Making Her Mark Marking Her Territory

There's no question we're in the age of trolling, from people voting with potato sacks on their heads to a basketball player's fiancée texting all of his ''side chicks''... all 200 of them.

Now, I don't know anything about basketball except that there's a guy named LeBron James, there used to be a guy named Carmelo Anthony, and that Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, ''Magic'' Johnson and Wilt Chamberlain used to play the sport, when they weren't busy scoring off the field.

Which is admittedly what Victor Cruz seems to be doing as well. Good on Elaina Watley to mark her territory, though. I guess.

Here they are in, presumably, happier days:

Here's the group text she sent:

Touché. Literally.

Hero of The Day: Jason Collins

I know next to nothing about basketball. I mean, I know the rules for having played it a bit in high school, and I'm aware that in order to win, a team must score more points than its opponent, and that some baskets are worth 1 point, others 2, the trickiest farthest 3.

Like baseball, I stopped following the pros over a decade ago, so while I watched a lot of games involving Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Larry Bird when I was younger, I haven't seen Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James or Dwayne Wade play.

I stopped caring when the Toronto Raptors came in, and when Shaquille O'Neal became a superstar. Not because of those events, but around the same time. I went from casual fan to not caring at all. So that's for context.

What changed? Not much. I likely won't watch a game any time soon, but my respect for its players has increased a tad now that Jason Collins has come out of the closet. For a while now, basketball players were up there with football players as athletes whose egos got so big they thought they were above the law: allegations of rape, selling drugs, gun violence, robberies, gang affiliations... the only ones who didn't get prison time settled out of court - not exactly a plea of ''not guilty''.

And yet, just when everybody was looking at the NFL for the first openly gay in the top-4 of North American pro team sports, in comes a basketball player to take a stand. We'll see where that gets him, though, because as of the end of the season, he'll be a free agent. His twin brother - Jarron Collins - became a free agent two seasons ago and never got hitched to a team; now teams would have an extra reason to exclude Jason if they had any inclination in that direction...

Speaking of Jarron, he was completely unaware of his brother's orientation. So much for twin telepathy!

Hopefully, this starts a chain reaction of coming out and acceptance, and we can get back to what really matters: the sports themselves. And when we focus on the athletes and try to figure out what type of person they are, we can assess how they treat those they get in bed with (i.e. 'not a rapist', 'doesn't cheat on his wife'), and not bother with their gender.

Oklahoma State And The Number 10 (R.I.P.)

10 months after Oklahoma State commemorated the 10-year anniversary of a plane crash that killed 10 men associated with the school's men's basketball program, another plane crash killed its women's team's head coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna.

I'd say the irony is killing me, but I'm not going to tempt Fate on this one.

Ball Handling

I bet she could give a few basketball players some ball-handling lessons... wait, no, that's not how I should have phrased that.

Dirk Taste

Apparently, LeBron James doesn't just have friends.

NBC knows it.

Two In The Win Column For Common Sense (And People's Rights)

The one time Sean Avery says something intelligent - well, that makes common sense, at least - and I am referring to his public support for gay marriage alongside many other famous New Yorkers such as Michael Bloomberg, Bill Clinton and Julianne Moore - got a player agent (Todd Reynolds) so angry he tweeted his disagreement.

Many people reacted, most condemning him for being dumb and behind the times, a few in support. Sportsnet's Damian Godard was fired after supporting the agent, because we thought Canadians were more evolved than Americans on the matter.

Yesterday, former NBA superstar Charles Barkley, ever the quotable man, said he'd probably played alongside homosexual basketball players on at least two teams. And that he was fine with it (which surprised me a bit, I must admit).

Kobe Bryant's Snot-Gate

Apparently, Kobe Bryant doesn't like ESPN's Ric Bucher, not enough to not put snot in his hair, in any case.

And that's the reason why sports bars are at full capacity these days? WTF?