MELO BREAKS GROUND
Last November, Carmelo Anthony donated $3 million toward the construction of an athletics complex at Syracuse University. “It’s a legacy thing,” Anthony said of his gift at a press conference in November. “It’s not just for this year or the year after. It’s for a lifetime.” And today, the Nuggets nugget is in Syracuse to help break ground on the new Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center. Construction could take up to 18 months, and the building is already being referred to as “The ‘Melo Center.” It will house two full practice courts, locker rooms and office space for both the men’s and women’s coaching staffs. No word yet on whether Melo will accept Delindas invitation to melt his way over to the ribbon cutting ceremony at the hot tub.

Photos from the event aren’t available yet, so I’ve opted to post the hottest daddy in the world with his baby. There seems to be only one ‘blog’ that got the photos when I was asleep in May, and I gotta say thanks to www.lovebscot.com for posting these are-you-kidding-me photos of Melo caramelizing my hormones. Dear god this kid is gonna be the death of me.

DON’T DO IT
Lee Westwood buried my sexy Ian Poulter by five-strokes to win the Quinn Direct British Masters at The Belfry. “All credit to Lee,” he said. “It’s nice to see a British winner, but unfortunately it wasn’t me.”

And my sexy flashkat, ranked 27th in the world, almost didn’t play. “It’s been a long season and five tournaments in a row is something I don’t normally do, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to play on Wednesday night,” Poulter purred. “My manager kept me going and convinced me to play. It’s a big tournament, the Ryder Cup points (he’s ranked fourth in the world for RC points) have started and decent world-ranking points are available too - on a course I love to play. I’m going to try to put in a big performance and then I’ll have a great week off next week. Getting married has been a long time coming so I’m really excited.” Ouch, ouch and ouch.

TEAM CHELSEA DEFIES AVRAM

Team Chelsea has a mutiny on its hands. Last night, new boss Avram ‘Frankenstein” Grant was dissed hard by the sexy boys in blue. The boys refused to change travel arrangements for tonight’s Carling Cup clash at Hull, and instead chose to stick by what Jose Mourinho would have done. Senior players said “no” to Avrams request to travel to Hull on the day of the tie. They instead flew from Gatwick to Humberside at 7pm last night. When Jose was calling the shots, the hotties traveled to away matches the night before a game and stayed in a luxury hotel. Senior players discussed the new proposals but refused to alter their arrangements. Instead, they followed Mourinho’s plans and trained at 3.30pm before flying from Gatwick.

And what about Ronaldinho? Will he follow the rules and put his tongue away? Chelsea have offered the beast a contract worth $116M (£58million) if he decides to join the Blues. The Barcelona forwards agent “reportedly” has accepted the five-year deal but the longhaired Brazilian could still reject the offer and choose to go elsewhere. If he does say ‘yes,’ Ronaldinho would be unveiled at the end of the season, and he would also become the highest-paid player ever on £223,000 a week- do the currency conversion and it amounts to an insane salary, roughly $500k a week!

And the Chelsea’s blues seems to have hit Ivory Coast hottie Didier Drogba the hardest. After his tearful goodbye to Jose, Drogba just hasn’t been the same. He was scheduled to belt out his rendition of ‘Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend’ at the Albert Royal Hall for an African benefit on Saturday, but he just couldn’t do it. Drogba instead asked the audience if they could “forgive him” and explained that rehearsals were called off in the wake of Mournihos departure. The beast was met with a standing ovation- before he graciously singed autographs for over an hour.

BALLS TO ECKO
After 22 seasons in the Majors, the general public has finally gotten it revenge on Barry Bonds. And I gotta say, this makes me sick. The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame, thanks to Marc Ecko and his call for public input. Speculation about his alleged steroids abuse overshadowed the juicing of other MLBers, but Bonds was singled out for one reason. The media painted a picture of him as an inaccessible, arrogant, egotistical jerk, when in fact many of them never had a chance to really get to know who he was off the field. This entire situation is based on media shaping the publics perception of Bonds and nothing more. Maybe if the media were kinder to Bonds over the years, he would have been nicer to them? The fact is that Barry Bonds was slamming ‘em outta the park long before the juicing allegations, and he’s continued to do so even while under the microscope. Like I said, I ain’t happy about the asterisk.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Andy Roddick hurt his left foot. Rafael Nadal is battling a knee injury, and Novak Djokovic has a bad back. All three have withdrawn from the ATP Thailand Open. Andy hurt his foot on Wednesday and decided to pull out ahead of his match against Wang Yeu-tzuoo. “I woke up this morning and it felt OK,” Roddick said. “But when I practiced, it happened again. I’m going to get back as soon as possible to start my recovery.” On Sunday, my beast o biceps, Rafa Nadal withdrew after I tacked him on the court. “I have sought medical advice and have been advised to rest my knees for at least another few weeks,” Nadal said. Ah, does that mean you’re, a-hem- bedridden.

NIKE AIR NATIVE N7

Okay, in my opinion, this is really bizarre. Nike today unveiled the Nike Air Native N7, a unique athletic performance shoe designed specifically for Native Americans. Nike spent two years researching, developing and fit testing the shoe in partnership with the Native American community. This first-of-a-kind performance shoe is built on a new and unique last created to address the specific fit and width requirements for the Native American foot. Huh? I had no idea their feet were different than ours? Are there any doctors out there that can tell me how their feet specifically differ? In any case, it’s for a good cause. Profits from the sale of the (sorry, ugly) kicks will support “Let Me Play” programs on Native American lands that leverage sport to promote an active and healthy lifestyle. They are only available through Nike’s Native Business Program for preferential prices to members through health promotion and disease prevention programs.

As always, thanks for reading.
delinda@athlebrities.