Ron Artest became one of the heroes of the clinching game that gave the Lakers its second straight NBA Championship when Los Angeles topped the Boston Celtics 83-79 in a game that was ugly on the offensive side of the ball and tough as it comes on the defensive end.

Just saying Artest’s name in the same sentence as the word “heroes” is unexpected and against all odds, but the man scored 20, grabbed five boards and had five steals. Video posted on my Examiner.com column here.

On a night when Kobe Bryant had one of those games in which he couldn’t find his shot but tried anyway, Artest was the glue outside that held it all together. He was Mr. Outside with Pau Gasol playing his companion role of Mr. Inside.

Pau could have easily been chosen as the MVP of the series and on this most of important of nights, he shed his “Pau Gasoft” monicker forever. A game seven stat line of 19 points, 18 rebounds and four assists is manly, clutch and worthy of a trophy.

But let’s get back to Mr. Artest. A guy who kept his emotions in check all season and never allowed himself to get giddy about his place on the Lakers, let it all hang out on Thursday night.

His first moment as a Lakers player, in front of media at his introductory press conference he knew he had to be different and said:

“I am not in a position to do anything to win, or I’ll get suspended. I try to be as smart as possible and as aggressive as possible without being ejected.”

He thanked his shrink in his immediate post-game interview on the Staples Center floor. He mentioned her again when he met with the press. She helped him follow through on that day one intention. Lakers fans should send her a fruit basket, at the very least.

He fulfilled his promise to Kobe Bryant from 2008. Bursting into the Lakers locker room at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston after the Lakers lost the championship in soul crushing fashion, he found Kobe in the shower.

Then and there he sized up the situation and knew Kobe couldn’t win without someone else having his back.

Despite him still under contract for another team, Artest decided he was the man for the job and promised Kobe he would help him win a championship and soon. When the call went out for Ron during his free agency summer of 2009, he couldn’t believe his good fortune.

Kobe needed every one of his teammates to fill in the gaps in his game on Thursday night and Artest was the man for the job. Despite his childlike exuberance and stream of conscious orations, the man made good on his pledge.

All the audio and video clips today will highlight Ron-Ron’s random thoughts, his inability to filter himself on a night of pure joy. Yeah, he’s crazy but not the kind that hurts a team’s chances to be the best they can.

It was acknowledged by coach Phil Jackson who called Artest the MVP of the final game. And for Artest, that makes it all worth while.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Barry Bonds took another round from the U.S. prosecutors who put his trial on hold in March 2009.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding the ruling of the lower court, determined that Bonds will not be faced at his federal trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, with positive results from certain urine samples.

That’s because the tests were administered privately by Bonds’ BFF and former trainer, Greg Anderson, not Major League Baseball.

The evidence would have to be introduced in court by the person who was responsible for them and knew the results, and Anderson has refused to testify.

His refusal has been consistent over the years. Read about Anderson’s undying loyalty. Anderson, served more than a year in jail during the course of two periods of incarceration. He chose punishment for contempt of court citations rather than spill what he knows about Bonds.

It’s not as if the government didn’t try every way it could to gain his cooperation. Anderson’s wife and mother-in-law have been implicated in a tax evasion scheme that the former trainer believes is a bold attempt at trading his testimony for lightening up on his wife. Anderson’s lawyer said the IRS was worse than the Mafia.

The case against Bonds is the final one on the calendar that stems from athletes testifying in front of the grand jury that investigated the now defunct BALCO Lab. Bond’s testified that he unknowingly took steroids supplied by BALCO.

The government has one positive urine test to use in its case. Interestingly, when taken in 2003 by MLB it resulted in a negative result. It was only a year later when the feds got a hold of the sample that they tested it for THG and got the positive.

Among the other evidence the government has and will use, is a tape recording taken secretly by Bonds’ former assistant, Steve Hoskins.

It reportedly contains statements made by Anderson during a 2003 conversation with Hoskins related to how and where Bonds got injected by Anderson.

