Why the heck not?

With the 2011-12 NBA basketball season still on hold, it’s not surprising that some of the league’s top players have begun to look for other ventures like Deron Williams playing for Turkey and some of the Denver Nuggets to China.

Now, the league is on the verge of losing arguably its biggest star to date. Kobe Bryant. Sure, you may have heard all the rumors about him joining D-Will to Turkey. Well, that’s over and done. But Kobe moving on elsewhere ain’t.

You see, Kobe just received a very lucrative offer from Italy. Yep, Italian team Virtus Bologna made an offer to Kobe that will allow the Los Angeles Lakers superstar to earn from $600,000 to $800,000, PER GAME. Imagine that huh? Half a million for a game. That’s a lot of money for one game.

The deal will also let Kobe return to his team the moment the stupid NBA lockout is done anytime since his contract is on a per-game basis. Not bad eh?

Kobe is expected to get paid by the Los Angeles Lakers next season a sum of $25,244,000. Do the math and that’s $307,854 per game in an 82-game season so obviously, Italy is looking mighty appealing for Kobe for sure.

Another Italian team is also interested in paying Kobe a ridiculous amount of money. Il Resto del Carlino, after learning Bologna’s intent of signing the NBA star, offered Kobe around $3 million if the Laker signs with them this season.

Italians definitely want him alright…

Well, he really did not say it exactly that way but that’s the message he wants to bring across.

With the chase for the drivers’ championship this 2011 F1 season virtually over and done now that points leader Sebastian Vettel needing only a point to clinch the title, Jenson Button is just focusing on the remaining races ahead, saying that he’ll just go for the wins until the season is over.

In case you’re wondering, Jenson Button is behind Sebastian Vettel by 124 points which pretty means he won’t be able to catch up to the young German sensation.

With only a few more races to go before the season is over and done with, Jenson Button says he’ll just go for race wins from here to the end. Hey, what more is there for him to do anyway right?

”You race for wins, which is the same as we do through most of the year anyway,” the 2009 World Champion said.

”Winning races means so much to us and the whole team because it’s there and then, not spaced out over a whole season. It’s an hour and a half, and you either win or you lose, and when you come away with a win it’s such a special feeling.”

”There’s enough satisfaction from that. Every time you win…

This year, it will be the Cowboys’ Tony Romo against the Redskins’ DeAngelo Hall.

And while the Romo-Hall rivalry has a long way to go before joining the pantheon of great sub-plots in Cowboys-Redskins games, this thing between Romo and Hall is the best one we have heading to their matchup to conclude Week 3 of the 2011 NFL football season.

In case you haven’t heard, DeAngelo Hall threatened to target Romo’s injuries in their game this Monday night. You see, Romo has been battling with some injuries lately and Hall wants to make him pay for just showing up in their matchup.

Well, Tony Romo says he will show up and play in the Cowboys’ home opener against the Redskins. You just know that he can’t just sit this one out right? Especially in their first home game of the season, against their NFC East rivals no less.

”I’m getting better as the week goes on,” the Dallas Cowboys quarterback said. ”I’ll deal with it over the course of the next month, but I’ll be good to go this week.”

Romo backed the statement up by practicing for the first time this week on Saturday. Romo was limited, but he moved around well and passed the football…

Massa denies it.

Felipe Massa has downplayed reports that he gave Lewis Hamilton a good ol’ shove after the McLaren driver wrecked his Singapore GP this 2011 F1 season.

Fighting for position in Sunday night’s race, Lewis Hamilton hit the back of Massa’s Ferrari, breaking his own front wing and puncturing the Brazilian’s rear right tyre.

It was not their first incident of the weekend as Hamilton had previously attempted to overtake Felipe Massa for track position in qualifying and almost crashed into the back of him.

As to be expected, Massa was not very happy with the McLaren driver and confronted him in the paddock while Hamilton was doing an interview to Dutch television.

Give the Brit a slap on the shoulder and pulling him by the upper right arm to grab his attention, Massa said: “Good job, well done.” Hamilton spun around and told Massa: “Don’t touch me man. Don’t touch me.”

The Ferrari driver responded: “You’ll win a lot of World Championships like that.” Hamilton’s response right before he marched away: “Well there you go.” And, of course, it was captured on…

And leading up to the fight, Rampage says he’s going to teach the kid a lesson.

It’s on this weekend people. UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage is this Saturday when Rampage challenges Jones for his UFC light heavyweight title. The challenger feels it’s still his title after losing it to Forrest Griffin and as far as his opinion is concerned towards the current title holder, Rampage has AB-SO-LUTE-LY no respect for him.

With only days before the title fight, Rampage Jackson wrote a piece for Yahoo Sports on why he has no respect whatsoever for the current UFC light heavyweight champion. While it is a surprise that Rampage writes, his lack of respect for Jones isn’t.

Rampage writes, ”everyone has seen how nervous this kid, Jon Jones, is ahead of our fight at UFC 135 in Denver on Saturday. He’s a weird mix of looking intimidated and acting all cocky and disrespectful. He crazy.”

”That’s why I got no respect for this kid. He’s lucky to be champion. He didn’t earn his shot at Mauricio ”Shogun” Rua, that was Rashad Evans’ shot but Rashad was hurt. Then I was offered the shot against ”Shogun,” but I couldn’t do a camp in only six weeks time. Jones was at the right place at the right time and he should realize that for real.”

