word wacky, because everything is all becoming commonplace.

We had several NFL moms in studio for our Mother's Day show. We asked the mothers to bring in childhood photos of their sons, and Betsy Hasselbeck brought in a picture of Matt in a Superman costume when he was 5 (or so).

Matt Hasselbeck with hair at age 5

If you saw the show, you'd know it was Matt -- a blue top, a cape and red underwear. Of course it was my job to get the photo scanned. Nothing like going to our graphics people and saying, "Hi, please scan this photo of a 5-year-old boy in red under-roos." Not gonna lie, felt kinda perv-y.

I went to the E3 after-party at the House of Blues in Hollywood on Wednesday. E3 is this big electronics convention where they show off all the new games and consoles ... and it's become quite a big deal. Basically, it's a lot of fanfare built around nerd culture. A bunch of cool stars were at the after-party like Tony Hawk, Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez. Beautiful women were there like Brande Roderick.

This guy from Desperate Housewives was there. I didn't know who he was at first, but he kept saying "My name is Blah Blah from Desperate Housewives" so much that I got the point. Brian, the feature producer, quipped, "Apparently, this guy's last name is 'Desperate Housewives.' " Then Shar Jackson showed up, but her publicist said we weren't allowed to ask any questions about Britney Spears. I only had one question: "Who are you?"

Inside the party, there were a lot of games set up to play. They had a Halo 2 station with actual professionals playing. Two of the best pros were these incredibly attractive girls. This was the place where good nerds go after they die. This place was nerd heaven.

"Heh heh ... So, umm, what high school did you go to? Huh huh uh huh ... "

I still couldn't believe this big party was based around video games. I was asking a lot of the athletes what they thought about the new games and they all were amazed by the graphics and realistic gameplay. Imagine if this happened in 1987 and the big new game was RBI Baseball. My guess is the interviews would have gone like this:

Me: "Hey Al Pedrique, what do you think of the new game RBI Baseball?"

Al: "Well, I don't get why all the players are white and look like David Wells."

Me: "Who's better: the video you or the real you?"

Al: "I hope the real me, because the video me sucks."

Well Al, it's true. The video you sucks and I sub you out every time for Tony Gwynn. But I'll always cherish your 1988 Topps Rated Rookie card.

Thanks Bernie, but I was more of a Donruss guy.  Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday May 4

What a crazy month of April here at Best Damn.  And nothing was crazier than the NFL Draft Preview put together by J & Bern.  One half of the fearless duo (Bern) checks in with his thoughts from a crazy last month.

Being a sports fan and working in sports TV, you get to learn more than the average fan.  Here's what I've learned over the past few weeks from working at Best Damn.

The Curse of the Goat is alive and well. When we had Cubs stud Derrek Lee on the show, we thought it would be funny for him to smash a goat pi

Thursday, April 13th

What a great week we had here at Best Damn! We had our share of funny, intense and downright odd moments -- a good taste of what Best Damn is all about. Author Jeff Pearlman joined us today for an interesting conversation on his new Barry Bonds book. Give the guy credit for sitting between two of Barry's friends (Sal & Rodney) and speaking his mind. He definitely seemed nervous, not sure if it was your "run of the mill" TV anxiety or his sitting between two ex-athletes with a very different outlook on the situation.

Artie Lange from the Howard Stern Show was definitely the comedy highlight of the week. He got into it pretty good with our guest host Mike Goldberg (who did a great job filling in for Rose). Highlight of Artie's appearance was Goldy calling him "Artskie." Funny stuff.

But of course, the thing that had everyone talking was the end of our Best Damn Hotties Tournament. We'd like to thank all of you for voting (over 1 million of you). Our newest contributor to the Best Damn Blog, Bernie, gives us his thoughts on the tourney's finale and his "One Shining Moment."

