Well, there's only a few days left in the year of 2008, and Ball Don't Lie is wrapping up things in high spirits by listening to some Green Day and talking in the third person. Here's a look back at BDL's busy '08, featuring the work of Skeets, Dwyer, Benson, Friedell, Frankel, Britt and others. Thanks to everyone who read along for the past 12 months, it's been a blast.

Story of the Year: Gilbert Arenas' million-dollar pool. Lets see: Huge rock mountain for the pool. Check. Three different fish tanks. Check. Secluded hot tub. Check. 50" plasma. Check. Large mural of Gil and his pit-bull standing in front of the White House and U.S. Capitol. Check. Some five million page views, making it one of Ball Don't Lie's most popular posts of the year. Of course. And check.

Honorable Mention: Boston Celtics 131, Los Angeles Lakers 92. That is not a typo ... After three straight disappointments, Team USA reclaims gold at 4:23 a.m. EST. Naturally, we were up live blogging/drinking ... BDL's impromptu "interview" with Commissioner Stern from a men's bathroom in New Orleans.

Video of the Year: The Machine. Sasha Vujacic recounts his story of "breaking down" during Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the "Leprechauns." Honestly, this deserves an Emmy. All of 'em do.

Honorable Mention: Stephen Nash, the ultimate motivator ... Kobe Bryant jumps a moving Aston Martin ... Tracy Morgan loves him some late-80's Chicago Bulls ... Ron Artest finally starts vlogging ... Shark Melas ... Nash and Baron Davis on a bicycle built for two.

Satire of the Year: Oklahoma City Thunder unveil new mascot. "'We think our new mascot is classic in its style,' said team chairman Clay Bennett. 'We think it's powerful in its design. We think the legendary 'Sword of Omens' it yields evokes fire bolts of energy ...'" HO!

Honorable Mention: NO TRIP-LE DOUB-LES! ... Marbury meets with Donnie Walsh ... Chef Oakley's scrumptious beef short ribs in a cinnamon red wine sauce recipe ... LeBron James wins '09 Slam Dunk contest.

Art of the Year: Eddy Curry, gymnast. Our epic reader Photoshop contest helped turn Curry's childhood Olympic dreams into a reality. We're still amazed the Knicks haven't worked this animated .gif into their player introductions.

Honorable Mention: Winners of the just as spectacular BDL Photoshop Starbury Tattoo-Off ... Good grief, Kevin Durant ... "The Steph & The Restless" jumps to the top of the soap ratings ... Vote O-Pech!

The Best in Athlete Blogging: Too much Rod Benson? Please. There's never enough! In one of our favorite TMRB posts of the year, Benson tackles the tricky athlete-blogger conundrum — could blogging for Ball Don't Lie actually hurt his NBA chances?

Honorable Mention: Rod's hilarious random drug test screening ... "It wasn't March Madness until Pistol got angry" and 101 other Pistol Pete facts ... Utah Flash assignee Morris Almond starts a Blog War!

Analysis of the Year: A day after Kobe drops 52 points in a nationally televised win over Dallas, Kelly Dwyer bravely tells the NBA world "Why ... Kobe Bryant is not your 2007-08 MVP." 6,455 heated comments later ... KD defends his LeBron vote.

Honorable Mention: Kobe's 81-point explosion was impressive as Wilt's 100 ... It's nice to know Donnie reads BDL ... Remembering Kevin Duckworth ... Missing Dennis Rodman ... Trying to figure out a way to fill all of those empty seats.

Interview of the Year: The Ball Don't Lie interview with Greg Oden. The $64,000 question: If you could take any two animals and breed them together to create some type of "super animal," which two would you pick and why? Oden's snap decision answer: "A monkey and bird. I want a flying monkey." And they say this guy is depressed ...

Honorable Mention: Talking spaghetti, meatballs and Miracle Whip with Grizzlies rookie O.J. Mayo ... 5'8", 130-pound, D-III junior Zach Feinstein declares for the NBA Draft ... Charles Barkley loves politics ... All-Star Dwayne Wade will not fight bobcat, thank you very much.

The Year in High Fashion: Gregg Popovich's unruly training camp beard. Depending on who you asked, Pop's summer "expirement" made him look like Donald Sutherland, an elderly Serpico, Gandalf or a time-obsessed postal worker. Yes, it was that awesome.

Honorable Mention: "Breaking news: Adam Morrison cuts his hair!" ... Darko Milicic eats his vitamins, says his prayers and rips his jersey in half ... Oden's fro-hawk ... The new Thunder unis look awfully familiar.

Comic of the Year: Garbage Time All-Stars present 'Thunderworld.' "A mascot without a team has got to stand for something." Wiser words have never been typed into a lonely mascot's thought bubble.

Honorable Mention: Stephon Marbury and Eddy Curry, DNP-CD extraordinaires ... Bill Russell, Kevin Garnett and the Olive Garden. "That is a promise."

The Year in Tournaments and Lists: The BDL Bedlam Tournament. During the NBA dog days of March, we compiled a list of 64 things that you love about The Associaion, seeded them and created a Madness-like bracket to vote on. Backed by horny 13-year-old males everywhere, Marko Jaric's sexy girlfriend upset Mutombo's finger wag in the final. As promised, it was completely pointless, yet oddly entertaining. We can't wait to start it up again.

Honorable Mention: The All-NBA Olympics ... Scoring the 2008 NBA Draft picks on a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being Tadija Dragicevic and 1 being Shan Foster ... Players who wear their headbands upside down ... Ranking All-Star Saturday night's dunks.

Once again, thanks for reading. Happy New Year!

More Y! Sports year of the blog posts: The Y! Sports Blogs (general), Shutdown Corner (NFL), Big League Stew (MLB), Puck Daddy (NHL), Dr. Saturday (NCAAF), The Dagger (NCAAB), From the Marbles (NASCAR), Devil Ball (golf) and Cage Writer (MMA)