Many moons ago, when YouTube was but a gleam in the eye of various software engineers and businessmen, ABC aired a show called "America's Funniest Home Videos." In retrospect, it was essentially a forerunner of Internet viral videos. Families and individuals would bring in tape of animals doing weird things, babies acting like adults, and grown men getting hit in the crotch with various objects. Then the studio audience would vote on their favorite video, and the winner would get $10,000, which in 2012 U.S. currency roughly translates to 10 million views on YouTube.

Now what does any of this have to do with the NBA? This week, various NBA rookies convened in New York for the annual rookie photoshoot. At one point, Boston Celtics first-round pick Fab Melo and a few of his rookie colleagues sat in rickety folding chairs. Melo's broke, and he fell, and everyone laughed. Because it is pretty funny.

Twenty years ago, the NBA would have submitted this clip to AFHV, and David Stern and Adam

Pau Gasol, on Friday (courtesy twitter.com/paugasol)

As much as we enjoyed watching the 2011-12 Los Angeles Lakers, despite the criticism we heaped upon them for an inconsistent season and a second-round ouster, we're almost relieved in a way that they quickly got to their offseason in the second week of May.

Indirectly, it allowed the team's front office to deal an All-Star center for an All-NBA center, not long after picking up perhaps the best point guard of the last 20 years for a pair of crummy draft picks and a ruddy trade exception. Quite directly, it allowed Kobe Bryant to act as go-to calming influence on Team USA, and Pau Gasol to do some fantastic charity work with UNICEF (all while, whatevs, bringing home a nicely spun silver medal for Spain during the 2012 Olympics).

Pau looked, and forgive my crass tone, more or less beat to hell when the season ended six months ago. A needless NBA lockout was quickly followed with a signed-off on trade that was set to send Gasol to Houston three weeks before the campaign started, only to embarrassingly send the All-Star forward back to Los Angeles once the NBA arbitrarily decided to throw its weight around. A newish Laker offense turned the big man's all-around gifts into an afterthought, sadly, and trade rumors persisted until Los Angeles dealt for Dwight Howard in early August.

[Also: Mavs owner Mark Cuban offers six keys to business success]

Unbowed, Spain's UNICEF ambassador took to Chad on Thursday for a week-long fact-finding mission that he hopes will raise awareness for malnutrition crises that plague that country; one of nine that are part of the Sahel region that dots the middle part of Africa between the Red Sea and Atlantic Ocean. The Los Angeles Times' Mark Medina picked up on Gasol's crusade on Friday:

Last season, the Charlotte Bobcats made history in their futility, winning only seven of 66 games for a winning percentage of .109, the worst mark in the NBA's long history. On top of that, they weren't even an especially exciting team — they didn't score much, didn't defend with any particular high-risk strategy, and saw irregular flashes from their best young players. While the Bobcats figure to be better in 2012-13 — how could they not be? — that woeful season could haunt them for a while.

Unfortunately, sometimes the NBA forces nostalgia. Every offseason, our friends at NBA.com and Turner Sports put together a highlight reel for every NBA team of the 10 best plays from the season that was. On Wednesday, the NBA's official YouTube page premiered their installment for the Bobcats. It's not the best set of highlights you'll ever see, to put it lightly, and there are few reasons for celebration. At Deadspin, Barry Petchesky provides some helpful context for the plays: only three came from Bobcats wins, and the top play — a game-saving block by rookie Bismack Biyombo — came against the lottery-winning New Orleans Hornets, which means this particular win might have hurt Charlotte in the long term.

[Also: Pau Gasol visits Chad as part of his UNICEF ambassadorship]

Yet, despite, the overall lack of excitement, only a true cynic couldn't derive any pleasure from this video. Yes, there are much better top 10 clips around the Internet, and a truly great NBA game could feature more than half of these plays in its 48 minutes. But the fact that any of these plays happened at all, let alone from literally the worst team in league history, is still something worth cheering.

In 15 years, these Grizzlies fans will drunkenly recreate this photo (Joe Murphy/ Getty).

On Aug. 14, we noted that prospective Memphis Grizzlies owner and Silicon Valley businessman Robert Pera had seen his bid to join the NBA look less likely after questions concerning his cash flow and business in Iran. While the circumstances of the latter issue were unclear and perhaps an honest mistake, the problems of the former were more substantial. In less than 12 months, Pera had fallen from the ranks of American billionaires and had his company's stock plummet. Given those developments, it seemed unlikely that he'd ever be approved as an NBA owner.

