At this point, it's not hard to envision a world in which Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace is appearing somewhere on television 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Between his phenomenal stint as a Canadian weatherman, his upcoming supporting role as a detective in a Lifetime adaptation of a Nancy Grace novel and his just-booked slot as an "overtly sexual vampire elder" in a reality TV parody pilot, the 32-year-old artist formerly known as Ron Artest is showing a real commitment to working his way into the broadcast world, honing his craft in a variety of settings and showing casting directors everywhere that he can fit seamlessly into virtually any TV genre.

Next up for MWP: Children's programming, a hand-in-glove fit for the oversized personality. World Peace and daughter Diamond Artest appeared Sunday on a sports-themed episode of the hit Nick Jr. TV show "Yo Gabba Gabba!" that featured the 2004 NBA Defensive Player of the Year testing his mettle on the track in a "Yo Gabba Olympics" race against multiple friendly looking monsters. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times has your breathless breakdown of the sprint:

World Peace ran against Toodee, a "blue cat-dragon," and Mrs. Fox, who looks like just as her name suggests. A red cyclops (Muno), a pink flower (Foofa) and a robot (Plex) watched the so-called "Yo Gabba Olympics" with unyielding enthusiasm. World Peace's 8-year-old daughter, Diamond, coached him on the sideline.

The 35-second appearance fit World Peace's goofy personality perfectly. He wore tight, super-short track shorts and high socks with bold stripes. World Peace looked awkward and slow. And moments after crossing the finish line, World Peace warmly embraced Toodee.

While we certainly respect Medina's reporting chops, I think he's giving short shrift to Metta's closing burst. Any "awkward and slow" start, it seems clear to me, was intended solely to make sure that he had enough left in the tank for the final kick. And, as we now know, that strategy sure paid off. All of us here at Ball Don't Lie would like to congratulate to World Peace not only on a race well run, but also on joining Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol as Lakers to win Olympic medals this summer. You did it!

Hillary Clinton asks Jeremy Lin how tall he is (Kevin Mazur/ WireImage).

When the New York Knicks parted ways with Jeremy LIn in July, many critics of the decision focused not just on Lin's potential on-court impact, but what he could mean financially for the franchise and its parent company MSG. They had some evidence for the case, too. Just a few days after Lin agreed to terms with the Houston Rockets, MSG stock fell 8.5 percent in only two weeks. After a 31 percent jump following Linsanity, that dip seemed telling.

It turns out that we were mostly wrong, because on Monday MSG stock hit an all-time high. From Barry Petchesky at Deadspin:

Stan Van Gundy is not looking forward to teaching Alex Martins (middle, left) how to use his shovel (Getty Images)

When former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy "resigned" to spend more time with his family following the Heat's slow start to the 2005-06 season, he took the high road after being replaced by Heat President Pat Riley, stepping aside silently in the wake of Shaquille O'Neal's displeasure with SVG's exacting ways while remaining on the Miami payroll. Stan was fired by the Magic in late May, and even though he'll remain on the team's payroll, and he's not exactly taking the high and silent road this time around.

Lucky for us, his aim on the low road is absolutely spot on. In an interview with Orlando Sentinel scribe Mike Bianchi on Bianchi's radio show, Van Gundy blasted newly ensconced Magic CEO Alex Martins for the embarrassing turn the team has made since Martins took over the position from the retiring Bob Vander Weide last winter.

"It's a typical lack of understanding from someone who has no sports knowledge, who has never coached or played, who has never been in a locker room….it's a naiveté," Van Gundy said of Martins Monday morning on Mike Bianchi's show on AM 740.

A Celtics fan shows off his ticket (Darren McCollester/ Getty).

As of now, there are two primary legal ways to get a ticket to an NBA game: buying directly from the team box office and purchasing on a secondary market site such as StubHub. (Other options exist, like dealing with scalpers or pestering a friend until he gives you a spare, but let's forget those for now.) While the second option is not as official as the first, it can also result in some bargains and act as a saving grace for sold-out shows. It's an effective system, in part because it doesn't always have to play by league-mandated rules.

It's been so successful in fact, that the NBA has its own plans to start an online ticket marketplace. As Darren Rovell reports at ESPN.com, the league has partnered with Ticketmaster to create a new website (via PBT):

"My man read the scouting report: Let John Wall shoot." — a young participant who is clearly aware that the Washington Wizards point guard shot 32.1 percent or worse from every area of the floor further away than "at the rim" last year, including a 7.1 percent (not a typo) mark from 3-point range.

The advance-scouting joke came at the Reebok Breakout Challenge in Philadelphia back in July after Wall (ahem) "shut up" Tyrek Coger, a 6-foot-8-inch, 240-pound member of the high school class of 2013 in a one-on-one game at the showcase camp. If you didn't think there was a ton of "shutting up" there, remember: those sneakers that Wall refused to tie probably contributed to a couple of those janky jumpers.

Now, if you'd really like to see Wall putting on a show at the challenge, you can hit Bullets Forever. Me, I think I'll wait to see if Wall can't put on a show in Philly against non-17-year-olds Andrew Bynum, Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner in a couple of months, thanks.

(The lefty dunk at the end was kind of cool, though.)

Video via NOC.