The government took this fifteen month time-out because they believe the excluded evidence is crucial to a conviction.

It is anyone’s guess if the case will proceed after this latest setback. There is another appeal that can be made to the full Ninth Circuit bench and of course the ultimate arbiter of things such as this, the U.S. Supreme Court.

in the meantime, Bonds, who hasn’t played a game of baseball in three years has refused to officially retire. Bonds tells Giants’ fans “I haven’t retired.”

I certainly don’t speak for teams in MLB but I don’t think a contract will be forthcoming any time soon.

MORE: Roger Clemens Remains Under Investigation for Perjury

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The NFL Players Association has filed a complaint with an arbitrator for the purpose of taking a money lifeline away from NFL owners ahead of the expected lockout year of 2011.

The league’s contract with its television network partners contains a guarantee that revenue will continue to flow to the NFL whether or not games are played next season. To the tune of $4 billion.

It provides a huge cushion for lost revenue and acts as a war chest for fighting the players over terms of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

That alone would not be the basis for a grievance, but if money were taken away from the revenue pool shared with players to create that cushion, then it is the perfect reason to start a fight.

The union’s lead lawyer, Jeffrey Kessel told the National Law Journal, “We believe what the league did was to trade revenues during the term of our collective bargaining agreement exchanged for lockout financing from the networks. We think that trade is a fundamental violation of what, frankly, we negotiated back in 1993.”

Kessler, on behalf of the union is asking the arbitrator to escrow the cushion money during the term of any lockout as well as to assess damages once the discovery process determines how much was allegedly held back from the players.

The ultimate purpose is to make it more difficult for the league to financially survive a lock-out or perhaps head it off at the pass. Depositions of league officials who negotiated the television contracts are expected to begin in the coming weeks.

The NFL has had a bad couple of weeks. The recent Supreme Court decision denied it a broad exemption from compliance with the country’s anti-trust laws, and now this. Fun times.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

When Reggie Bush’s advisers either told him or couldn’t get him to settle the claim by Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels, for close to what was asked, the cycle that led to the NCAA punishment of USC was set in motion.

Lake and Michaels were looking for compensation, after Bush and his family received money and benefits from them while Reggie was in school. In exchange they were to represent Bush as a pro but he stiffed them. He signed with someone else.

There is more than speculation that those two men were the sources for the very first story about this scandal, published in Yahoo! Sports a few years ago.

Next, the civil lawsuits were filed against Bush and his family by the two men. Bush decided to go to the District Attorney to claim that Lake and Michaels were engaging in extortion by seeking return of money they weren’t owed.

An investigation commenced into those charges which amounted to nothing. But on the heels of that criminal allegation, the NCAA began its slow crawl towards today’s announced sanctions against the university.

Bush settled relatively quickly with Michaels but continued to refuse to do the same with Lake. Mere weeks ago, Bush and Lake came to a confidential settlement on the eve of him having to testify under oath about the facts of the case.

In the meantime, the university toughed it out, got in trouble on the basketball side of the athletics department and purged Tim Floyd from his position as coach. Floyd, by the way, was not named as a culprit in the report issued today abut the violations related to OJ Mayo.

Pete Carroll jumped to the NFL as the NCAA was getting closer to wrapping up its inquiry. Bush as we know is ensconced with the Super Bowl champs, the New Orleans Saints and OJ Mayo plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA

The music stopped in this game of Musical Chair as of today. Will the cheese stand alone? That is Athletic Director, “Teflon” Mike Garrett. Story on how Garrett uses plausible deniability, here

The NCAA called the situation at the school, a lack of institutional control and while we wait this thing to play out, one huge question remains, “Will Bush lose his Heisman Trophy?”

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

What happened to the Lakers in the final few minutes of game two of the NBA Finals? Rajon Rondo is the answer. But that’s starting at the end of the story.

The Celts 103-94 victory wasn’t inevitable. The game could have gone either way down the stretch, but let’s just go back to the beginning.

