MAXIMUSLY HOT CAMILO VILLEGAS

Oh yes, the world is starting to take notice of our feline extraordinaire, and the beast has now signed with Medicus Golf to endorse their line of products. Camilo Villegas, who could sell ice to an Eskimo, is the company’s new Medicus Maximus man. As a Maximus-hottie, the beast will endorse the line, which includes the new Medicus PowerMeter and Maximus Driver along with the original Maximus irons. The new line is designed to help golfers improve their swing speed and accuracy and according to the company, ‘plays an important part in helping Camilo Villegas maintain his powerful golf game.’ Bob Koch, President of Medicus Golf said: “Camilo is a great ‘fit’ because he represents the discipline, power, and persistence it takes to improve in this game.”

NBA COURT-TURE FASHION SHOW

The NBA has teamed up with men’s clothing chain Rochester Big & Tall and designer Jared M. to deliver us hotties on the runway. Yesterday, they served up Court-Ture ’07, a men’s runway show featuring current and former NBA beasts, as well as models, at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue. The event was supposed to showcase the new line but I didn’t even notice what they were wearing while they strutted their stuff. Participants included Basketball HOFer and MSG Knicks analyst Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Knicks babes Jared Jeffries (L), Channing Frye (C), David Lee, Kenyon Martin (R) and Antoine Wright. (Highlights of the show are available on NBA.com.)

FIBA AMERICAS IN VEGAS?
The 2007 FIBA Americas Championship for Men will be played from August 22nd to September 2nd in Las Vegas with 10 teams from the Americas zone. A live draw for the event was held yesterday in Sin City and I can’t help but wonder why the event is being held there after all the hoopla surrounding All Star Week. In any case, I’ll be front and center.

A little background on The FIBA Americas (Pan-American Basketball Confederation). It’s a non-profit organization that represents the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), in the American continent, with jurisdiction from Canada to Argentina. (Yeah I know, too much info, so I’ll get to the game). Basically, a bunch of International hotties go to Vegas, play wicked hoops against each other, and hope to make it to the final. The first two teams in the final places automatically qualify for the 2008 Olympic games that will be held in Beijing. Now book your rooms for Vegas and Ill see ya at the games.

BLOOD SPORT

Jamaica’s Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields held a press conference regarding the death of Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer in Kingston on Tuesday. The death of coach Woolmer is now being treated as suspicious: “The police suspect that Woolmer may have been murdered. They have started an investigation,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman Pervez Mir said. If you’ve been under a rock, or not reading my posts, Woolmer died after being found unconscious in his hotel room in Jamaica on 18 March, a day after his team were dumped out of the World Cup after losing their second match to outsiders Ireland by three wickets. And what’s this all for anyway? Diamond cricket balls. Two of them to be exact. This doesn’t sit right with me, especially after watching Blood Diamond last night. The balls, released to capture the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 fever, will be presented to the best Indian cricketer and the best international player of the World Cup 2007 tournament, which is currently being played in the West Indies. The studded balls, comprised of 5,728 natural diamonds with 82.2 grams of gold seams, cost about 70k each. (excluding the lost limbs it took to gather the diamonds). It is part of the sports collection released by one of India’s largest integrated diamond manufacturers, the Gitanjali Gems group. Tsk-tsk.

*UPDATED 3/22/07 6:00PM
Pakistan’s cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled in his hotel room after the team’s shocking World Cup loss to Ireland, police said Thursday. Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said in a statement that the pathologist report found Bob Woolmer’s death was due to “asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation.”

TONY LARUSSA

I’m thinking it was Tequila shots, but I could be wrong…St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was arrested this morning on a drunken driving charge after the po-po said they found him asleep inside his running car at a stoplight. La Russa gave two breath samples and had a blood alcohol content of 0.093 percent. (Florida’s legal driving limit is 0.08 percent.) Undercover officers saw La Russa’s car sitting partially in an intersection around midnight and not moving despite two green lights, police said. Officers knocked on the window and La Russa did not initially respond. To read how to achieve reject status, go here.

ZITO IS GROWING ON ME

Pretty boy Barry Zito donated $200 for each of his 151 strikeouts last season to Strikeouts for Troops (that’s about a 30K deposit into my libido). And, he’s even said “I’ll be increasing my donations.” The beast signed a seven-year, $126M contract with the Giants recently, the largest ever for a pitcher. Zito also plans to work with the Giants to build youth baseball fields in the Bay Area…for this, he gets a what a mighty, mighty, good-man nod.

TIGER AND THE SWISS MISS
I’m having a hard time enjoying Tiger Woods because everywhere he goes in Florida, Roger Federer is tagging along. Im not gonna question Tigers friendship with the Swiss-Miss, if he’s cool with it, I’ll swallow my distain and accept that Federwood is a reality.

Watching a few minutes of Golf Channels ‘Golf Central” last night, I was confronted with a Federwood interview. Woods, on their connection as high-profile athletes: “I think that’s one of the great things about our friendship is that we do understand and we can relate on different levels that most people really can’t.” Federer, on the “Who is more dominant?” debate: “We don’t talk about it too much. I think it’s more the media who hype it up all the time.” (You know you talk about with your woman R-Fed, don’t lie…) Apparently, the Federwoods dined on Tigers yacht Tuesday night before R-Fed watched Tigers practice round Wednesday morning. Woods fixed it so Federer could walk inside the ropes, a clear violation of PGA Tour rules. “I’m sure I’ll get fined,” Woods said. “It’s pretty neat when you have probably the most dominant athlete on the planet out there in your gallery. What he has done over the last three years is pretty good.”

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda
delinda@athlebrities.com