The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Hoops

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is mad the the NBA didn’t have his team play in DC–he wanted to meet the President.  But, when you are Mark Cuban, you can pretty much do whatever you want, so he scheduled a meeting between his team and Mr. Obama himself.  [ESPN Dallas]

Deadspin is famous for taking sports journalism to places it never deigned to go before–like publishing leads about major NBA trades put out by rappers who haven’t been famous for years. [Deadspin]

Sacramento Kings 2nd year player Demarcus Cousins and coach Paul Westphal don’t get along, and never really have.  The coach released a statement last week saying that Cousins would be staying home for a road trip because of Cousins’ trade demand.  Cousins, for his part, denies requesting a trade.  Here is a “debate” between a couple of Kings fans about what to do. [Sac Town Royalty]

Who doesn’t love those NBA commercials where they paste enlarged heads of stars onto small bodies?  I know I do.  The latest one is set to “Happy Together” by the Turtles.  It’s supposed to imply that “all is well” with the NBA’s players and owners.  Does anybody actually believe that? [The Big Lead]

Time Warner Cable and Madison Square Garden have been in a contract dispute for a long time now, and fans in New York city paid the price last week when they began missing Knicks games.  Here is a good rundown of what is happening.  [All Sports Everything]

Two of the best college games of last weekend were played within a 80 miles radius of my apartment this weekend–when #3 Kentucky beat #2 Louisville, and when #15 Indiana took down #2 Ohio State.  For my money, those teams are out of order, and should be Kentucky-Ohio State-Indiana-Louisville.  But nobody asked me.  Here are game rundowns by the victor’s blogs. [Kentucky Sports Radio] [The Crimson Quarry]