THE MORNING ACCORDING TO US

Kobe Bryant Is Skilled
An informal poll of NBA beat writers recently revealed Kobe may win the MVP Award this season, over C-Paul and others. We're fine with that; Kobe's story of "Bynum sucks" to "I love my team" has been a compelling aspect of the Association this year. You know what's cooler than all that, though? Apparently he can jump over a moving Astor Martin car. This viral ad for NIKE could be the best sports commercial ever made, although here's a few other nominees: "Leave Nothing" , Ronaldinho's freestyle , the first Tiger Woods NIKE spot , See Lance Ride , and Chicks Dig the Long Ball .

Honeybees Are Dangerous
One of our roommates junior year is watching an Arkansas football game late one Saturday afternoon, and says to us upon seeing the mascot, "Pigs are dangerous, dude." Truer words never spoken. You could say the same thing about honeybees: a swarm of 'em came down on a half-marathon in Japan, and 30 participants were hospitalized. Hey, small insects can often have an effect on sporting events .

Mascots Are Funny
The video above speaks for itself. Basically, mascots try to be funny, and in the process of trying to be funny, sometimes they mess up, and it's even funnier when that happens. Philosophically, that might be a lot to wrap your brain around early in the morning, but really, we're just talking about some fan at The Toyota Center getting a cake in his face or the Gorilla crotching himself on the rim. It's really not rocket science. By the way, we still like this mascot moment .

Spain: The New Vegas?
We were out in Vegas two weeks ago, and walked into the Luxor late one night. Ya know that Carrot Top has his offices right next to Criss Angel over there? In that one instant, we thought: "Vegas has jumped the shark." There needs to be a new one, and where better than Spain? It's already got Ibiza, and now it's starting to get legalized gambling and sports betting. This will honestly be a major story in international sports across the next decade.

Egypt Wants You To Windsurf
We like foreign promos (they are pretty much the only thing that gets us through the 1:30pm to 2:45pm slot of any given day). This one out of Egypt, which essentially is telling you to come there and windsurf, is awesome. It looks like a cross between the trailer for Forgetting Sara Marshall and anything Luther Campbell did in the late 1980s. "Me So Windsurfing" indeed.

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