Ray Allen created an NBA Finals record of seven three-pointers in one half. He left the court at half-time with 27 total points. The rest of the big four were lagging way behind with most of it due to foul trouble and some Lakers defense.

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were ineffective offensively and Rondo had not begun the heroics. The entire front line of the Celts was in foul trouble including back-up Glenn Davis, and yet the Lakers needed a three-pointer from Kobe Bryant to bring his team within six at half-time.

Thoughts for the home team at the half?

Well, how about putting a body on Allen, slow up on the outside shots that don’t drop and cause fast breaks led by Rondo, keep giving the ball to Bynum who was effective on both ends of the floor, send a search party for LO and tell Ron Artest to get his head in the game.

How did the boys in purple and gold do with that to-do list? Allen only had five more points the entire game, but managed another three-pointer, breaking the existing record of seven in an NBA Finals game.

Odom was still MIA, Bynum had a career night in a playoff game, Gasol and he blocked 13 shots between them and despite Artest dribbling more than a teething infant, the Lakers kept it close, even leading with five minutes left in the contest.

And then the Rondo show began. Kobe had five fouls and had to be as delicate as possible. The inside game of the Lakers was thwarted, turnovers were committed at the most inopportune times and Rondo was absolutely everywhere.

He was like Batman in “The Dark Knight”. You didn’t know what angle he was coming from but he was there to hurt you with scoring, passing and rebounds. With his second triple-double of the post season, Rondo made the Lakers pay.

Don’t listen to the critics who claim the officials tilted this game the Celts’ way. They punished both teams with fouls that were not there.

This was about no contributions from Odom and Artest, very little from Fisher, Kobe unable to score his average in the playoffs and Rondo emerging as the guy who can make the difference when two of the Big Four are absent offensively.

Now the scene shifts to Boston for Games 3, 4, and 5. The Celts haven’t defended home court as well as the Lakers this post-season and the Lakers have shown, against all their opponents in previous series that they can win on the road.

Game 3 starts Tuesday at 9 pm ET.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

When ring judge Arthur Mercante Jr. re-started Saturday’s fight between junior-middleweight champion Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium, it wasn’t clear who had thrown a white towel into the ring in an effort to stop the bout.

Mercante, a seasoned professional and the son of legendary referee, Arthur Mercante Sr. said he had too much respect for the champion to allow someone else to decide if he would lose his belt.

“You know what? I’m a referee who doesn’t like to disqualify or take points,” Mercante said after the fight. “I don’t like to see a guy lose a championship by disqualification.”

Well after the match ended Mercante put the pieces together. Fanhouse Boxing reported that the loud voice he heard, demanding the fight be stopped was Foreman’s wife, Leyla Leidecker, herself a former boxer.

The white towel was determined, ultimately to have come from Foreman’s corner, thrown by trainer Joe Grier. But in Mercante’s opinion, he was feeling pressure from the boxer’s spouse.

From Fanhouse: “What it was is, you’ve got your wife at ringside. That’s what it was. She’s yelling and screaming. And hey, I can understand that. Hey, I can see that. But that’s why wives should be in the 10th, 12th, 15th row,” said Mercante.

Say what you will about Mercante but he is old school. Not just in his view of where the boxers’ female companions should sit, but also about toughing it out despite an injury that made Foreman more than ineffective, it took away his ability to win.

Prior to the eighth round confusion, he had continued to encourage Foreman to “walk it off, champ.”

He gave the fighter enough time to steady himself after what looked to be painful falls from his knee buckling right out from under him.

It appeared as though he was giving the young man courage that he might not have had without Mercante’s insistence that he keep going.

Yuri Foreman lost his championship only after the referee had seen enough in the ninth round to convince him that Foreman had absorbed too much and was no longer in a position to take it.

But not until that precise moment occurred would the assertive, or shall we call him, aggressive Mercante allow his opinion to be swayed.

