• Jay-Z can't imagine why Amy Winehouse would want to call Kanye West a "c**t." I'm sure there are many people who could fill him in on some reasons. [EUR]

• And this is only one of the many reasons why watermelon is so great — stereotypes be damned! [Jezebel]

• Are the kids who are doing the Wu-Tang old enough to even know what Wu-Tang is? [C&D]

• Solange does her own thing. Best of luck. [SR]

• NBA players, patriotic sports fashions, etc. [NB]

• The Root dedicated its editorial space to black fathers today. [The Root]

• Last night's disaster of a game (if you're a Laker fan) drove Kobe Bryant to drink. [TMZ]

• Mike Tyson makes my head hurt. [PH]

• Office fans: Rashida Jones could be starring in a spinoff of the NBC comedy. [E!]

• Alicia Keys wants to adopt a multicultural group of kids just like Angelina Jolie! [SP]

I'm no big fan of sports, but out of all of the sports I'm not a fan of, I find basketball — of both the college and professional variety– the most compelling. I usually get at least a little caught up in March Madness and the playoffs, which are going on right now. Check out some action shots below.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHITE COACHES AND BLACK COACHES? A new study found that black NBA coaches whose teams have losing records are fired more quickly than white coaches whose teams have losing records. Interestingly, the study also found that racism was not a factor in the firing of coaches. [ER]

Lebron James probably wishes that he wasn't so easy to lip-read. At last night's playoff game against the Celtics, Lebron was fouled by Paul Pierce. His mother (the sprightly 39-year-old in the white t-shirt) jumps up like she's going to do something, and James yells at her repeatedly and angrily, "Sit your ass down!" No one wants their mom interfering at work, but you also can't tell your mom to "sit her ass down." And on national TV, too! Later in the same clip, the clueless commentators go on to praise Lebron's grace and maturity.

DENVER DUI Only a few hours after leading the Denver Nuggets to victory over the Houston Rockets, Carmelo Anthony was arrested for drunk driving. Cops pulled him over around 4am Monday morning after they spotted his Mercedes weaving and he failed to dim his high beams. La La's gonna be pissed. [WP]

• Now he's back to Sean Combs. And I have officially lost patience with all of this. [NB]

• Ah, satire. [OHN]

• Are the Clintons trying to call Obama's pro-choice stance into question, despite him getting a 100 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America? [JJP]

• Busta Rhymes makes a deal and stays out of jail. [MTV]

• If you friend Ghostface on Myspace, you better buy his record, too. [SOHH]

• Get it together, Heat players. [MM]

Last night was 80's retrospective night at the Staples Center, and, for the first half of the game, the Lakers decided to pay homage to the bygone era of basketball by wearing the booty shorts of their predecessors. Here are Kobe Bryant's thoughts on the matter:

"I don't know what it feels like to wear a thong, but I imagine it feels something like what we had on in the first half," he said with a grin. "I felt violated. I felt naked. It's one thing to see films with guys wearing those things. … I'd rather stay warm, man."

Dignity wasn't the only thing the Lakers lost last night. The Celtics beat them, 110-91.

[Image Source: Bossip]

• It's really sad when one can find a more lasting love on I Love New York than on The Bachelor. [People]

• Omarion defends Chris Stokes against child molestation allegations. He said Stokes was always like a father figure to him. [SOHH]

• Kobe Bryant is the youngest player in NBA history to score 20,000 points. Sports. Yay. [EUR]

• Check the difference in enthusiasm — IDRIS ELBA! YAY! [BV]

• Marion Jones's sad steroids evidence. [TSG]

Stephon Marbury, NOW's favorite NBA player, who plays for the Knicks, NOW's favorite NBA team, lost his father to a heart attack during Sunday night's game against the Phoenix Suns. But it gets worse, if possible. His dad was in the stands when he experienced heart pains early in the game and was rushed to the hospital, where he died. Apparently, everyone was privy to this except for Stephon Marbury.

Several Knicks officials knew the awful, heartbreaking truth late in the game but they said Marbury's family had asked them earlier not to tell Stephon his dad had taken ill.

"Don't tell Steph," a relative said, according to a Knicks official. "Let him play."

