Get it while it's hot! By now you all know that the King has left the building and is in Miami (literally, as you read this). But now's the time to stock up on your LBJ goodies!

The best deal so far? Get a Lebron James Fathead. If you were unaware, LeBron's biggest fan Dan Gilbert (and apparently a big fan of Comic Sans) not only owns the Cavs but he's a big investor in Fatheads. And to celebrate, you can now pick up a LeBron Fathead for the price of $17.41 (on sale from $99.99)! Why $17.41? Well...

Benedict Arnold, the American general during the Revolutionary War who betrayed his country and became synonymous with the word "traitor," was born in 1741.

Oh, Dan Gilbert. You are a funny, funny man. Way to stay classy. If the goodbye letter to LBJ wasn't enough, this should really make him regret his decision. Good luck with that personal guarantee to win a championship before the "self-titled former King" wins one.

So far it seems like you're on the right track.

And I'm sure Cleveland is a great town and all, but your tourism videos needs a little work!

With the World Cup fast approaching, the national teams of the participating nations are eagerly anticipating the announcements of their final squads.

The other day, Marcello Lippi announced his preliminary squad that will be attending a 3-day training session.

Most Azzurri fans hold Lippi in very high regard, given that he delivered the World Cup title only 4 short years ago.  It doesn’t hurt that Roberto Donadoni made such a mess of his Euro ’08 squad that anyone else seems like a savior in comparison.

Given that I’m an absolute master of the transfer market in FIFA 10, and consider myself quite a team architect, I think it’s time I showed Marcello Lippi how to put together a team.  My qualifications speak for themselves, so let’s examine my master plan.

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Doug Pensinger - Getty Images

McDaniels is risking his and the Broncos' future on Tebow's ability to develop into an elite quarterback. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

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I just read Peter King's Tuesday Edition Monday Morning Quarterback which focused on Denver's choice to pick Tim Tebow with the 25th overall pick in the NFL draft and his chances of seeing playing time this season.  After reading it I'm now convinced that Denver head coach Josh McDaniels is really setting himself up for a major failure of his making in many ways by trading the 40th, 70th and 114th picks in a deep draft to pick Tebow.  

The 25th pick is worth 720 points on the chart every team in the league uses -- some more religiously than others.  The 43rd pick is worth 470, the 70th worth 240, and the 114th worth 66.  That totals 776.  The Broncos paid 56 more points than were necessary by the chart -- equivalent to the 199th overall pick, a late fourth-rounder -- to get Tebow.  Denver, obviously, wanted to make the deal badly enough to ratchet up the compensation.

Let's give McDaniels credit here for trading down from the Broncos' initial position at 11 to arm them with the ammunition necessary to get back into the first round.  That's the last nice thing I'm going to say about McDaniels.

You can't afford to be trade away a second, third and fourth round pick to move back into the late first round unless you're getting a blue chip prospect that you're positive will be starting for your team from the moment he joins your team, especially a quarterback.  Regardless of if you think Tebow's going to be successful or not, it's a unanimous decision that he's got a lot to work on in terms of mechanics and his reading of the game.  There is little chance that Tebow will be under center when the season kicks off.

"When I went to Gainesville Monday to work him out,'' McDaniels said, referring to his hush-hush trip to spend the day with Tebow, "we spent about seven hours together. We went over a lot of things. Now, understand that our offense is pretty complicated, and the terminology and the scheme is totally different from what he did at Florida. But about midway through my time there, we're going through plays, and he starts using our terminology. He's so smart about football that he was able to begin to speak my language and talk apples to apples. He'd already translated what he knew of our scheme into my words. That's something that carried a lot of weight with me.''

McDaniels also said: "The football traits he has is the stuff you die for.''

Well I doubt McDaniels spent seven hours with any of the other quarterback prospects to ascertain if they picked up his terminology as well. There's a good chance Jimmy Clausen, who's already been exposed to a similar pro-style offense run by Charlie Weis, McDaniels' predecessor in New England, would have been capable of the same thing.

