Lance Armstrong does not like to be outdone on Twitter. So, when Mike Beasley – an NBA rookie with wings, sunglasses, and broken English tattooed on his back – started hogging all the attention earlier this week, Armstrong took it to the next level and issued a twitter invitation to come hang out with him and ride some bikes.

From Sky News…

The seven-times Tour de France winner issued an invitation via Twitter – telling people to turn up at Phoenix Park.


“Good morning Dublin. Who wants to ride this afternoon? I do. 5:30pm @ the roundabout of Fountain Rd and Chesterfield Ave. See you there,” Armstrong tweeted.


When the American arrived he was mobbed by fans, many jostling for a prime position at the front of the pack with one of cycling’s all-time greats.


The 38-year-old, who is in Ireland for a global cancer summit, said: “For me, I like to ride my bike anyway, so on a very simple level it’s a very sunny, beautiful day in Dublin and I’d be going for a bike ride anyway.

Sky News reports, a bike shop in Dublin rented 190 bikes in two-hours leading up to the event. And according to a report from…well, according to Lance Armstrong tweet, 1000+ showed up for the occasion.

It’s plausibly unrelated, but Shaq has apparently backed off of Lance for now, and scaled down his twitter challenges for Shaq Vs. to Mike from Dirty Jobs.

Scores Join Lance Armstrong On Dublin Ride (Sky News)

From Toronto Raptors rookie, Demar Derozan’s blog today:

What’s going on everybody? A fan named Matthew Gardner made a hot video of my summer league highlights that I had to post on here. Since I’m from Compton, you already know what song he used for the soundtrack…

I think I do know.

At least I thought it was going to be Straight Outta Compton. That’s actually N.W.A.’s 100 Miles and Runnin.’

Demar’s well tuned mid-range game is definitely on display in this highlight reel – check out the baseline fadeaway about 1:10 in, with MC Ren adding: So for now pack the gun and Hold it in the air.

As Eazy E might say, lend Demar Derozan your muf#kin’ eyes and check out his Rookie Chronicles blog. He’s got some typical growing into my millions footage up there – himself picking up his first Escalade, sans rims for the time being.

Demar Derozan’s Twitter

I actually saw this first on Pitchfork, and it happened to catch my eye because I happen to be reading the book Our Band Could Be Your Life at this time.

Thoughts and condolences go out to Gerard Cosloy, whose Austin, TX house burned down early this morning.

Gerard is indeed a sports blogger who runs Can’t Stop The Bleeding. He posted a photo of the rubble of his former home on his site today, along with the quote: “This was a hell of a way to get out of hoovering the living room.”

Gerard told the Austin American-Statesmen, “There are a lot of people who have a lot less than I do who deal with a lot worse, but this is pretty bad.”

More so than an establish sports blogger, Cosloy is an indie rock legend. He’s worked with such influential bands as Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, and Yo La Tengo. He started the rock label Homestead Records, putting out early work by Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and is the co-owner of Matador Records.

I just got done reading about how he got F’d over by Dinosaur Jr in the mid-80s in Our Band Could Be Your Life. Plus, I think he’s a Mets fan. Wow, I feel bad for this dude.

Shoot Gerard some encouragement (he’s @cstbtweet or @gerardcosloy on twitter) if you have a minute.

Thought The Big Web Viral would be interested in this week’s token internet craze. The resemblance is pretty staggering.

Ho damn, The Big Dapper is more like it.  Here I’m am in matching threads and beard.

The meticulous scribe of this article felt the need to clarify that O’Neal is an american basketball star and that his nickname is Shaq, leaving me to believe that The Big World Renowned is not one that we should so quickly add to O’neal’s stable of The Big nomenclature.

The real story here, is that since challenging Obama  in person (roundball meets round-table on a healthcare reform) didn’t go so well the other day, Shaq resorted to the old standby to challenge David Beckham to a game of “soccerball.” It goes on…

And to entice Beckham on the show, O’Neal has decided to post a series of “tweets” calling on the England footballer to take up the challenge.

“Dear david beckham,” tweets Shaq. “I kno u heard about my Shaq Vs show, anyway u will never score a goal on me, I challenge you lil man.”

But Beckham failed to respond to the tweet, prompting another tweet from O’Neal: “David beckham I kno u hear me, dnt be scared, dnt make me call u out, u will never score a goal on me.”

O’Neal’s most recent tweet to Beckham read: “Dnt make me tweet to 2 million people that your scared of shaq, u betta respond, if u scared get a dog.”

There it is. The blow-by-blow on twitter, as reported by newspaperman. In related twitter news, Ocho Cinco doesn’t know what Levitra is.

David Beckham taunted by Shaquille O’Neal on Twitter (Telegraph)

I’m no Sammy Columbo, but I’m guessing Kobe is going to at least get referenced? (And hopefully…capped.)

The Broadband Motion Picture Who Shot Mamba is being billed An Epic Nine Part Saga Told in 12 Parts. Sounds like the sort of irreverent and haphazard production that I could get behind.

