11 Reasons to Stop Hating the WNBA

Obama's jock-a-riffic weekend riles Dana Milbank

(NEWSER) - The only difference between the boys and the presidents is the scale of their jockalicious birthday weekends, and Barack Obama just threw himself a doozy, a predictably cranky Dana Milbank writes for the Washington Post. The president kicked it off with a round of golf with the boys, kept the ball rolling with some barbecue and hoops with NBA luminaries , then first thing yesterday welcomed the Super Bowl champ New Orleans Saints. More»

Female umpire speaks out against baseball's 'stained-grass ceiling'

(NEWSER) - Forget blown calls. The real problem with umpires in the MLB, says Perry Barber: A complete lack of females. Barber, who has been in the business since 1981, works high school, college, spring training, and Independent League games—and tells DoubleX , “ We’re just going to have to storm the Bastille, baby, and flood the schools with women candidates and shatter what I call the stained-grass ceiling.” More»

Lakers star makes inroads with new Chinese foundation

(NEWSER) - Yao Ming may be an NBA star, but the most popular basketball player in China is Kobe Bryant—he's plastered on billboards and even once had his own reality show on Chinese TV. The Lakers guard has made a deliberate push in the world's largest nation, and he's now establishing the Kobe Bryant China Fund to benefit education and health. "I think he can be a one-man State Department," a financier working with Bryant told the Wall Street Journal. More»

Cops vow to jail miscreants as coliseum fills

(NEWSER) - An estimated 150,000 clogged streets in downtown Los Angeles today as the NBA-champion Lakers took a victory lap around downtown, the Times reports. Some 80,000 more jammed the Coliseum for a rally at parade’s end. Police, hoping to avoid the looting and chaos that followed Sunday’s clinching victory over the Orlando Magic, turned out in force. More»

(NEWSER) - The NBA fined Lakers coach Phil Jackson $50,000 for complaining about the officiating in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, but the frustrated Nuggets think it was money well spent. They got whistled 30 times in last night's Game 5, and they’re angry, reports Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post. “Every player in my locker room is frustrated,” said coach George Karl. More»