”He disrespected Shogun by signing autographs as ”Jon Jones, UFC champion…”

The pressure is on him this weekend.

It has been a dominant 2011 F1 season for Sebastian Vettel. Sure he lost some races here and there but at the end of the day, he is still on top of the leader board and nobody got what it took to take him down from there.

And now, at the 2011 F1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel can clinch his second straight title and become the youngest double world champion in F1 history.

But as far as Sebastian Vettel is concerned, he insists he’s feeling no pressure. He claims that the remaining races do not matter to him. He says that the only thing that matters is that he wins the title at the end of the season.

”So far we haven’t won anything but we are in a good position. We have to race and do our best,” Sebastian Vettel said. ”It’s one of the most difficult tracks for the cars and drivers. A lot of people talk about it but certain things have to happen.”

”The target is to optimise our performance. Our target going into the season was to defend our title. It doesn’t matter when, it matters to us only that it happens.”

”There is always pressure on me and on us because we always want to achieve the maximum. I don’t feel any extra pressure trying to win the championship here.”

”Our target was not to win the title by Singapore, it was just to win it…”

This one is for the light heavyweight championship of the world. That’s in case you didn’t know.

The result of UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage could very well change the landscape of the UFC. Because if, for some reason, Rampage Jackson winds up winning UFC light heavyweight title, his reign of intimidation will resume.

Now if Jon Jones successfully defends his title, that will put everybody on notice that Jones is for real, a young fighting champion that goes for the kill every fucking time inside the Octagon.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still rooting for Rampage Jackson to pull a miracle out of his ass and win the title he lost to Forrest Griffin. But the fact of the matter is, Jones is just a new breed of fighter that I don’t think Rampage will be able to overcome. And if ever Jones does defend that title, it’ll be nice for him to usher in a new era in the light heavyweight division where we’ll hopefully see more knockouts.

It’s understandable that sports bettors see Rampage as the underdog coming into this fight. I mean, Jones is younger, faster, and probably still hungrier than than his opponent leading up to the fight.

Yeah, I am one of Rampage’s biggest fans but I must admit that…

After two games, Cam Newton has already put the rest of the league on notice.

He has been so good that many people are already forgetting that Newton’s team, you know, the Carolina Panthers, started the 2011 NFL football season winless at 0-2.

Rookie quarterbacks aren’t supposed to look comfortable in their debuts, especially on the road. They aren’t supposed to make a seamless transition from a college spread offense to a pro-style NFL scheme. Most of all, they aren’t supposed to begin their pro careers by throwing for 400 yards. Cam Newton has.

The Carolina Panthers quarterback was the buzz of the league after throwing for 422 yards, the most by a rookie quarterback making his first start, in a 28-21 loss at Arizona. He followed it up with a 432-yard performance, this time in a 30-23 loss to Green Bay.

It wasn’t the two 400-plus-yard games that made him so great. It was how a 22-year-old rookie quarterback with less than six weeks of experience in the pro game could look like a seasoned veteran.

How he could go through his progressions and find the open man, how unlike in the preseason he was not dependent on check downs to his tight ends and how incredibly accurate he was. It was how he stayed in the pocket and delivered strikes, how he put touch on the ball to allow receivers to make a play and how he was able to diagnose and dissect the Arizona blitz packages.

People who taught Newton will be a failure should have listened to…

And probably to stop Sebastian Vettel from clinching the title there.

Sebastian Vettel is on the verge of winning the title for the second straight year this 2011 F1 season. But a podium finish for Fernando Alonso in Singapore means Vettel can’t be crowned world champion yet this weekend.

Sure, Sebastian Vettel got the title in the bag but the fact of the matter is, Alonso likes Singapore and he’ll be damned before Vettel celebrates with the 2011 world title on one of his favorite tracks.

112 points separate Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso which pretty much means there is absolutely no hope for Alonso to overtake Vettel and steal the world championship away from the Red Bull driver.

But if Alonso achieves at least a top three finish, Vettel can’t claim that second straight championship just yet. It doesn’t even matter if Vettel winds up winning the 2011 F1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix as long as Alonso is up there at the podium with him.

Yeah, if you’re a fan of Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso must really be irritating the shit out of you right about now.

”Our aim, when we arrive in Singapore, will be to win…”

Consider yourselves lucky if we even get to see even a quarter of a season.

David Stern was meeting with NBA owners in Dallas when he got word of how things went at a gathering of NBA players in Las Vegas. Unity, the commissioner was told, was a big part of the players’ message, pretty much saying that the players will still go for the best deal possible and not give in to the owners just because they want the 2011-12 NBA basketball season to start.

The separate meetings updating their constituents on collective bargaining talks came two days after a session between the union’s executive committee and the owners’ labor relations committee brought no progress after the league refused the players’ desire to keep the current salary cap system.

The union emerged from that setback saying the Nov. 1 scheduled start of the regular season could be in jeopardy. Training camps have been expected to open Oct. 3.

Union president Derek Fisher raised the notion of ”a fundamental divide between the owners internally” in a letter sent to his membership. But after four hours of meetings in Dallas, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver insisted ”there is absolute agreement, and it’s a complete fiction coming from somewhere that there isn’t.”

Stern hinted at some difference of opinion when he said there was…