The ‘World All-Star Classic’ Is Set; The Next Michael Jordan Is Here

LeBron James just can’t win can he? People get so offended over a couple of tweets that it’s almost kinda sad. We can’t even tell you the number of people who hit us up after this “story” broke. Plus, like 90 percent of them were ready to crucify LeBron. He was probably messing around about Steve Nash and Jamal Crawford. But one way or another, the Heat will almost assuredly improve their depth at some point over the next year or so. If Nash were to come ring chasing in Miami, would you care? Ring chasers get no love from the public, but if that happened, we could see people twisting the story to let Nash slip by without criticism … We’ve been reminiscing a lot about the 1990s lately, whether it’s the lockout or Glen Rice or Larry Hughes. But there’s nothing like looking back at the best kicks from the decade. From Jordan to Nike to Reebok, it was a beast of a decade. Our fam at Complex broke it down for y’all: the 100 best sneakers from those 10 years. We have one major grip that we noticed right away: the Penny IIs at #66? That’s just plain disrespectful. We know A LOT of folks who have them as their GOAT sneakers. We were glad to see the Nike Air Pippen IIs at #69 on there. Very underrated to ball in (we wore out like seven pairs of the retros that dropped a few years back). The list definitely got #1 right though. You can’t argue with that choice … The lockout might slowly be breaking down. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com says some execs are optimistic a deal could be struck but Monday. Others are expecting one more blow up before this thing gets sorted out. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports there was significant progress on the luxury tax but that there are still a few sticking points left to work out. It feels good to have hope doesn’t it? … We love cats who think big. Swing big, miss big is the best motto you can have. It’s impossible to make moves and do big things without having the necessary attitude. But yo… Jordan Crawford lost his mind. Seriously. He tweeted recently that he is On A Mission to become the GREATEST!!!!!! WHY NOT? Well, the Washington Post asked him to elaborate and he did the unthinkable. Jordan Crawford says “I don’t tell nobody, but I feel like I can be better than Michael Jordan.” He was serious too, and he meant the dude who once won six titles, not the guy who works with the Bobcats and dresses terribly. We admire the confidence, and to be honest we bet there are a lot of young players who feel that way. They just won’t say it in front of the cameras and recorders. So props to Crawford for having the balls to say that. Still, we have to crack a laugh and joke. The Wizards are setting themselves up to have a lot of expectations and hype this year. We’ve been a part of that as well. Is Washington going to make a jump this year? … keep reading for more on the ‘World All-Star Classic’ and a picture of what Smush Parker looks like nowadays …

USA Basketball held off the Dominican Republic 77-76 in the opening game of the Pan American Games. Lance Thomas (remember him?) was money, putting up 15 points and 16 rebounds. But team MVP should go to Marcus Lewis, who blocked two shots in the final 12 seconds to secure the win. Somewhere Charles Smith just shed a tear … Tickets went on sale yesterday for the “World All-Star Classic.” The tour might be missing some big names, but there’s still enough talent to go around (the “headliners” are Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Blake Griffin, Paul Pierce and Dwight Howard). The rest of the crew is Amar’e Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, Chris Kaman, Chris Bosh, Kevin Durant, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo and Tyson Chandler. The first stop will be Sunday at 7 p.m. at Puerto Rico’s Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, and yes, there will be captains picking teams. We wish so bad we could be there to see that. Who’s going to be that poor soul who gets chosen dead last? … ESPN put together a rather crazy comparison yesterday: last year’s NBA Finals and this World Series. If you break it down game-by-game, and even big performance by big performance, it’s eerie how similar they are. Game 1 goes from being really close to one team pulling away. Then that same teams blows what would’ve been a sure 2-0 lead. They come back and take Game 3 as the stars step up. Game 4 is where the series turns: both Texas and Dallas rallied for big wins, and held down the opposing stars. Normally these types of comparisons are worthless, but this one had us shaking our heads. It’s almost too close. Too bad St. Louis messed it up last night … Guys, we present you the present day Smush Parker. No that is not some bum off the street. It’s Smush. The first time we opened that image, we thought Halloween was upon us … Steve Nash tweeted out his own picture, reunited with his old pal, Amar’e Stoudemire, and he doesn’t look all that great either. He looks like he should be running for Congress rather than being an NBA player. Maybe it’s just the hair … And finally, here’s a pic from way back in the day with Kobe getting his Kid ‘N Play on … We’re out like “Tebowing.”