Pera realized those issues, because he's added some important new members to his investment group. Pera hasn't only improved the financial outlook — he's done so in a way that will ensure the Grizzlies will stay in Memphis for the foreseeable future. From Geoff Calkins and Kyle Veazey for The Memphis Commercial Appeal:

Tex Winter and Kobe Bryant talk up pointy shapes (Getty Images)

For whatever reason, several of the league's more entertaining players have fallen off in recent years. Be it due to injury, confidence issues, rotation frustrations, a poor fit, or general ennui in a profession that can get tiresome, these players have disappointed of late. For the next few weeks, we're going to take a look at a list of familiar names that haven't produced familiar games over the last few years. Or, at least players that have produced games that we don't want to be in the habit of familiarizing ourselves with.

Today, we're looking at Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

Serge Ibaka shows just how thrilled he is with how things turned out for Spain. (Getty Images)

Rising Oklahoma City Thunder star Serge Ibaka entered the 2012 Summer Olympics in London talking a little bit of smack about the big, bad U.S. men's national team, calling his own Spain squad Team USA's equal. It nearly was in the final game of the Olympic tournament, pushing the U.S. for four quarters but ultimately falling seven points short and having to again settle for silver.

Ibaka played his best ball of the tournament against the U.S., scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds in just 22 minutes. That "just" appears to have irked Ibaka, though — according to reports emanating from Spain, the 22-year-old big man was very displeased with the way he was used and the lack of floor time he saw during Spain's eight-game run to Silver.

According to a translation of a piece by Luis Fernando López of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Ibaka expressed anger both publicly and privately during the Olympics in a variety of ways:

After practice, while the other players shared coffee or fruit, the Thunder big man put as much distance as possible [between him and his teammates]. The day before the final, for example, he waited alone on the bus for half an hour, looking heated. The evening before the semifinals, he wandered through a field near the stadium, gesticulating in an unfriendly manner while talking on the phone. Every evening, after workouts, he crossed between the handful of journalists, and only someone suicidal would have dared to stop him.

López goes on to say that Ibaka "felt underused and questioned his standing on the team," and that his distance was a response to frustration with the role carved out for him by national team coach Sergio Scariolo, he of the Etch-a-Sketch-style sideline board (which was reportedly produced especially for Scariolo by ERARCO Marketing Solutions in Madrid). Just how upset was Ibaka?

"If things continue like this, I will not return," he admitted to close friends before the final.

We're betting that Ibaka's not nearly as angry these days, what with that new four-year, $48 million contract extension now safely tucked under his belt. After having taken a couple of deep, money-infused breaths, we'd also hope that he realized his "standing on the team" was pretty much exactly what he should have expected it to be when he joined up with Spain after becoming a naturalized citizen in July 2011.

Kobe Bryant hits Jalen Rose with a little of that extra cheese. (Getty Images)

Jan. 22, 2006, was one of the truly special nights in NBA history. In just under 42 minutes of playing time, Kobe Bryant put on one of the greatest offensive displays professional basketball has ever seen, pouring in 81 points on 46 shots against the Toronto Raptors to key the Los Angeles Lakers to an 18-point win. It was the second-highest single-game point total ever scored in the NBA, behind only Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100-point game against the New York Knicks in 1962. No one who caught it is likely to forget just how amazing Bryant was that night — every weapon in his Hall of Fame arsenal was on display, much to the chagrin of Raptors fans. (Sorry, Raptors fans.)

But what led to Kobe's scorching shooting and deft driving? What, on that night in particular, made him the most dominant offensive player in the world? As it turns out, it was the same thing that leads to most great nights in a young man's life.

In a guest column on healthy living written for Village.com — which is being guest-edited this week by first lady Michelle Obama, a noted supporter of both physical fitness and the U.S. men's national basketball team — Bryant revealed the secret to his record-setting performance:

I only started really focusing on my nutrition a few years ago. I started experiencing low energy and was feeling bloated. Then it hit me: 'Kobe you're not 25 anymore' (I once had pepperoni pizza before scoring 81 points).

Eureka!

A brief fact check: Kobe was 27 when he popped for 81. A brief laugh: Kobe says he "once had pepperoni pizza before scoring 81 points" like he has to clarify which 81-point performance he's talking about, like there's been more than one. A brief dap: It's great to hear that Kobe is, or at least was, a proud member of #TeamPizza. We are many; we are legion.

Kevin Martin glares at Kevin McHale, probably (Getty Images)For whatever reason, several of the league's more entertaining players have fallen off in recent years. Be it due to injury, confidence issues, rotation frustrations, a poor fit, or general ennui in a profession that can get tiresome, these players have disappointed of late. For the next few weeks, we're going to take a look at a list of familiar names that haven't produced familiar games over the last few years. Or, at least players that have produced games that we don't want to be in the habit of familiarizing ourselves with.

Today, we're looking at Houston Rockets shooting guard Kevin Martin.