He evicted dozens of people from the ring in that eighth round.

They had jumped in after Foreman’s corner went through the ropes to try and make it official. First the towel, then the corner men stepped into the ring, followed by the usual TV cameras, print photographers, fight officials and Michael Buffer himself.

He threw out Michael Buffer, microphone in hand ready to announce the stoppage. Mercante would not be denied.

There wasn’t one moment of doubt in his mind that he could make the ultimate decision. He confirmed it by asking Foreman if he was OK to continue or wanted to stop.

He took the side of the fighter and didn’t care who was embarrassed, confused or made to look like wimps. His kindness was acknowledged by Foreman after the bout.

Now that’s old school.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Congratulazione I’ltalia! Francesca Schiavone, is the first professional tennis player from her country to win one of the four grand slam championships.

She fell to the red clay, then climbed into the stands to hug fans wearing tee-shirts proclaiming in English, “Schiavo: Nothing is Impossible”, She defeated Samantha Stosur in two sets, 6-4, 7-6(2).

Both competitors are veterans of at least ten years on the professional tour and reached the peak at the same tournament.

Stosur had vanquished both Justine Henin and Serena Williams to reach Saturday’s final match. Schiavone had to get past Na Li the 11th seed and one of the favorites to win, third seed, Caroline Wozniacki.

Stosur had a tough time handling the power of her opponent’s ground strokes as the match wore on. The Italian’s serves did not break down, even in the tie-break when it was clear both women were fatigued.

Schiavone proclaimed at the trophy ceremony:

“I prepared nothing to say now. If I did, I don’t think anything like this would happen.”

She then went on to prove that she didn’t need to worry about preparation, the words flowed in English and Italian.

John McEnroe declared on the television broadcast that the victory for Schiavone might help boost the efforts of the tennis organizations in that country. The Italians love tennis and have not been able to produce a major champion…until today.

As the World Cup is about to begin, the defending champion, Italy has a new prize to celebrate and Francesca Schiavone will forever be introduced as the woman’s champion of the 2010 French Open.

The men’s championship final will be played on Sunday featuring Rafael Nadal vs. Robin Sodeling.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Floyd Mayweather made a wish come true for 17 year-old Armando Carral. The teenager asked to meet the undefeated boxer through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and his wish was granted.

Along with his mother and sister, he arrived on Wednesday, June 2 at the Mayweather Boxing Gym in Las Vegas and was said to be ecstatic to meet his idol.

“I am so happy to meet Champion Floyd Mayweather,” said Armando. “I am a big fan of such a great boxer and I admire him for his hard work and belief in himself. I am a believer too.”

According to the Mayweather publicist, Floyd spent time talking with Armando and his family while signing autographs and posing with them for photos.

Mayweather was quoted as saying:

“Armando has met challenges that many of us will never see in our lives, He is strong and so is his family.”

Mayweather noted that he was impressed with the young man’s courage and strength which enabled him to finish high school despite the challenges he faces with his disease.

Armando suffers from Hodgkins lymphoma which is a form of cancer that originates from the white blood cells. He has been following boxing for most of his young life and Mayweather is his favorite.

In the meantime, Mayweather is reported to have sent off the latest proposal to the camp of Manny Pacquiao regarding the terms under which he would agree to fight Manny.

Whether Floyd is interested in making boxing fans’ wishes come true with a fight against Manny Pacquiao is anyone’s guess at this point.

Pacquiao is in New York along with his promoter Bob Arum on a tribute and award filled trip. Arum is being honored at the Friar’s Club with emcee Jim Lampley.

Pacquiao is picking up Fighter of the Year and Fighter of the Decade awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The NFL lost a big one in the U.S. Supreme Court. It had hoped the court would allow it to act as one business, rather than a group of 32 teams, for all purposes.

Instead, it was denied the decades-old sweeping antitrust exemption given to Major League Baseball in a unanimous 9-0 decision. Some things cross political lines of individual justices and it appears this is one of them.

The opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens ruled in favor of American Needle, Inc. who sued the league in 2004after it chose Reebok to supply team merchandise on a league-wide basis.

The clothing company challenged the right of the NFL to act in concert with its member teams when it made business decisions that limit competition.

The league countered by saying that its 32 teams are really only parts of one large organization and not separate businesses, which should exempt them from compliance with U.S. antitrust laws.

American lost at trial and at the intermediate appellate level, prior to petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case. The NFL seemed confident it would be protected by the court. It was wrong.

There are two immediate results of Monday’s ruling. First, American was given the right to go back to the trial-level court and argue the original case, hoping a judge or jury will decide the league violated current law.

The clothing company might win or it might lose using the standard measure in antitrust cases. Is the complained of restriction reasonable or does it violate the law?

This may be of assistance to other similarly situated companies who hope to do business with teams within the league. In fact some owners will be happy for the opportunity to earn more money on individually negotiated terms. Think Jerry Jones and Al Davis.

The second immediate effect is on the players’ union. It breathed a sigh of relief since it is facing its own negotiation show-down with the owners and the league.

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is on the table and it was feared by the union that with a green light from the Supreme Court would have given the league more financial clout than it already has…and that’s pretty big.

“Although N.F.L. teams have common interests such as promoting the N.F.L. brand,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court, “they are still separate, profit-maximizing entities.” Some of the common interests are league rules and scheduling of games.

Other sports league threw their lot in with the NFL and submitted briefs in support of its case. They now will have to live (except for MLB) with the new rules set down by the high court. It’s morning in American sports.

In a week when the news was filled with stories about athletes violating drug policies in their sports, Roger Clemens has now been added to the body count.

Clemens has been under investigation for more than two years for testimony he gave in front of Congress in 2008.The grand jury hearing the evidence has been asked to determine if Clemens lied under oath when he denied he was shot-up with steroids and/or HGH.

At that time he was faced with his former trainer, Brian McNamee who told the legislators that he in fact injected the pitcher, not once but multiple times. He ghoulishly kept medical waste that purportedly contained Clemens DNA just for an event like this.

After the Mitchell Report was published in late 2007, McNamee became a star along with former Mets clubhouse employee, Kirk Radomski, who was identified as a source for the drugs.

McNamee trained not only Clemens but Andy Pettite, long-time friends and at the time, fellow New York Yankees.

Congress wanted to know what the heck was going on since all this had been kept on the down-low.

McNamee admitted sourcing his drugs through Radomski and injecting Clemens and Pettite. Roger went on a public relations binge, including an interview on CBS’ “Sixty Minutes”. He was righteous and outraged and continued that posture in front of the Congressional committee, but this time under oath.

In the ensuing two years, Clemens and McNamee have spent a lot of money in legal fees suing and counter-suing each other for defamation of character.

A grand jury in Washington, DC has moved with a snail’s pace to get testimony from many who might be able to shed light on McNamee’s charges and Clemens’ denials. Finally, this week the witness list contains a big fish, McNamee himself, according to the New York Daily News.

He just might determine whether Clemens is charged with obstruction of justice and perjury.

During this past week we learned that authorities believe a Canadian doctor was flying around the U.S. dispensing substances on a very personal basis to athletes who play more than baseball.

We also got the full confession, at least according to him, from disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis. He has decided to ‘fess up about his chronic performance enhancing techniques while he attempts to take down others in his sport, including the Big Kahuna himself, Lance Armstrong.

We learned that the years-long denial campaign that spanned the globe and never got Landis back his 2006 Tour de France victory was a bunch of lies.

We seem to hear that every time an athlete is the subject of investigative digging and faced with facts that can no longer be denied. They admit some, perhaps not all of their transgressions and we all move on.

And that has become the truth about the drugs in sports stuff. It’s sensational, titillating and full of celebrities crashing, but seemingly only for a moment.

Then it’s back to business and the next scandal. Perhaps it’s just better that way.