Is it finally Spain’s year? Can Italy repeat? Will Brazil samba its way to another title?

Or will it be another country that raises the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa? Starting June 11, those questions will be answered as thirty-two countries compete for one of the most coveted trophies in all of sports.

It’s time for the ”Beautiful Game” to take center stage.

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Here we go again.

Yep, in case you haven’t heard, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics will be playing once again for all the marbles as the 2010 NBA Finals will feature a rematch of 2008’s classic Lakers – Celtics series that saw Boston capture its 17^th championship by beating Los Angeles in six games.

This time though, it’ll be a little different as the Los Angeles Lakers will come in as the defending NBA champions after winning the championship last year by beating the Orlando Magic, the same team the Boston Celtics sent home in six games to return to the NBA Finals this year.

Can the Los Angeles Lakers beat their storied rivals this time around to win the Larry O’Brien trophy? They should. Because unlike two years ago, the Lakers now have the frontcourt to go toe to toe with Boston’s Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins and since the Celtics are starting to feel their age a little bit, there’s no reason why Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum can’t take advantage of Boston’s somewhat aging fort.

Of course, the Lakers still remember how they lost the championship to the Celtics two years ago. Boston put on quite a show in the clincher in Game 6 when they handed the Lakers a humiliating 131-92 loss, the biggest margin of victory in a Finals clincher, EVER. Not that it was a blowout already. THAT game was a close one until subs James Posey and Eddie House blew it open with three-point bombs from…

Well, in the regular season anyway.

With the 2010 NBA playoffs just around the corner, Ron Artest can still turn what has been a disappointing first season in Los Angeles around. Of course, if he continues to be passive as he has been this year, Laker fans will always remember that day when they traded a promising young talent in Trevor Ariza away for this moron.

And in case you haven’t noticed, yup, Ron Artest hasn’t really done shit since being traded from Houston to Tinseltown. Artest is averaging a career-low 11.4 points this season, which isn’t completely surprising because he never has played on a team with so many other offensive weapons.

However, it’s his drop in defensive success that has been unexpected.

He was the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2004. He was first-team All-Defense in 2004 and 2006. He was second team All-Defense in 2003 and 2009. But as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, he has been relegated to that guy with the stupid haircut for most of this year’s campaign.

Part of his struggles, he said, was because he had added weight in recent years trying to get stronger and more physical. The Lakers coaching staff asked him to lose a few pounds earlier this season, and he believes it has made him quicker again.

”Last couple years, I slacked off, but I’m back now, picking up people, taking the ball from them, locking them up,” Artest said. ”Anyone trying to attack me now is going to have problems.”

The Lakers were hoping the addition of Artest could…

Yep, those two teams are still their two favorites to meet in the NBA Finals this year.

We’re at the halfway point of the 2010 NBA basketball season which usually means the trading deadline has passed and we have a handful of teams with improved lineups, all making that final push for a prime playoff spot.

Of course, all them moves have a huge impact on the betting public. Are the favorites last November still the favorites to win the title at this point of the year? Who made the biggest move to warrant your attention this season?

Well, as far as BetUS.com is concerned, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers are still their two favorites to compete for the world championship in the NBA Finals. And in case you were wondering, yes, most sportsbooks are picking them two teams as well.

The NBA’s All-Star weekend came and went without much fanfare as the dunk contest was panned by fans and media alike and the most exciting stuff being exhibited by some of the…

SportsCenter will be a little busy in a few days.

Because in case you didn’t know, the 2009 NBA basketball season is here. And since we already have the NFL season underway and the MLB playoffs starting to heat up, it’s certainly nice to be a sports fan at this time of the year.

And as far as the NBA season is concerned, the Los Angeles Lakers will try to defend Kobe’s first ever title without Shaq, hoping that last June’s successful run to the title will be the first of successive championship seasons. After all, teams coached by Phil Jackson are known to win titles by threes. But do they have enough this season to win it all again?

With the departure of Trevor Ariza, mercurial stalwart Ron Artest should quickly fill that hole. At this point of his career, Artest just wants to win a title so hopefully, he won’t be a distraction to this Lakers team like he once was with the last few teams that he played for.

Back to back titles would virtually be a wrap if the Lakers could get steadier production from big guys Andrew Bynum and Josh Powell. The team’s Jekyll and Hyde play is still a concern but as long as Kobe Bryant keeps this team together, they will still be in the position to win a world title.

If there’s one team that can challenge the Lakers this season, it would have to be the very team they played in the conference finals last season, the Denver Nuggets. After acquiring a true floor leader in Chauncey Billups, the Nuggets tied their franchise record of 54 regular season victories back in the 2008-09.

Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony will continue to…

Who made the right moves for the 2010 NBA Title?

Shaquille O’Neal joins LeBron James in Cleveland, Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant are now teammates in Los Angeles, Rasheed Wallace is now in Boston and Vince Carter hopes to bring some magic to Orlando, that’s just some of the huge storylines we can look forward [...]

Richard Jefferson was a no-show at his own wedding.

Yes, Richard Jefferson just walked away from his own wedding, leaving his guests puzzled and his wife, stupid. This is something he doesn’t need coming to his inevitable debut with his new team in San Antonio for the coming 2009 NBA basketball season.

Apparently, Richard Jefferson already dumped his bride, Kesha Ni’cole Nichols just before the wedding day. The problem is, their guests didn’t know that until they got to the actual ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental.

Jefferson was suppose to marry former New Jersey Nets dancer Kesha Ni’cole Nichols in a $2 million wedding ceremony before calling the whole thing off.

”He called about two hours before the wedding. It was nuts,” one of Jefferson’s friends said. ”He never showed up at the hotel, but all his boys were there. He gave his best friend the Black Amex [credit card] for the night.”

Jefferson’s guests made good use of the credit card to party on their pal’s dime

Jefferson became a huge part of what is turning out to be a whirlwind offseason after moving from Milwaukee to Texas to play for the San Antonio Spurs.

Jefferson moving to Texas is only one of the huge deals…

Replacing Trevor Ariza with Ron Artest is a downgrade, let’s just put that one out first.

Sure, Ron Artest is obviously the more talented player but why in the world did the Los Angeles Lakers let an energy guy like Trevor Ariza go and jam Artest up on their roster that just might mess up the chemistry these guys have been trying to establish the last couple of years?

That is the dilemma the Lakers are in heading to the brand new 2009 NBA basketball season. For a team that already won the NBA title, was getting a guy as volatile as Ron Artest the right way to go?

For all of you who didn’t know, Ron Artest signed a mid-level exception to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, receiving $18 million over three years.

This is the same guy who mixed it up with Lakers star Kobe Bryant on multiple occasions during the 2009 NBA playoffs. Hell, they almost killed each other with elbows then and they’re suppose to be teammates now?

Sure, he will add extra toughness to a Lakers team trying to defend their championship. But if Artest can’t put his ego aside, they might as well kiss their bid for a re-peat goodbye.

Well, they’d have to anyway with Shaquille O’Neal now…

Madre de Dios, this offseason just keeps getting better and better.

Everybody should be hyped up for the coming 2009 NBA basketball season now as early as July with the number of blockbuster deals we’ve seen.

Get this; Richard Jefferson is now in San Antonio, Shaquille O’Neal will now play with LeBron James in Cleveland, Vince Carter returns to his home state in Florida to play for the Orlando Magic and Ron Artest just joined the defending NBA champions Los Angeles Lakers. And just when you thought it won’t get any better, another deal comes out.

And the latest is Rasheed Wallace agreeing to play for the Boston Celtics for at least two seasons. Although nothing is final yet since free agents can’t officially sign with new teams until July 8 this Wednesday, ‘Sheed has committed his 34-year-old ass to Boston, grabbing this opportunity to play for a legitimate title contender now than waste the remaining few years of his career with the inept management skills of Joe Dumars in Detroit.

The Boston Celtics wanted him bad too. A contingent from the Celtics organization, including owner Wyc Grousbeck, president Danny Ainge, head coach Doc Rivers and Boston’s ”Big Three” of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen all descended on Wallace’s suburban Michigan home for a three-hour meeting with the free-agent forward.

During the course of the meeting, the Boston Celtics…

At best.

Yep, you read it, because there are rumors that claim that this latest injury hitting the seven-foot Chinese giant coming to the 2009 NBA basketball season is so severe that they’re calling it career-threatening.

Apparently, Yao Ming hasn’t fully recovered yet from the broken foot he suffered from during the NBA playoffs. And while the brand new season is still a few months away, Yao’s recovery is so behind schedule that they are already ruling the big guy out for the entire season, or worse, his NBA career.

”At this point, the injury has the potential for him missing this next season and could be career threatening,” team physician Tom Clanton said.

”One of the things we are trying to get is a consensus opinion on that, to make certain there is no option we are overlooking that would provide an earlier return or would be an option for treatment that he would prefer rather than doing additional surgery.”

Yao Ming suffered a hairline fracture of the tarsal navicular bone of his left foot when his Houston Rockets were playing the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the NBA playoffs. The team initially ruled Yao to be out for eight to 12 weeks but they found out that he could be missing a lot more time after a bone scan revealed that the fracture is not healing properly.

This leaves the Houston Rockets with no choice but to…