Aaron Hernandez's boys are turning on him. According to court documents, an alleged accomplice in the Odin Lloyd murder case says he was told Hernandez admitted to the killing.
Chris Wondolowski knocked in three goals for the USMNT, despite the misspelled name on his jersey, as they routed Belize 6-1 in their opening game in the Gold Cup. Landon Donovan became the first US player with 50 goals and 50 assists in his USMNT career.
According to OTL, Ryan Braun refused to answer questions about PED use.
The Red Sox smacked five homers to beat Seattle 11-8. David Ortiz had four hits, including a homer, to tie Harold Baines' record for 1,688 hits as a DH.
The Chicago White Sox managed 23 hits, with 12 coming against Justin Verlander, as they snapped a four-game losing streak with an 11-4 win over Detroit.
The Knicks may be interested in Metta World Peace.
The Lakers owe the NBA $30 million in luxury taxes.
Birdman is likely to re-sign with the Miami Heat.
FLASHING LIGHTS
Tony Touch's album drops today featuring this cut with three-fourths of Slaughterhouse.
It wasn't in the first or second week, but J. Cole's Born Sinner will be No. 1 on the charts after moving 55,000 copies last week.
Jay-Z stops by Hot 97 to talk to Angie Martinez.
DID YOU REALIZE?
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing suspect, was indicted on 30 counts by a grand jury. The Boston One fund will soon pay out $61 million to the victims of the attack.
At least 148 female inmates were illegally sterilized in California prisons between 2006-10.
A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally in the US would add at least $2 billion in tax revenues to local and state government. Fat chance of that happening with people like Michele Bachmann still in the Senate (not for much longer!), as she is currently out to kill the immigration bill before she leaves office.
A woman in Texas gets fired up at the abortion hearings and goes off on GOP policies before being escorted out of the Senate by police officers.
EVERYTHING I AM
Shadow League member Scoop Jackson writes about the coming extinction of the playground basketball legend for ESPN.com:
They're not totally gone (Adrian Walton, Steve Burtt Jr., Greg Plummer, etc.) but they're no longer being born, no longer in production. Gone is the day when a guy made a career by hustling in his own neighborhood or, at farthest, in the parks and courts of his own city (leaving aside for a moment the source of that cash). We have entered into the newly eternal generation in which all great players — all players with professional basketball talent — actually at some point play professional basketball.
No longer are there promising NBA-able players who float under the radar or make it to age 20 before being discovered in pickup games at Dyckman Park or in the Kenner League.
No more Rafer (aka Skip To My Lou) Alstons: kids whose games are birthed and raised on concrete, who had really no big-time, all-state high school career (Alston played a total of 10 games at Cardozo High School in New York as a junior and senior), a limited college career (one season at Fresno State after two seasons at two different community colleges) but still made it to the NBA.
The closest we'll get now is the journey traveled by a few players just drafted into the NBA. No. 3 pick Otto Porter Jr. and No. 2 pick Victor Oladipo, to be exact. Porter was the 42nd-ranked player according to ESPN coming out of a small high school in Sikeston, Mo., in 2011 with no attachment to any other team except his high school squad. Oladipo was ranked 144th in the nation according to Rivals.com coming out of DeMatha High School (in Maryland) just three years ago.
Both as anonymous as a player can be today going into college. No prep school. No McDonald's or Parade All-American recognition. Also no national showcase games or AAU for Porter.
Which, if anything, can be singled out as the main reason the playground legend is becoming or will soon become extinct.
GOTTA HAVE IT
Pete Rock and Camp Lo have a collab album coming out on July 30th and released the first teaser from the project with Mac Miller.