The Best Damn Hottie Next Door (don't you wish?), Elisha Cuthbert

Well, our Best Damn Hotties Tournament has come to its conclusion, and much like the NCAA tourney, we had a surprise winner. And like Florida in the NCAA tournament, the surprise winner blew away the competition. Looking at the 16 women we had, it didn't look like Elisha Cuthbert had much of a chance of coming out on top, but her appearance on the show Monday made it clear that the best contestant won.

First, she looked amazing. Golden locks flowing, smile lighting up the room. Anyone who questioned her victory realized what the rest of America already knew. I mean look at this picture!

Second, she nailed her interview. It was like watching Spud Webb in the 1986 Dunk contest. You know, the underdog makes it to the big stage and you're like "That's cute." Then you watch the performance and you say, "Damn, I didn't know she could do all that!" She seemed like the kind of person that you could hang out with all day and it wouldn't get old. And what was her reaction to seeing her boyfriend, Sean Avery, get into a fight? She watched the tape and said, "(Sigh) That's hot!" and not in the trashy Paris Hilton way, either.

And if all that wasn't enough, have you seen her in The Girl Next Door??? (Side note: Very underrated movie with great music). She's unstoppable.

Cuthbert proved to be the total package, and that's why she's the Best Damn Hottie.

 

Thanks Bernie and way to come strong on your first trip to the Best Damn Blog. And agreed, "The Girl Next Door" is a great movie. Anyone who complains about it being a "Risky Business" rip-off needs to make a trek back to the video store. Until next time....

Wednesday, April 5th

Hopefully by now, you've seen our little April Fool's Joke with Michael Strahan and Tom Arnold.  The staff here at Best Damn thought we had something good going, but Michael & Tom punked even us.   Some of you loved it, some of you (mostly Giants fans) were horrified at least at first.  Our friend in the FOX Funhouse Peter Schrager even devoted the top of his column to it.  Meanwhile, Florida won the National Title and somebody threw a syringe at Barry Bonds in San Diego.  That got our producer Charlie thinking..

Barry Bonds, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'll say it. I'm a sucker for weepers. I'm sorry I have been doubting you. If you're acting, then you got me good. But I don't think you are.

This all stems from what I saw tonight. A competing network (may or may not rhyme with "SMEE-ESS-PEE-ENN") showed a clip of Bonds from his new reality show bawling his eyes out, frustrated with his perception by the media and by those outside of the media. I'll tell you right now - it was one of the best soundbytes I HAVE EVER HEARD.

Sure, he doesn't know me, I don't know him. And like Robert DeNiro's character in "A Bronx Tale" says to his son (to paraphrase liberally), "Barry Bonds doesn't pay your bills, Calogero, he doesn't care about you." So why should I care about him?

Because I'm human. And apparently, so is Barry.

Seeing a grown man cry, a STRONG grown man cry, is slightly uncomfortable. It's like when I saw my father cry for the first time when my grandmother died. That's not supposed to happen. Strong men don't cry. But maybe we should re-program our thinking.

I've never had a syringe thrown at me at the workplace. Barry Bonds has. I'm not on steroids (although I'm quite buff these days due to a new workout program). And as far as we know, Barry Bonds isn't ... Bonds isn't ... he's ... well, believe him or not, he doesn't deserve to be treated like this.

I have no idea what it's like to get crucified by the media everyday. I have no idea what it's like to get hate mail. I have no idea what it's like to have my life or my family's life threatened. Barry Bonds does.

In the minds of many, especially in this country, you are guilty until you are proven innocent. We live in the United States of Doubt, bound by the convictions of the masses, pledging our allegiance to whatever the majority is thinking or saying.

Look, with two books coming out on him, the allegations from the past, BALCO, etc., it's hard to believe that he DIDN'T juice.

But maybe, just maybe, he's telling the truth.

And maybe, just maybe, we should cut him a break.

Because we're human. And so is Barry Bonds.

Peace, and I'm out.

Good point Charlie.  It seems some people won't stop until Barry is crucified.  Remember, Barry has never tested positive for steroids.  There's plenty of evidence to suggest he did, but he's still innocent until proven guilty.  So if you think throwing a syringe at Barry makes you cool, you're the idiot.