Sports

While most fans tuned in for the Slam Dunk Contest and the actual game over the NBA All-Star Weekend, we settled in to watch mediocre basketball.

Two teams, each having a mix of musicians, actors, Jersey Shore cast mates and retired NBA legends, battled it out in Orlando on Friday night for a Celebrity basketball game. While expertise in this annual game can usually be described as sloppy, one star came to play. Arne Duncan, the U.S. Sec. of Education, put on a clinic to would-be-ballers trying to keep up with him. As many know, Duncan regularly plays basketball with POTUS on the weekends. He also played professional basketball in Europe after a successful run at Harvard. Duncan racked up 17 points, 8 points and 5 steals in a performance that led his team to a convincing 86-54 victory. There is absolutely zero exaggeration when we say that he could EASILY play for the Washington Wizards and be a starter. Just sayin’.

Here’s just one example of the Secretary of Education schooling the opposing team.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Since Jeremy Lin entered the New York Knick roster as starting point guard, the team has won seven straight games and his heroics have brought the team back to a .500 record. As the Legend of Lin grows, more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon. The latest is Al Sharpton, who has this new promo for MSNBC.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

While, it’s no “Bluebery Pie” ad, it’s still pretty good and shows that everyone is wrapped up in Jeremy Lin hysteria. Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes for a Presidential candidate to start bringing his name up?

 

 

Don’t even get NBC Capitol Hill correspondent Luke Russert started on the Washington Wizards. Because he’s not happy with their performance this season. Not happy at all.

On Tuesday, Russert phoned into the Mike Wise and Holden Kushner sports radio show on 106.7FM to unleash his fury over the “abomination” that has become the Washington Wizards. In the style of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, Russert called this season’s Wizards roster “fundamentally awful.”

WaPo‘s sports blog transcribed Russert’s radio rant:

“My family has [had seats] since 1994. There have been a lot of bad Wizards teams since 1994. This one is so fundamentally awful, I can’t give the tickets away. I couldn’t give my tickets away for [Monday]’s game. That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me as a Washington Wizards fan.”

It looks like the Wizards may have lost their last two fans: Russert and his mom, VF‘s Maureen Orth (whom he said also has season tickets).

FBDC emailed Russert to ask if he tried selling his tickets on Craigslist or if he plans on buying season tickets next year if the team’s roster doesn’t change. Stay tuned. We’ll update if he responds.

The Kastles flaunted their A-game for an A-list crowd last night, beating Kansas City 21-18, at the team’s season opener.  VIPs such as ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson, Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, DC Mayor Vince Gray, DC City Council Chairman Kwame Brown, basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabar, AOL founder Steve Case, AOL-HuffPost VP Peter Cherukuri, and Indonesian Ambassador Dino Djalal all hit the new Southwest Waterfront stadium to help Mark Ein cheer on Venus Williams and Washington’s winning tennis team.

The Kastles’ next match is tomorrow night against the Boston Lobsters.  Only five home games remain after this week so snatch up some tix before July 21st.

*This post is dedicated to the anonym-ass who complained about my Kastles love earlier today.

D.C. journos and other VIPs got a sneak preview of the Kastles’ new stadium last night at an event dubbed “Wimbledon on the Water.”  Owner Mark Ein and Washington’s winning tennis team treated guests like WUSA’s Brett Haber, HuffPo’s Stephanie Green, WTOP’s Mark Plotkin, Revamp’s Daniel Swartz, K Street Kate Michael, FreeInDC’s Amy Melrose, DistrictTicket’s Steve Fox and CSN’s Joe Beninati to court-side cocktails and hors d’œuvres to kick off the upcoming season and celebrate their move from City Center to swanky new digs on the Southwest Waterfront.

The season starts next week with Venus Williams on Tuesday, July 5th and Serena Williams on Thursday, July 7th and ends July 21st.  For more info or to snag some tickets, click here.

The National Press Club’s 14th annual Beat the Deadline 5K Race is right around the corner.  Join race marshals Suzanne Malveaux of CNN and P90X creator Tony Horton to support the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library and its training, education, and diversity programs on Saturday, June 11, 2011. The 5K is slated to begin at 7.30 am with a special pre-race, P90X warm-up led by Horton at 7:15 a.m.  For more info or to register, visit www.press.org/5K.


Deadspin‘s Tommy Craggs weighed in today on the Dan Snyder-WCP lawsuit, just re-filed by the Redskins owner. He specifically responds to Snyder’s editorial on WaPo‘s op-ed page, which Craggs calls “Fred Hiatt‘s bullshit emporium.” Hiatt is WaPo‘s editorial page editor. The editorial, Craggs writes, is “probably the most ridiculous assertion on that op-ed page sincee whatever George Will wrote last week.”

Craggs thinks that Snyder is a “prick” and that his explanation of the lawsuit is mainly bogus, but points out one area where he may have a case. WCP‘s Dave McKenna accused Snyder of forgery, but employees of Snyder’s company were the ones who actually carried out the forgery. But even that argument is probably a stretch.

Check out Craggs’ profanity-laced rant after the jump.

Read more

The famed White House Correspondents’ Brunch, held annually at the home Tammy Haddad and Ted Greenberg, is moving to a new locale on April 30, 2011.  Rather than torturing the fine folks of the Palisades with parking valets and  paparazzi, swarms of pastel-clad brunch-goers will migrate to Mark Ein‘s Georgetown manse for the garden gala. In addition to the revised location, the host committee has added Wendi Murdoch and Susan Axelrod as honorary event chairs.

As for the new venue, we don’t know much but we hear “Topspin” will be bouncing (ha! get it?) would-be crashers in the driveway and guests will be forced to enter and exit Ein’s home using Kastle Systems key fobs.  Okay, I made that up but a boy can dream…  Check out the video invite to this year’s event below.

2011 WHC Garden Brunch Preview from whcinsider on Vimeo.

March is the biggest month for college basketball and the NCAA tournament is in full swing. March Madness has been full of surprises and Tourney Pick’Ems are being thrown for a loop nationwide.  If your bracket is at the bottom of the pile, come drown your sorrows with Yahoo! and D.C. fans at Union Pub on Capitol Hill. The first 50 people to show proof that they’ve selected their brackets on Yahoo!’s Tourney Pick’Em will get a free drink.

WHAT: An evening of fun to kick-off March Madness’ Sweet Sixteen

WHERE: Union Pub on Capitol Hill

WHEN: Thursday, March 24 at 5:30pm

WHO: Yahoo says “all the cool kids are coming, so you should too.”

WaPo sports columnist Sally Jenkins knows her subject matter so well that C-SPAN interviewer Brian Lamb must have presumed she once played sports.

The question resulted in this:

You can watch the full “Q&A” interview on C-SPAN Sunday night at 8 and 11 p.m.