Or you could just check out the plot summary:

When he’s accused of murdering a charismatic snake named Mamba, Merri Sherman sets into motion a chain of events that could result in the world’s takeover by a cult that worships a magic basketball, known only as the Orange Roundie. His only hope to stop this is by following the instructions of an ancient prophesy, which may also be predicting his own doom. (IMDB)

Some of the key players behind WSM:

Dustin Pearlman – the director, as noted on the IMDB page. Past projects he’s been involved in include: “30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust” and “Hood of Horror” (aka “Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror”)

Brian Spaeth – the writer, and a man who, if nothing else, deserves your adoration for owning the domain www.madpropstobakedpotatoes.com

Calvin Stadiums - the faux-likeness of the facebook profile linked up on WhoShotMamba.com, with interests such as having the world’s largest and most valuable collection of size D batteries.


Anxious to see how this plays out (hopefully, not in Kobe’s favor).

follow Who Shot Mamba? on twitter

I love Chad. I love Chad for getting behind the Bengals being featured on HBO Hard Knocks when he easily could have gone the route of The T.O. Show on VH1. But, as he demonstrated in a radio interview with KGOW in Houston earlier this week, he’s not exactly a new media visionary. I took a few quotes out of context from his take on Twitter:

“You know, it’s funny – I like it… I have my own application coming out where people will be able to (drumroll, puhlease!!) interact and follow me.

Rebuff:

Either Chad’s a genius and he managed to convince somebody to create “his own application” based around the sole purpose of the original tool (and we’ll all be chadderring by 2010), or he just doesn’t know what Twitter actually does.

“…when the season starts, it’s going to get even worse. I’m going to really make it fun. I’m using Twitter during games, during halftime, after the games. I’m going to be taking it to the next level.”

Rebuff:

Read: I’m going to get fined a lot this season.

Chad ‘Ocho Cinco’ Johnson Ready To Just Play (Sports Radio Interviews)

Follow Chad Johnson on Twitter

Mark Cuban posted an internet apology this morning on Blogmaverick.com for the uncouth comments directed at Kenyon Martin’s mom he made earlier in the week, which he says “started as a smart ass comment that I know that no one heard. How do I know, because there was a reporter right there next to me, as well as other people who saw the whole thing and didnt hear a word of it.”

Yesterday, in another fleeting moment of misjudgment, he posted on twitter what he calls one of many examples of abusive messages he receives regularly. It isn’t pretty.

If Mark’s goal was to make people feel bad for him with this little stunt, well, it worked. A quick twitter search for “@mcuban” revealed several pages worth of mostly sympathetic messages from Cuban’s followers telling him to buck up (and of course, wanting to know who sent this; Cuban chose not to include the twitter handle of the sender). I’ll admit at first I too was more interested in how the NBA or Twitter might react, predicting that an apology might follow from the latter. Upon further consideration, I believe Cuban was out of line and this message should have never seen the light of day.

It’s a question of digital responsibility. Mark Cuban has roughly 39,000 followers on twitter, putting him in the top-200 users in the World. He has been revered for his use of the platform, specifically, his efforts to reply to people’s messages and interact with the community. With that type of reach and influence, it’s unquestionably necessary that you proceed with caution and watch what you say. And in the case of something scathing like this, assume a certain degree of your audience is not sophisticated enough to understand exactly what you’re trying to convey. Even some people who use twitter obsessively were confused by the tweet because he deleted the ID of the sender – at first glance it foolishly looks like @mcuban calling @mcuban the N word.

Like he initially thought when the reporter standing next to him didn’t run with (or according to Cuban even hear) the K-Mart comments, Cuban may believe that he gets a free pass here as well because he deleted the offensive tweet before it could be seen by too many people – of course, the search results say otherwise. However, if Cuban can man up and apologize for something he believes no one heard, then maybe he can do the same for something that multiple pages of @ replies, blog posts, and comments indicate happened in plain site.

I think that no-call on Saturday has thrown Mark Cuban over the edge. Just look at this retweet (WARNING: what you’re about to see may shock you)…

Cuban promptly deleted it, and then claimed it was just one example of the twitter savaging he suffers each day.

I did a quick search for “@mcuban” and his supporters want blood!! (At least they’d like to know who sent him that message). It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and if Twitter responds.

H/T to @melfi from NYHoosier.com for grabbing the screenshot before it got deleted.

Shaq’s MMA trainer went on First Take to discuss the rumors that The Big Cactus (I honestly never heard this nickname before, anyone else?) wants to fight Chuck Liddell…

Wait, how many levels is your academy?

If this guy didn’t pump the six levels six bazillion times, and Shaq-fu wasn’t such a class clown, maybe I’d buy Diesel vs. Liddell. However, is this the dude that tracked down Shaq on twitter and took him on in the octagon?

In other @The_Real_Shaq news, this tweet is hilarious…

Just got dat underwater ipod adaption device jammy so I can hear music unda water, I b aqua jammin, Waaaa Waaa Shaq-mu The quilla …(8:52 PM May 4th from TwitterBerry)

H/T to FastActionNews.com for the video posting.