Yao Ming gets up close and personal with a rhino. (Photo by Kristian Schmidt for WildAid, via yaomingblog.com)

Retired NBA star Yao Ming is using his international renown and domestic status as one of China's most recognizable public figures to try to convince his fellow Chinese citizens to stop seeking products made from elephant ivory and rhino horn, hoping to curb the demand that fuels poaching in Africa and is helping bring Kenyan elephants and rhinos perilously close to extinction.

The former Houston Rockets center arrived in Kenya on Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 — his first-ever visit to the African nation — to meet with local scientists and conservationists, to begin filming and to see the animals first-hand. From Jason Straziuso of The Associated Press:

Poaching deaths of elephants and rhinos are increasing, animal experts say, because of increased demand in Asia for rhino horns and elephant ivory.

Yao, the former NBA star from China, said Thursday he thinks increased public awareness about where ivory comes from is needed.

Julius K. Kipng'etich, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, gave Yao a tour of one of the organization's rooms filled with ivory from poached elephants. Kip, as the director is known, said Thursday that he hopes Yao takes back the message to China to say that when Chinese people buy ivory, they are helping lead elephants to extinction.

[Also: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak thought Dwight Howard deal 'was dead']

Bringing the message to China — and having one of that nation's greatest sporting heroes serve as the messenger — is especially critical for activists because "China is the world's most prominent destination for rhino horn and ivory, with projections suggesting there will be an added 250 million middle class consumers over the next 10 [to] 15 years," according to Laura Walubengo of Kenyan radio station/lifestyle site CapitalFM:

The massive consumption in China of the illegal wildlife parts and products meanwhile has been blamed on a combination of "old customs and traditions with new money," among other things.

Increasing populations of rhino and elephant between 1989 and 2007 have started dwindling dramatically due to an escalation of poaching activities.

Hit the jump for more photos from Yao's visit to Kenya, plus video of a press conference he gave in Nairobi after his 10-day stay.

After Monta Ellis lets Baron Davis drive past, Brandon Jennings fouls him. Teamwork! (AP)

This is a big year for Brandon Jennings, and the Milwaukee Bucks point guard knows it.

After making the playoffs (and a quick first-round exit — as reader Matt Wessel notes, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Bucks in seven) during his 2009-10 rookie season, Jennings' Bucks have turned in two straight sub-.500 campaigns, as the combination of injuries and lackluster offensive production have kept coach Scott Skiles' team on the outskirts of Eastern Conference postseason contention. With the Bucks in a late-season fight for a playoff berth last year, general manager John Hammond made a somewhat controversial move, shipping oft-injured franchise centerpiece Andrew Bogut and shot-happy swingman Stephen Jackson to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for scoring off-guard Monta Ellis, sophomore big man Ekpe Udoh and the immortal Kwame Brown.

The move was intended to give Skiles some added firepower as the Bucks looked to vault past the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers into the seventh or eighth spot in the East, but while Milwaukee went 12-9 in 21 games after importing Ellis, the Bucks again found themselves on the outside looking in come playoff time. Now, less than two months before players report to training camp for the 2012-13 season, the Bucks find themselves again faced with the question raised by many at the time of the trade: Can Jennings and Ellis, two explosive but small guards who both need the ball to succeed, fit together well enough to push Milwaukee back into the postseason?

Jennings, for his part, seems eager to prove the doubters wrong. From Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

"I really want it to work just personally, because everybody is doubting it," Jennings said in an interview at his youth basketball camp at Homestead High School on Sunday.

"With everybody doubting it, I think it's important that me and him, we just work together to show everybody it can work.

"Everybody knows we both can score like crazy. But I think everybody thinks we can't win together. That's going to be one of our biggest challenges. I'm up for it and I know he is."

It's cool that Jennings and Ellis are up for a challenge, because a look at the statistical profile the two put together after Ellis came to Wisconsin suggest that it's definitely going to be one.

Michael Beasley scoffs at your modern interior design (Getty Images)

The idea of an estate sale is creepy enough as it is. Usually they're put together in an attempt to sell off the last remaining vestiges and assets of someone who has recently passed on, or a person run afoul of either the law or their own checking account. Phoenix Suns forward Michael Beasley appears to be in no such trouble, and even though he didn't exactly break the bank with his second pro contract, its average-sized makeup falls right in line with the rookie deal he started working under in 2008 that paid him just over $20 million over four years.

This doesn't explain why the former Minnesota Timberwolves forward, as he moves on to his third NBA city in five seasons, needs to set up an estate sale for his abandoned Minnesota home, rather than just hiring a crew to toss everything into a truck and move his clutter down to Phoenix. This also doesn't explain why Beasley, even while we're aware of his goofball reputation, has so much goofball stuff in his house. Fox Sports' Joan Niesen, who has quickly become one of our favorite NBA beat writers, attempted to find out as much during a public sale that made no mention of whose estate was up for grabs:

So there was no yelling about Beasley, but there were whispers. Neighbors gossiped to workers about the time a sports car ended up wrapped around a tree last winter outside the house, and anyone who did know the identity of who had previously lived there couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in nearly every room they entered. The entire thing posed so many questions: Why does Michael Beasley need a copy of the Physicians' Desk Reference? Or a book of Ingmar Bergman screenplays? Or giant glass grapes? What use does Beasley have for a floral headboard? Why does he love tasseled pillows so much? Whose handbags are those?