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      Iker Casillas kisses reporter…

      July 12, 2010 /

      …which turned out to be his girlfriend.

      At first, I thought this was another case of a high-on-adrenalin/alcohol celebrity overstepping his bounds a la Adrien Brody’s planting a kiss on Halle Berry after winning an Oscar or Joe Namath telling Suzy Kolber he just wanted to kiss her on the Jets sideline. But Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas and reporter Sara Carbanero have been dating for a while, so Casillas closed the interview with a kiss.

      Watch for a strange moment at 0:25 where they both seem to choke up a little.

      External Sports, Soccer, Video, World Cup

      What are the Suns thinking?

      July 12, 2010 /
      Toronto Raptors Hedo Turkoglu walks from the dressing room before speaking to the media after finishing their NBA season in Toronto, April 15, 2010. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (CANADA - Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

      After (justifiably) nickel-and-diming Amare Stoudemire, and watching him sign with the Knicks, the Suns are reportedly about to trade for Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress in two separate deals.

      The Suns, according to the Republic, have agreed to send guard Leandro Barbosa and forward Dwayne Jones to the Raptors for Turkoglu, who badly wants a move after a rough first season with Atlanta.

      In the second deal, Phoenix will acquire Childress in a sign-and-trade with the Hawks, who still hold Childress’ rights after the restricted free agent spent the last two seasons in Greece. The Republic reported that Childress has agreed to a five-year, $34 million contract with the Suns, who will use a portion of the trade exception created in Friday’s Stoudemire sign-and-trade with New York to absorb Childress’ contract.

      The Suns will save about $7 million per season for the next two years by trading away Barbosa, but they’re committing almost $78 million in new money to Turkoglu and Childress, for a net of $64 million. Stoudemire signed for five years and $100 million.

      I like Childress a lot, especially in this offense, but trading for Turkoglu? Really? Wouldn’t it be better to hold on to Stoudemire than to ask a 31-year-old small forward to play power forward?

      Granted, the Suns options are pretty slim now that the top free agents have already signed, but Amare signed early, so they had time to make a run at Carlos Boozer or David Lee and were either unable or unwilling to land either player.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      How the Heat pulled it off

      July 11, 2010 /
      Pat Riley attends a welcoming party for the Miami Heat at the American Airlines Arena on July 9, 2010 in Miami, FL (Photo by Jeff Daly / Meet The Famous) Photo via Newscom

      Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer wrote an excellent blow-by-blow account of how the Miami Heat managed to convince LeBron James and Chris Bosh to come to South Florida to team up with Dwyane Wade.

      Riley really put the plan into action last November. During a Cavs visit to Miami, Riley arranged a get together with Michael Jordan and James. Jordan, who was in town to do some Nike work with Wade, at the time did not own a majority of the Bobcats.

      During the meeting, Riley talked to James about how more modern players should pay homage to Jordan. Riley always had led this effort, retiring Jordan’s No. 23 in the rafters at AmericanAirlines Arena even though Jordan never played in Miami.

      The Cavs knew about it, and while it seemed like it could be classic tampering, they decided not to make an issue of it — mostly because the meeting technically wasn’t about free agency.

      After the game, and after seeing Jordan and Riley sitting together courtside, James made an emotional statement on the court that he was going to ditch jersey No. 23 out of respect to Jordan. In fact, he felt all players should stop wearing No. 23.

      It was controversial and got headlines. Riley probably didn’t care so much about the statement but how his conversation obviously influenced James.

      That was a key moment for Riley, but the entire article is worth a read.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Spain wins the World Cup

      July 11, 2010 /
      JOHANNESBURG, July 12, 2010 Robin Van Persie (R) of the Netherlands and Carles Puyol of Spain vie for the ball during the World Cup final at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, July 11, 2010. (Xinhua/Liao Yujie.

      In a nail-biting, rough-and-tumble match that went into extra time tied, 0-0, Spain broke through and scored in the 116th minute on Andres Iniesta’s goal.

      The match was quite physical, as there were a record-number of yellow cards handed out. The Netherlands’ gameplan was to be aggressive and it eventually led to a red card that gave Spain a one-man advantage and led to Iniesta’s goal.

      The funny thing is that the Netherlands could have won 2-0 had Arjen Robben capitalized on a pair of second half one-on-one opportunities at goal. But Spain’s excellent goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, turned him away both times.

      In fairness, Spain blew a couple of nice opportunities at well. It was just an ugly match between two very good teams, and Spain did a better job of controlling the ball. Unfortunately, it’s not the type of match that is going to win any soccer converts in the U.S., but at least the World Cup wasn’t decided by penalty kicks.

      This is the first time Spain has won the World Cup, while the Netherlands falls to 0-3 in World Cup Finals.

      External Sports, Soccer, World Cup

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