I'm not a Tebow hater.  He was one of the greatest college players of all-time and lead his team to a national championship during his time there (being a back-up quarterback and coming in for spot duty during a championship run does not count as leading your team, but contributing to its success).  He does a lot of charity work and whatever you think about his religious stances, he's really not a bad guy in any discernible way, at least that we know of.

What about his game really translates well to the NFL though?  I don't want to hear about how he's a leader and that he brings intangibles that can't be measured to the table.  That comes in to consideration after evaluating his ability to play quarterback in the NFL, which has been questioned by more than a few.

He played in a spread offense at Florida and never took a snap under center during his time there.  He had a an awkward throwing motion that had a long wind-up and his footwork was never particularly good.  His mental understanding of the game in terms of reading defenses and coverages is also not close to the pro-level.  He had a poor Senior Bowl, where he missed open receivers and looked lost against the nation's top senior talent.

Tebow's been working on a new, shorter release that allows him to get the ball out of his hand faster and scouts have been impressed with his development in this, but what's going to happen in a game situation?  Old habits die hard and when the pocket's collapsing on third down with defenders bearing down on him I'm not sold that the poor footwork and awkward throwing motion will disappear.

Either way McDaniels and Tebow are bound together now and will be judged on McDaniels' decision to revamp the No. 2 ranked offense in terms of total yardage gained per game that he inherited from Mike Shanahan.  

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Miami Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland had to tuck his tail between his legs today and apologies to recent Dallas Cowboys first round pick, and former Oklahoma State Cowboy WR,  Dez Bryant after it got out that during the pre-draft process he questioned the player on his mothers promiscuity. Apparently during a visit to the Dolphins in March, Ireland asked Bryant some pointed inqueries about his personal background, specifically the, now regrettable, question if his mother was a prostitute.

Although reports are that Bryant didn't flip out, he was clearly perturbed by the dead-pan 'Yo Mamma' joke that the suit dropped on him - particularly considering there has been a lot made about his mother's troubled past, which included a stint in jail for drug offenses.

Within his genuine apology, Ireland did explain that its his job to know everything about his players - or potential players - before the draft and that detailed questions about their family life are not uncommon. All is well that ends well, as the 'Boys ended up trading up for his services, meaning Dez will be getting the chance to play for a title contender in his home state, while getting paid to catch balls from one of the NFL's elite QB's on a national stage almost every week.

As hopefully soon-to-be team owners ourselves we can't help but wonder how our fans will act when they get their turn as the GM. While this specific query does seem to be out-of-bounds, we can imagine that there are lots of scenarios where some sensitive personal background info will be of serious interest to our fan's as they work to submit a vote on who is making our squad. We will continue to leave it up to the fans to decide things like what types of questions prospective new players, coaches, etc have to answer as part of the interview process - so hopefully they leave our candidates mama's out of it.

Yesterday it came to light that Chicago Bulls Vice President of Basketball Operations, John Paxson, confronted head coach Vinny Del Negro following a game on March 30 culminating in Paxson grabbing Del Negro's tie, jabbing him in the chest, challenged him to a fight and had to be pulled away by assistan coach Bernie Bickerstaff.  The dispute apparently started over Del Negro's breach of an agreement on the amount of minutes Joakim Noah would be limited too as he comes back from injury.

This should be the last straw for Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf to fire Paxson who's been a part of the organization since 1985 as a player, assistant coach, radio broadcaster, general manager and in his current role.  

Paxson began his front office career in promising fashion, but since that sparkling start has fallen off. The results is a Bulls team that seems perpetually fighting for a seed in the lower half of the Eastern Conference, but isn't able to make the jump up to the league's elite.

