LeBron James posed for a wedding photo with a random couple

Your NBA 2K13 cover athletes are Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose

It's a sign of the NBA's continued good fortune, even in the wake of a potentially debilitating lockout, that the anticipation for the cover athlete for a video game in the NBA 2K series is as anticipated as it is. And though we don't normally do this here at BDL, we've learned enough about your continued interest in this game over the years to happily announce that young All-Stars Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose will grace the cover of NBA 2K13, as announced on Tuesday.

Amar’e Stoudemire fined $50,000 by NBA for tweeting gay slur to fan

Looks like the wheels of the machine spin fast when the world's paying attention — New York Knicks forward Amar'e Stoudemire has been fined $50,000 "for using offensive and derogatory language in a Twitter message" by NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, the league announced Tuesday afternoon.

The fine stems from an incident that took place Saturday, when Stoudemire responded to a jab from a Twitter follower by sending the follower a direct message that included vulgarity and a gay slur.

After Stoudemire told his Twitter followers on Saturday morning that he had just finished a lengthy workout, a self-proclaimed Knicks fan who tweets under the username @BFerrelli responded that the six-time All-Star "better come back a lot stronger and quicker to make up for this past season."

Stoudemire replied to @BFerrelli with an off-color direct message: "F*** you. I don't have to do any thing f**,"

Unable to respond to Stoudemire privately — you can only send a Twitter direct message to someone who is following you and, shock of shocks, Stoudemire was not following @BFerrelli — the fan chose to take a screenshot of Stat's direct message and broadcast it to the world.

Nike+ Basketball Presents: Jus Fly Dunk at LA Live

He's the best dunker you've never heard of. Justin Darlington, A.K.A. "Jus Fly," is a Canadian baller with crazy hops. Last Friday he recorded a perfect score at the Nike+ Slam Dunk Contest in L.A. with an insane dunk.

Darlington starts around the three-point line with the ball in the middle of the paint. He runs toward the ball, stops at the free-throw line to do a cartwheel, and on his way up he picks up the ball. As if that's not enough, he throws the ball between his legs before stuffing it. His vertical is 42.3 inches, which is roughly the height of an average five-year-old child. Blake Griffin, meanwhile, is comparatively weak with his still world class 37-inch vertical.

Enough description. See the dunk below:

Justin Darlington Ultimate Mix 

Is He The Best Dunker? 

LeBron haters fuel his hunger for a ring

Game 5 tonight may be the night where all the LeBron haters will continue to hate, but will WITNESS one of the greatest player to ever play this great game in our beloved nation, one win away from winning his first ring. So, all the name calling, jokes on his hairline, and continue criticism will deteriorate tonight. For all the non-LeBron fans thank you for fueling his fire from the behalf of lebron himself. 

NBA Top 5 PG, where is Rondo or Deron Williams?

The Charlotte Bobcats have new uniforms

It is a time of renewal in the Charlotte Bobcats organization, as the team looks to make a clean break from a dreadful 7-59 season that was, in terms of winning percentage, the worst in NBA history. Heading into next year, the Bobcats will have a new focal point, selected with the No. 2 pick in the upcoming 2012 NBA draft. They will have a new coach, with news breaking this week that the team will hire former St. John's Red Storm assistant Mike Dunlap to man the sidelines.

And they will have new uniforms, which were unveiled Tuesday night in photo galleries published by the Charlotte Observer and the Bobcats' official site, respectively. Take a gander at the new togs, modeled (from left) by guard Kemba Walker, swingman Gerald Henderson and big Bismack Biyombo:

They all look reasonably pleased with their new clothes! And why shouldn't they be? They are, if nothing else, different from the ones in which they just lost 59 of 66 games. The Observer's Rick Bonnell details the changes:

They're switching to a darker navy blue, adding Carolina blue as an accent, and further de-emphasizing the orange color that dominated their uniforms their first two seasons.

They're also shortening their nickname on the white home jerseys from "Bobcats" to "Cats." The blue road jerseys will continue to say, "Charlotte."

If the first thing the "Cats" shortening made you think of was, "Well, that's a nice symbolic sayonara to Robert Johnson" — the original owner of the franchise, after whom the Bobcats were named (well,kind of) and who sold the team to Michael Jordan in February 2010 — then you are not alone; I thought that, too. But team president Fred Whitfield told Bonnell that the shortening is "not purposefully" about Johnson, that it is "about brand identity" and intended to reflect what Charlotte fans actually call the team during games. (I guess "WAIT WHY DID YOU DO THAT, OH MAN, YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST" wouldn't fit on the front.)

Kevin Durant sued over ‘Durantula’ nickname by famous ’80s rock guitarist we have all heard of

Sorry, Oklahoma City Thunder fans. I know you were hoping that Kevin Durant, the league's reigning scoring champion and your team's best player, was going to be 100 percent focused on keeping the Thunder's season alive by winning Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards. He will undoubtedly turn all his attention today to mounting a legal defense against a guitarist who claims the Oklahoma City star is a trademark thief. Because that is happening now.

