One of the great things about new NBA commentator Shaquille O’Neal joining the ranks of TNT instead of ESPN is that O’Neal won’t be censored by the Bristol brass when he wants to call out ESPN personalities like Skip Bayless, and ESPN personalities like Dan LeBatard won’t pull their punches when criticizing one of the greatest centers in league history.

Last night Shaq appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show and discussed how would be upset with media critics whose resume didn’t measure up to his. He refused to mention names until he finally dropped “Skip Bayless.”

Bayless, who used to write for a living but is now a morning yodeler on ESPN’s First Take, responded on Twitter, “I’m told Shaq takes another shot at me, tonite on Conan. Has open invite to debate me on 1st&10. Ducking. Maybe he’s more Shakira O’Neal.”

Nice move by Skip, trying to cut Shaq down by giving him a girl’s name. That angle is gold in third grade.

For the third straight year, NBC will air an hour-long WrestleMania special.

WrestleMania: The World Premiere airs Saturday, Aug. 13 at 9 p.m. ET, and feature highlights from WrestleMania XXVII this past April.

The highly anticipated pay-per-view event in front of 71,617 fans at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta marked the WrestleMania return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and featured a main event between John Cena and The Miz for the WWE Championship.

Not only did Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final doing well in the United States, but Canada as well.

The opening game between Vancouver and Boston was the highest-rated NHL game in the history of CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada with an average audience of 5.6 million. Viewership peaked at 7.8 million viewers.

The previous record of 4.96 million viewers was set in 1994 during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Canucks and New York Rangers.

Wednesday’s Game 1 also goes down as the second most-watched sports program on CBC, trailing only the 2002 Olympic Men’s Hockey Final (8.96 million viewers) between Canada and the United States.

The final numbers are in and NBC Sports’ coverage of the 137th Kentucky Derby drew 14.54 million viewers, the fourth most-watched Derby in 21 years, according to The Nielsen Company.

Saturday’s race is down 12 percent from last year’s 16.5 million and down 10 percent from 2009′s 16.3 million viewers.

The only other Derby viewership to surpass Saturday’s since 1990 was in 2004 when Smarty Jones won the Derby (14.6 million). Read more

It must be difficult to enter the same profession as your world-renowned grandfather. Add in the fact that 18-year-old Pat Summerall shares the same name as his grandfather and, well, those are big shoes to fill. The young Summerall hails from Philadelphia and will be a freshman at Baylor University this fall. He will study communications and marketing in Waco, Texas, less than a two-hour drive from the Southlake, Texas, home of his grandfather and his grandfather’s wife, Cheri.

“When I was on my college search, they suggested that I check out TCU and Baylor,” young Pat Summerall said of the elder Summeralls. “They kind of always wanted to have one of the grandchildren go to school near them. I applied to both of those schools, and when I took a visit, I ended up loving Baylor. And having family that close by was a major pull factor to go to Baylor.”

“I’m glad he picked Baylor because it’s close to where we live,” elder Summerall, 80, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“If he weren’t a broadcaster,” the teen said, “I probably wouldn’t look into it. A lot of that world is how you can get started. Any kind of help you can get is good in that world, because it’s really hard to get started.

“I thought: Why not give it a shot? I like sports, and people have told me I have a good skill set for it.”

Ever wondered what a college football broadcast would look like in North Korea?

I’m shocked Kim Jong-il didn’t find a way to throw for 400 yards and three touchdowns.

[H/T SportsGrid]