Was Kevin Durant's head cropped for video game cover?

Am I just seeing things or does it look like Kevin Durant's head was cropped and Photoshopped for the cover of EA Sports NCAA 08 March Madness video game? Either way it looks weird. Would it have been that difficult to find a good picture of Durant to use? I know the guy only played NCAA ball for one year, but there must be a ton of pictures of him in a Texas jersey to choose from. It looks like something we had to make in high school art class--we had to cut out all kinds of different images from magazines and create a meaningful collage without allowing any background to be visible. Whatever. It looks like one of those pictures we cut out and then combined with another picture.

Former Patriot Deion Branch infiltrating Colts territory

Former New England Patriot, Super Bowl XXXIX MVP, current Seattle Seahawks WR, and all around good-guy, Deion Branch, has purchased a $2M property in Carmel, IN--an upper class suburb to the north of Indianapolis.

Deion will have plenty of other athletes to backyard BBQ with on the west side of Carmel, including Colts head coach Tony Dungy (paid $875K in '05), the NFL's highest paid DE Dwight Freeney (paid $1.6M in '06), Pacers player Jermaine O'Neal (paid over $1M several years ago, but property is worth over $2M now--nice investment), Colts DL Raheem Brock (paid $745K in '06), Pacers player Marquis Daniels (paid $400K in '06), Colts C Jeff Saturday (paid about $850K in '03), Colts long-snapper Justin Snow (paid $1M in '07), retired Colts OL Tarik Glenn (paid about $900K), and Colts TE Dallas Clark lives on the east side of Carmel (paid $360K in '03).

From what I have gathered, it is a newly built house that is still finishing up construction. Features include over 12,000 sq. ft., just over 1 acre lot, pond view, Mediterranean style, 3-story wrought iron circular staircase, Roman spa, home theater room, exercise room, tiled roof, outdoor living space with full kitchen, covered porch, 3-levels of verandas, patios and decks.

Here are a few pics:

Jamaal Tinsley's activities before the shooting

I'm sure everyone (in the Indianapolis area anyway) has heard about Jamaal Tinsley's cars getting shot up over the weekend and the Pacers equipment manager Joey Qatato getting his elbows shot (ouch!).

How quickly we forget Joe Qatato and the glaringly absent "u" after "Q" in his name (all of those 2nd grade teachers are fucking liars--apparently "u" doesn't always come after "q"). I feel bad for the guy and all, but I knew I remembered his weirdly spelled last name from another story a few years back: Police: Pacers Staffer Exposes Self At Local Hotel. Insert your joke here about exposing one's self and not having functioning elbows. Good times.

All of this could have been avoided if Tinsley's car navigation system was up to date.

Jamaal and his crew were just hanging out at his downtown pad on Saturday evening doing normal "dude" stuff--drinking Lipton White Tea with Raspberry (it tastes great and gives Jamaal the protective antioxidants he needs for his active lifestyle); watching the Heisman Trophy presentation on ESPN (fuck Tebow--Run DMc deserved it); catching up on missed episodes of "Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" (somebody watches that trash and it's not me) on MTV (that crazy NBA schedule is soooo unaccommodating to the players sometimes--pussy-ass players union!); took notes while watching "Paula's Party" on the Food Network, because Jamaal needed to know how to make eggnog-custard pie for the annual Pacers holiday potluck get-together, and the guys didn't want to miss Grammy winner Amy Grant help Paula Deen prepare Christmas ham and then as an extra surprise Amy performed a Paula Deen-inspired song(!); after that, one of the guys (possibly Jamaal's buddy, "Toine") wanted to switch over to TLC to catch the first 20 minutes of an episode of "Little People, Big World" because he had missed it the other night and really wanted to know if Jeremy had a real talent for sailing in the Bahamas or not; once that was determined, Jamaal's brother, James, suggested that they head down W 38th St for a cruise and possibly some grub at the White Castle or the Steak N Shake over there--maybe run into some drunk sorority girls from Butler while they are there. Since those uppity BU girls are known to rebel against their parents on occasion, James thought it may be a good idea to pack his permitted firearm to further impress the ladies (...look at how big and powerful it is...).