News of the federal suit comes, as you'd expect, from TMZ:

Durant was sued [Wednesday] in Federal Court by a guy named Mark Durante — a guitarist who, according to the lawsuit, was a big deal in the 80s ... playing with Public Enemy, The Aliens, The Next Big Thing, and (our favorite) The Revolting Cocks.

TMZ obtained a copy of the lawsuit, in which Durante says he adopted the name "Durantula" for his "on-stage and performance persona" — and has used it to market "music, recordings, apparel, t-shirts, guitars, and related merchandise."

Meanwhile, sports fans have adopted the handle for the Oklahoma City Thunder star and current NBA scoring champ.

Durante claims he sent KD's people a couple letters "demanding they stop using the nickname" — but says Durant's reps claimed he wasn't using it.

In the suit though, Durante claims Nike has used the moniker to launch a shoe campaign — and KD himself signed "Durantula" on basketballs that are for sale through his website.

David Stern asks Jim Rome, ‘Have you stopped beating your wife yet?’ in response to lottery-fixing question in radio interview

"Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" NBA Commissioner David Stern asked sports talk radio personality Jim Rome during a contentious interview on Rome's nationally syndicated radio program on Wednesday afternoon.

Stern's remark — the textbook example of a loaded question, intended to suggest that the subject has been asked a question he cannot answer without incriminating himself — came in response to a question asked by Rome about public perception that the NBA had rigged the 2012 NBA draft lottery to ensure that the New Orleans Hornets came away with the No. 1 overall selection, despite having fewer chances at the top prize than the Charlotte Bobcats, Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers heading into the proceedings.

The NBA has owned the Hornets since December 2010. The league recently sold the Hornets to New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, who will reportedly pay $338 million to take control of the franchise. That sale is expected to be finalized this week, according to Stern; at present, the league still maintains control of the team.

Rome, a well-known radio host and former ESPN personality whose radio show is syndicated nationally by Premiere Networks and who hosts a daily television program on the CBS Sports Network, is married with two children, according to the bio on his website.

Brandon Roy confirms his wishes to return to the NBA, through an ex-teammate’s Twitter account

In March of 2006, Twitter was created; three months before Brandon Roy was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves and traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. In the time between those epic events and Roy's retirement from the NBA last December, the All-Star guard missed 89 out of a possible 410 contests his team played due to a series of knee ailments, a remarkably low figure considering the severity of the ailments he suffered through. So why doesn't Roy have a Twitter account, this far into the game?

And why, through former college teammate Will Conroy's twitter account, is Roy choosing to announce his potential comeback to the NBA, when it looked for years that his bone-on-bone condition would prevent him from performing anywhere near his franchise-level abilities? This doesn't seem to matter to Roy, who apparently is chomping at the bit and ready to return after having to walk away from the Blazers last winter. Alex Kennedy from HoopsWorld (beware, annoying auto-play video at the link) put two and tweets together on Saturday to boil down Roy's intentions. Here's a summation:

"Lord willing, I will play again soon," Roy wrote in a series of tweets. "Yes, I'm preparing for a comeback. I'm training daily. I'm preparing for a return next year. I appreciate the love. Hopefully I'll be back on the floor soon. Health is good."

And this is where we play fake doctor.

We're sure Roy's health is good. We're sure, after a series of workouts and 14 months removed from his last appearance and the NBA's day-to-day grind, that he's as rested and ready as he's ever been. There's little doubt, considering his layoff, that his wheels are at their peak point of being able to overcome his condition.

The condition, sadly, still remains. You don't re-grow cartilage, and you don't regain the day-to-day explosiveness that cartilage helps provide by sitting out for months and working out diligently. This isn't some ligament tear that Roy is recovering from; his body is missing essential buffers and no amount of rehab can overcome the severity of what he's lacking.

This doesn't mean an NBA return is off the table, though. At worst, Roy could receive a camp invite this fall. He could work out with a squad and let NBA team officials gauge just how far removed he is from his All-Star peak. He doesn't have to play like an All-Star, as well. Rather, Roy could join a team as a serviceable backup off-guard, ready to contribute on an every-other-game schedule rather than sadly disappointing both himself and his Blazers team with those sorts of every-other-game exploits as he did in his final year in Portland, with those knees getting in the way of Roy returning to the sort of production that his smarts, drive and former athleticism once assured him nightly.

Because of issues with insurance and NBA bylaws, Roy couldn't return to the Portland Trail Blazers (as he pointed out on Conroy's Twitter feed) until the 2014-15 season, when the contract extension he signed in the summer of 2010 ends.

This wouldn't, or shouldn't, stop another franchise from at the very least taking a look at the former All-Star, mindful of his struggles and aware of his limitations. Again, Roy isn't working under the same scenarios that befall those who undergo microfracture surgeries (although he's dealt with that procedure) and ligament tears — there are considerable obstacles in his way that no rehab or surgery will aid him in overcoming — but that doesn't have to mean his career is completely over. Despite his retirement last December.

And you can tell the guy is working out. After all, he apparently doesn't even have time enough to set up a Twitter account.