LeBron James graces the cover of next week's Time, and it's a far more flattering photo than the last James cover that made headlines. Surely, you know what I'm talking about. In the issue, which tells us the 100 athletes "to watch," James makes a promise that, after that humbling bronze medal win four years ago in Athens, the men's basketball team would definitely bring home the gold medal at the Olympics this year.

Newly-minted Vogue model Toccara Jones hit the red carpet for last night's Justin-Timberlake-hosted ESPY awards. Despite the occasional "television personality" and actor — Forest Whitaker and Samuel L. Jackson were in attendance — the red carpet was mostly populated by impossibly tall NBA players and their dates/girlfriends/wives, who all looked like little people or children posing with their daddies, despite their five-inch platforms. Pics after the jump.

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Sports columnists are touting the men's and women's Wimbledon's finals this weekend as "instant classics." Rafael Nadal broke Roger Federer's winning streak in an epic battle, and Venus Williams beat her sister Serena, making this her fifth Wimbledon win. The two later went on to win the doubles championship.

Tommie Smith, the Olympic gold medalist who, along with fellow Olympian John Carlos, staged the Olympics' most infamous political protest, the iconic image of which can be seen plastered on dorm room walls from coast to coast, has changed his tune about mixing politics and the Olympic Games. International disapproval of the Chinese government has led to numerous protests and threats of protests over the upcoming games in Beijing, but the former track and field medalist says athletes should focus on their events.

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At this weekend's Olympic trials, Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100 meters of anyone in the world. Ever. The tailwind of 4.1 meters per second keeps him from setting a world record — the wind can be 2.0 meters per second at the most in order to set a record — but he says he doesn't care about the wind. He's just happy to know that he can run 100 meters in 9.68 seconds. “I didn’t really care what the wind was,” Gay said. “I’m glad my body could do it. Now I know I have it in me.” [NYT]

Though Tiger Woods might have suggested otherwise, American golf is still a sport for good ‘ole boys. Or so its talking heads have themselves convinced.

In January, Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman all but revealed this little secret, when her comments about the unstoppable Tiger Woods – and how his competitors’ only hope of beating him was to “lynch [Woods] in a back alley” – blew the lid off that not-so-secret pot.

And then, over the weekend, NBC Sports’s lead golf analyst Johnny Miller added to the fury with one ill-advised comment about U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate.

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Yesterday's announcement about the Hill Harper-narrated documentary, Soul Wave, got me thinking about black surfers. A quick google search pointed me in the direction of the Black Surfing Association and a web site for another (or maybe the very same) black surfing documentary. They sites a gold mine of surfer photos, including a series of pictures of black surfers attending the Jena Six protest with posters stuck to their surfboards.

As if most New Yorkers don't already hate Al Sharpton enough, he's planning on another Sean Bell protest — the last one blocked the city's bridges and messed up traffic — during the MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. New Yorkers might be used to horrible traffic, but, seriously, don't mess with their baseball. Sharpton & Co. say the protest will go as planned unless there is some move to pass legislation to curb police violence.

"We have plans to do the same at the All-Star Game," Sharpton said. "We will seriously consider suspending our civil disobedience if we can see some legislative action."

The legislation Sharpton wants passed would reform the Civilian Complaint Review Board, require drug testing after cops fire their guns and ban arrest quotas. What do you think about Sharpton's protests? Do you think they'll bring about change or are they just a nuisance?[NYDN]

The Sports Illustrated list of the 50 highest-earning athletes in the United States are golfers (you know Tiger Woods is No. 1 with $128 mill earned last year), basketball players, baseball players, NASCAR drivers, football players, and one boxer. It should come as no surprise that there isn't a single female on the list.

After Tiger Woods, the top ten is rounded out by golfer Phil Mickelson at No. 2 ($62.3 mill), LeBron James at No. 3 ($40.5 mill), Floyd Mayweather at No. 4 ($40.2 million), Kobe Bryant at No. 5 ($35.5 mill), Shaq at No. 6 ($35 mill), A-Rod at No. 7 ($35 mill), Kevin Garnett at No. 8 ($31 mill), Peyton Manning at No. 9 ($30.5 mill), and Derek Jeter at No. 10 ($30 mill).

Teachers, hide this list from kids who you're trying to convince to choose academics over sports.

MAKING A SPLASH IN THE INNER CITY As summer rapidly approaches, scores of children from all walks of life will be heading to their community pools. But which ones will be hanging out in the deep end? With the Make A Splash program, the Boys and Girls Club of America and USA Swimming, the organization that sponsored a study that concluded that 60 percent of black children don't know how to swim, are trying to reduce drowning rates by offering free or low-cost swim lessons to inner-city children. "We see the disproportionate drownings in communities of color because generationally those parents and grandparents did not have the opportunity or access to quality swim programming," said the diversity specialist for USA Swimming. "As a result they didn't pass it along to their children."

Thanks, BMD!

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]