Hired in April 2003 to replace Jerry Krause as GM, Paxson took over for a Bulls team built around the twin towers of Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry that had a strong finish to the 2003 season.  That offseason he drafted Kirk Hinrich No. 7 overall in the draft to replace the injured Jay Williams.  Hinrich was named a member of the 2003-04 NBA All-Rookie team and is still a part of the team.

The next summer was Paxson's best period as GM.  In the 2004 NBA Draft, Paxson found immediate contributors, drafting Ben Gordon No. 3 overall and Chris Duhon No. 38 overall in the second round.  In the same draft he also traded for the No. 7 pick from the Suns and landed Luol Deng in exchange for $3 million cash and a future first round pick which ended up being the 21st pick in next year's draft, Nate Robinson.  He then signed undrafted rookie free agent Andres Nocioni who had won a gold medal with Argentina in the Olympics and been named MVP of the Spanish A League that season.

The moves paid immediate dividends as the team made an unexpected return to the playoffs finishing with a 47-35 record, good enough for the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference (ahaha Leastern Conference, so funny).  The Bulls lost their first round series with the Wizards in 6 games after going up 2-0 in the series, but Curry and Deng were unable to play in the series due to injuries, the former with a mysterious heart condition.

Curry had been diagnosed with a heart problem before the playoffs and Paxson would not allow him back on the court in any capacity with the team unless he underwent DNA testing.  Curry refused and demanded a trade and as the saga carried on it became obvious Paxson had to make a move sooner or later.  

Paxson smartly took advantage of Isiah Thomas' desperation for mismatched talent, trading Curry and Antonio Davis to the Knicks for Michael Sweetney, Tim Thomas and two unprotected first round picks in 2006 and 2007.  The Bulls had the option of swapping for the 2007 pick with the Knicks depending on the two teams' draft position.  

The Bulls struggled without Curry's inside scoring presence and dropped back to the pack finishing with a 41-41 record.  In the playoffs they faced off against that year's eventual champion Miami Heat, losing in 6 competitive, physical games.  This prompted many to speculate that with the addition of size in the frontcourt and a low post scorer the Bulls would become a championship contender.  

This was the summer in which Paxson began to screw everything up.

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Assuming Brandon Marshall likes rap music, and given his general demeanor I'd say thats a safe bet, then he should definitely be bumping Ice Cube's classic "It Was A Good Day" - as that guy had to have had one of the best days imaginable.

Marshall has long been demanding that the Broncos 'show-him-the-money' or trade him, with an apparent preference on the latter. Well, today both of his wishes (as well as my dreams) came true - he got paid $47.5mil to move to Miami and play for the Dolphins. I know the Rockies are beautiful and I'm sure Broncos fans really support their team and blah, blah, blah - but for some reason I can't picture Marshall sloshing down the slopes and am pretty sure the move to South Beach is a serious upgrade for his preferred lifestyle.

Tack on half a hundred mil and this guy must feel like its Christmas & his birthday rolled into one. Not to mention the Dolphins ain't too shabby - last season they were respectable, Chad Henne looked like he may develop to a real QB, and if they stay healthy they've got a very nice running back duo which will help Marshall get a lot more open looks. Of course given his penchant for off-the-field problems, I can't imagine living on South Beach will help him minimize his run-ins with the law - but hopefully he can just stay out of trouble long enough to cash in some of those big old checks the Dolphins will be sending him.

Now for the Broncos its a different story. One year ago their new head coach (who was replacing an all-time great that they pushed out) traded away their Franchise QB for a perennial back-up and now they've given up their most dangerous offensive weapon again for not much in return. I understand Josh McDaniel's approach and the whole "There is no 'I' in Team", but at some point he's going to have to learn to deal with the over-paid diva attitude of top pro sports talent - because without them the Broncos just wont be able to compete in the modern NFL.

On November 3, 2008 Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars made two critical personnel moves.  Dumars traded away 2004 NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups along with Antonio McDyess (who was waived and returned to Detroit) and Cheikh Samb to the Denver Nuggets in return for Allen Iverson.

