[Redacted], News and Views No. 2

Here is yet another edition of your total ripoff of homage to Larry King with [Redacted], News and Views (it's been awhile since my last TNV so there will be some older material in here as well)...

• Did you hear that David Beckham is coming to the LA Galaxy? News to me.
  
• The NY Rangers loading themselves for bear could be the best thing to happen to the NHL this offseason.
• Has any North American pro sports team ever turned over their entire roster between seasons? The Portland Trailblazers are basically Brandon Roy away from doing just that.
• Re: The new Gillette commercials. Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry; one of these things is not like the others.
• I've decided that I don't really want an iPhone. Yet.
  
• NBC's Wimbledon coverage this year, like CBS' Final Four coverage, was exemplary. Everything you hope for when it comes to live sports broadcasts. Top marks to Dick Ebersol's people.
  
• Who's Now? is genuinely getting worse every time I see it. Sooner or later it's just going to cause my TV to burst into flames and burn this whole place down.
• Since Stephen A. Smith appeared on the first week of First Take and successfully outfoxed Skip Bayless, he's gone from being infuriating to becoming downright watchable on the air. I should go shower; I feel dirty just writing that.
• Transformers was flippin' awesome.
• Rashard Lewis is good; he is not $126m good.
• The Singing Bee and Don't Forget the Lyrics... hmm.
• Sidney Crosby signs for nearly $2m less yearly than he could have in order to keep the talented nucleus of the Penguins intact. Actions like that from the league's top star make me think there is hope for the NHL yet.
• The WWE would like to once again remind you that they don't think steroids played a part in the Chris Benoit tragedy.
• Kelly Naqi: since you are officially now the Michael Vick beat reporter for ESPN, please gather notes from Pedro Gomez (Barry Bonds), Shelley Smith (Kobe Bryant), Sal Palantonio (Terrell Owens, PHI) and Ed Werder (Terrell Owens, DAL) on how to be the best personal attache you can be.
• ESPN responds to internal criticism of corporate whoring and advertising steering editorial decisions by saying that SportsCenter has one of the smallest averages of ad block time on cable; an easy claim to make when EVERY GODDAMN IN-SHOW SEGMENT HAS A FREAKING CORPORATE SPONSOR!
• Lloyd is taking a leave of absence from Entourage? This had better not mean more Vince to fill time.
• Speaking of Entourage, I would totally go watch Medellin.
• Gary Sheffield says Joe Torre plays favorites based on race but he isn't racist. Which is it? Then Sheffield proves his own stupidity by saying that Derek Jeter "isn't all the way black." Riiiiight.
• Please do not be fooled by the Yankees' hot start after the All-Star break. Their first 28 games after the mid-summer classic are all against sub-.500 teams before they hit a brutal August/September stretch featuring Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Seattle and Anaheim. Let's gauge the Yankees' playoff chances after THOSE games, and not after they play Tampa and Toronto, shall we?
• JTBI points out: there may not be a more dangerous playoff team in the bigs right now than the San Diego Padres.