Good thing they chose not to tell him! It would have really affected his game, which was apparently pretty good that night. But the Knicks lost anyway. [NYP]

I knew there was a reason I devoted so much valuable time having a monstrous crush on Allen Iverson when he played for Georgetown! Now, I'm not saying that a little Good Samaritan work trumps domestic violence charges and all that, but still. He pulled over his car in Hampton, Va. (his hometown), to aid two women whose car had flipped over on the median.

"I remember looking in there and asking them, 'Are you sure you're all right? Is anything broken or anything like that?' " Iverson said Monday. "One of them looked up and said, 'Oh, my God, are you Allen Iverson?' I was like, 'Yeah, but don't worry about that. We're trying to get you all out and make sure you're all right.' "

An eight-time All-Star and one of the league's most recognizable - and sometimes polarizing - players, Iverson has received plenty of negative publicity during his 11 NBA seasons.

When did Kobe Bryant ever save two women trapped in a smoking vehicle?

[RMN]

Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knick's executive who claimed she was fired because she complained about touchy-feely, verbally abusive head coach Isiah Thomas, is disgruntled no longer. A jury ruled today that she was entitled to punitive damages from the Knicks, although Isiah Thomas will not have to pay her any damages directly.

Today’s verdicts are the latest embarrassment for the Knicks, who have floundered in recent years. The team has had six head coaches since 2001, has only made the playoffs once and has signed numerous expensive players who have flopped.

During the trial, testimony by witnesses made the inner workings of the Garden appear dysfunctional, hostile and lewd. The Knick’s star guard, Stephon Marbury, testified that he had sex with a team intern in the trunk of his car after a group outing to a strip club in 2005.

Aren't sexual harassment lawsuits a bitch?

[NYT]

Tim Hardaway used to be best known for basketball, but most recently, his claim to fame is that he virulently, unapologetically hates gays? Or does he? Since the brouhaha over the homophobic comments he made in February, he seems to have made an honest effort to change.

"I just wanted to go in and get educated, that's all. Get educated on what I said and why I said those things," Hardaway said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm working on understanding it now. I'm not really trying to make amends. I've been there trying to get help."

Hardaway has declined many interview requests in recent months, saying he didn't want to make his work with advocacy groups seem like a publicity stunt or a quick-fix to an image problem.

"I had no idea how much I hurt people," said Hardaway, who spent most of his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat, and still makes his home in South Florida. "A lot of people."

Hardaway has become a regular at the Yes Institute, an advocacy group for gay kids, and the activists there seem to think he really has turned over a new leaf. I believe him if they do.

[SI via QT]

Being one of the country's most famous professional athletes, living in Miami, gracing the "50 Most Beautiful People" list, and getting married when you're still a child are not factors that, when combined, are known for contributing to a faithful marriage.

Ask Dwyane and Siovaughn Wade, who have supposedly called it quits.

We definitely probably know why. Here's hoping D.Wade doesn't try to blame the divorce on some cryptic financial fraud on his wife's part like his teammate did. We won't believe him, anyway.

[CL]

I don't know where I've been, but the seedy, sexist underbelly of the Knicks franchise is being exposed in a $10 million sexual harassment suit filed by Anucha Browne Sanders, a former executive at Madison Square Garden, against Knicks coach and basketball legend Isiah Thomas. Sanders says she was fired because of her complaints about Thomas, who she says called her bitch and a ho and claimed not to "care about white people." He also told the former college basketball player he loved her after a friendly game of horse.

For sheer entertainment value, I think, genius orator Stephon Marbury took the stand yesterday, when the case went off in a slightly different direction. Marbury was forced to admit that he lured Sanders' intern into his car for sex (after his cousin had speculated out loud about the attractiveness of her genitalia) and that he called Sanders a bitch (but not a black bitch, he is quick to say) when she told him he couldn't give away any more free tickets.

I concluded, from looking at the photos from outside the courtroom, that Marbury was happy to be there despite the somber proceedings. But that's probably because it's Thomas on trial and not him. And, I mean, who doesn't have sex with an intern at some point? Isn't that what they're there for?

[NYDN]