Well, the drive-thru lane at White Castle was ridiculously long so by the time the guys got their food, they were pretty darn hungry and wouldn't you know it--one of the guys spilled ketchup on their white t-shirt. At 2:30 AM where can a guy go to find a XXXXL plain white t-shirt on W 38th St? The only logical place would be Marshalls--you know the one over by Meijer and behind O'Charley's--they always have stuff like that. The guys just followed the driving instructions from the navigation system and they ended up in front of this place called Cloud 9. They were all like, 'What the heck? I thought this was Marshalls right here. This Marshalls must have closed, which is weird because this is such an up-and-coming area of town. I wonder if this Cloud 9 place sells XXXXL plain white t-shirts. We better all go in and check it out.'

Upon entering this new establishment, the young men discover it is indeed NOT a department store, but is instead some kind of night club. The first indication of this was the request for ID and a pat down by the doorman. While mingling with the other patrons of this fine establishment someone from Jamaal's group overheard some fellas making fun of their guy with the big ketchup stain on his over sized white t-shirt. Someone in the group made a comment to these fellas about "trying to find a Marshalls store so we can get a steal of a deal on a 3-pack of XXXXL plain white t-shirts" and I guess the fellas had been drinking too many alcoholic beverages or possibly earlier were indulging in the inhalation of an herbal remedy so they misunderstood what was said and thought they said "we're deep frying lobsters for whores and we dare you to try and steal one of our expensive cars and the airbrushed Tupac shirt you are wearing is gay." A very common misunderstanding I am sure happens all the time in the W 38th St area of town. This guy I know who is NOT a cop, but DOES work security at RCA Dome and Conseco Fieldhouse events told me that a cop he knows told him that it is common misunderstandings like this that make those crime rates shoot up. I shit you not.

Well, that misunderstanding got the fellas all riled up so Jamaal and his crew decided they better get the hell out of there before somebody else misunderstood them and the night ended up like the Club Rio debacle last year. Remember that?--people almost had stray bullets hit the tops of their cars in the parking lot after Stephen Jackson fired shots into the air. Things were so much more fun when crazy Steve-O was here in Indy.

Of course everyone has read the rest of this latest story--shots fired downtown near the Conrad Hotel, James Tinsley chases the shooters around Monument Circle, Qatato ends up getting shot twice, Conrad employee calmly calls 911, etc. Have you heard the audio of the Conrad guy? Calm as shit--as if shots fired and a bloody dude in the lobby are normal occurrences. Although I am sure the Conrad employees see and hear some pretty funky shit because rich people do weird things.

In the end, authorities are still unclear who had the ketchup stain, however my co-worker's neighbor's brother's girlfriend works at the TJ Maxx downtown and she said Jamaal Tinsley was in the store on Sunday afternoon buying a 4-pack of XXXXL plain white t-shirts. I bet he was pleasantly surprised that TJ Maxx had the 4-packs for the same price as Marshalls usually sells the 3-packs. In the end it all worked out. Since this pack had an extra shirt in it, maybe Jamaal will be a good sport and give one of the shirts to Qatato since the one he was wearing on Sat night is probably ruined now. Wait, Joey doesn't need a new shirt--he still needs some pants though.

Some of this is true and the rest is bullshit--if you don't know the difference then you are a moron.

Reggie Miller trying to sell Indianapolis area property for $7.5M

Indiana Pacer great and current TNT broadcaster Reggie Miller just listed his Indianapolis area property for sale. According to the Indy Star article, he is just downsizing and plans to purchase another smaller property somewhere in Central Indiana once this property sells. He is only asking $7.5 million for it--pretty reasonable considering it sits on 6 acres of waterfront to Geist Reservoir. Geist has always been "the" place to live if you were a big shot in Indy. I think Jeff George has a huge place in that area as well. Here is a link to a virtual tour of the exterior of Reggie's house; apparently he is only allowing interior images to be seen by qualified prospective buyers--which is normal for high profile listings like this one. The virtual tour link was created by his Realtor, Dick Richwine from Century 21 Realty Group 1. That is the same Realtor who has had former Conseco founder Stephen Hilbert's $20 Million compound listed for sale in Carmel, IN for the last year or so. I have a feeling Reggie's property may sell a bit quicker than that.

Ever notice how Brian Griese looks like Bill Lumbergh?

I can't seem to be able to locate a good picture of Brian Griese, but last night when I was watching a bit of the Bears-Redskins postgame press conferences, Griese was giving off a very strong Lumbergh vibe. Maybe I was half asleep because I'm not seeing it today.