This trade was made in order to get the Pistons far enough under the cap to allow them to be players in free agency.  Iverson's max contract expired at the end of last season while the Pistons got rid of Billups' contract which extended into the 2010-2011 season, with a team option to extend another season worth $14.2 million.  

For a team with an aging group that had reached six consecutive conference finals, but was clearly on the decline, this was the prudent and necessary move to make.

However a move he had made earlier in the day, seemed to contradict the logic behind trading Billups.   Earlier Dumars had signed then 30-year old shooting guard, Richard Hamilton, to a 3-year, $34 million extension that would keep him with the team until the end of the 2012-13 season.  

Dumars wanted to get the franchise under the cap to start a youth movement and rebuild the team so he traded the team's best player in Billups and in return received the expiring contract of Iverson.  That move is in line with the stated goal, but what I don't understand is if that's what you're trying to do why would you extend Hamilton, an aging shooting guard on the downturn of his career hours immediately before making a cap clearing move?

This season Hamilton, now 32, has appeared in only 46 games and has seen his field goal percentage drop from a respectable 44.7% to an abominable 40.9%.  His three point shooting percentage, true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage have all also dropped from last year  According to Basketball Prospectus, Hamilton's production has been virtually equivalent to a replacement level player, registering only a 0.1 WARP in 46 games.  

The worst part is the extension that Hamilton signed last year comes into affect at the beginning of next season. Hamilton will be 35 when his contract expires in 2013 and appears to be at the beginning of a decline in his play that will certainly not justify the $12.65 million salary he will be earning every year until then.  Hamilton's bloated contract also makes him virtually untradeable and currently makes him the highest paid Piston.

Even with that albatross contract Detroit was still in a decent position to improve.  Entering last summer with significant cap space Detroit had two options.  They could begin rebuilding a team that was swept in the first round of the playoffs by signing players in free agency to retool the squad immediately or they could conserve their cap space and enter the bonanza that will be this upcoming summer's free agent market.  

With so many teams hesitant to splurge in the hope of landing LeBron, Wade or Bosh this summer, last year their were far fewer teams looking spend during free agency.  With less competition Dumars was dealing from a position of strength.  He could afford to be patient and refuse to overpay players as they had less leverage because of the lack of suitors.

Instead Dumars did the opposite by immediately overspending on underwhelming talent.  

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(Before you read anything else, say that title in a Mike Tyson voice, it's WAY more entertaining!)

As usual, during the lead-up to the NFL draft, there are trade rumors flying.  There are a few veteran names being bounced around with a variety of draft picks rumored to be going the other way in return.  The veterans in question are typically either past their prime, unhappy with their current team, or asking for a new contract that seems over-valued.

This year, the only name that is really flying around is that of Donovan McNabb.  At first it seemed like it was just a ridiculous rumor, but now it's grown big enough, that there must be some substance to it.

Now, we all understand that our teams have to think about shopping our best players, because they could get enough in return to make it worthwhile.  In this case, there is absolutely nothing to gain for either side. 

Unless McNabb is going to a team with a shot at the Superbowl, I can't see him being happy.  Why would he want to jump to the Raiders or Rams?  He's not exactly ready to help a team rebuild.

More importantly, why would the Eagles want to deal him?  The Eagles offense ranked 11th in Offensive DVOA last year with McNabb as it's centerpiece and he finally has the receiving weapons to make his great arm worthwhile.  For years he had to scramble for first downs when no one could get open, and now he finally has some aerial wingmen.

McNabb is still a very good quarterback and can easily take his team deep into the playoffs.  The skeptics will point out some sort of "always a bridesmaid" argument, but that was Ricky Williams who wore the wedding dress.  McNabb took the Eagles to the playoffs 6 times and has a 9-6 record in the postseason.

Just check out Donovan's career passing stats from Football Outsiders after the jump...

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