By updating RealClearSports I read hundreds of articles every week but sometimes there are particular passages that need highlighting. And to make these passages more palatable I'm doing them in award form! The awards are completely random and will change weekly.

I think the thing I hate most about sports journalism is the reporting of non-stories. Athletes are constantly being asked questions and when they say something slightly off-script it becomes huge news. This week it was LeBron James that went off book.

Last Thursday, LeBron was asked if he could ever envision himself returning to the Cavs. LeBron answered, "I don't know. I mean, I think it would be great. It would be fun to play in front of these fans again. You know, I had a lot of fun times my seven years here. But you can't predict the future. Hopefully I continue to stay healthy, as a Miami Heat player. And I'm happy where I am now. But I don't rule that out, in no sense. And if I decide to come back, hopefully the fans would accept me."

Somehow THAT became front page news. Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, "James has never been in a better position to win a title as he has been teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. If he is unhappy in Miami, whose fault is that? Is it because it's Wade's team and he's not the sun that the rest of the Heat revolves around?" Who said he was unhappy in Miami? All he did was answer a question honestly. It's so funny how the media wants players to be honest and hate when they say the company lines but when they are honest they get lambasted. Oh, and they also get raked over the coals when they speak the company lines as well. How many coaches have been ripped apart when they say they are happy in their current job and then bolt elsewhere?

What really bothers me is this really should be a non-story. LeBron politely said he would hope he'd be accepted back if for some reason he returned to Cleveland. He said he wouldn't rule a return out. He said it in a way where he could have added, "Stranger things have happened" to the end of that statement. 

While not exactly the same, it reminds me of when the media reports that a player supports a coach or that a player thinks his team will win a certain game. What exactly do you expect? If a player rips a coach, now that's news. If a player thinks his team might not win a series I'll read about that. 

Can't we weed through what athletes say to determine if it actually has any real baring on future events? If LeBron had said he would never return to Cleveland than that is something to report. But when he simply says he's not going to eliminate that possibility, that's basically him saying nothing and it shouldn't become one of the biggest topics in sports. Instead, let's write more Jeremy Lin articles... On to the awards!

Spoiled Columnist
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times is down on the Lakers this season: How could they go from one of the most exciting shows in sports to the third-most exciting team in their own building? ... How could the Buss family let this happen? The buzz is off, and the big-money fans who pay the bills are either showing up late or not at all. Yet a year ago, they were exactly that type of team. They were fast, they were fun, they were filled with hope. Does anybody else think these Lakers have hope? Does anybody reasonably think they can advance past the first round of the playoffs?

How did the Buss family let this happen? How did they fall behind the Clippers in excitement? 2 words. David Stern. The Clippers are so exciting because of Chris Paul. How many alley-oops do you think Andrew Bynum would be getting a game if Paul was in the backcourt? And now just because that trade failed you don't think they'll make another move? Let's give them until the trade deadline to really start criticizing them.

The Definition of Linsanity
Christine Brennan of USA Today thinks the NBA should cash in as much as possible on Jeremy Lin: In other words, put the kid in the game. And not just in the rookie-sophomore game, or a Saturday night event, but the big one, the All-Star Game itself.

When this was written he had played just 7 games. 7 games is going to get you into an All-Star game? Are you kidding me? I understand that the game itself is a bit of a farce. It winds up just being highlight offensive plays with little defense (although they often get competitive at the end). But being named an All-Star is quite an honor and awarding a spot to Lin based on 7 games work diminishes what it means to be an All-Star. It would be a slap in the face to all that have been named one on the past and if the NBA had done this I'd hope Lin would decline the invitation in respect of his peers and his predecessors.

Weaving in Whitney Houston, Josh Hamilton, and...Garth from Wayne's World?
Jen Floyd Engel of Fox Sports discusses drug addiction and draws parallels between Whitney Houston and Josh Hamilton. That makes sense. Here what doesn't: Even in a sports landscape littered with cautionary tales like Len Bias and Dwight Gooden, there is this feeling that it could not possibly happen again, especially when we're talking about a likeable guy loaded with extraordinary talent and a sincere desire to stay clean, like Hamilton.

History tends to agree with Garth from Wayne's World: "Way".

It's like she was sitting in the office and they were batting around ideas and someone was like, "$100 to the first person who weaves Garth into their next article." Where did that come from? How do you bring GARTH into a discussion on drug addiction?

Error Only I Care About
Mark Titus of Grantland came out with his weekly college basketball power rankings and had Syracuse 3rd. I went to Syracuse, watch every game and read just about everything written about them. I'm not going to complain that he has them ranked 3rd behind 2-loss Missouri. But I will complain when he doesn't get his facts straight: Syracuse still has to play Louisville at home, but their only remaining away game comes against struggling UConn, so Monday's game was probably the last important regular-season test for the Orange.

I guess I don't know what those 9,000-plus people were doing in the RAC this past Sunday when Syracuse faced Rutgers. Or maybe Titus wants to argue that that isn't a true road game because New Jersey is so close to Syracuse. Whatever the case, when you get something wrong as simple as a team's remaining schedule you lose credibility in my book.

Luck of the Huskies
Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant seems upset with the current process of determining NCAA Tournament eligibility. Currently, the system lags and a team can be barred from the tournament for prior year's Academic Progress Rate: Of course, it's better to have consequences of behavior tied to the year you most recently report it. Yet it also comes down the rest of Harrison's (chairman of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance) quote that night:
"The problem is the logistics are complicated."
That's right, folks. In the end, UConn's most righteous and best chance for the 2013 tournament is about data processing. It's as cold and boring as all that.

Thing is, had this been in effect a few years ago, UConn wouldn't have been eligible for last year's tournament either. So maybe it's a good thing that they can't logistically punish team's for their current academic standings.

Flaws Are Not Endearing
Mark Kreidler of ESPN believes athletes' flaws endear them to us: And that brings us to another commonality, which is the comfort of seeing really great athletes make mistakes. I think the sort of casual flaws in Tebow's game make him more accessible to us mere mortals, perhaps in the same way that seeing Shaq struggle at the line endeared him to people watching at home who couldn't help thinking, "Hell, I could make one out of every two."

What Tebow and Shaq have in common are charismatic personalities. People are interested in their off-the-field/court actions as much as on the court. I never knew anyone who loved Shaq because he missed free throws. In fact, that enraged most people. How could this skilled basketball player not dedicate his time to getting better? It was the one flaw in his game. If he had corrected that he could've gone down as one of the top 5 basketball player of all time. I'd say the same goes for Tebow. No, in no way at all am I saying he could go down as a top 5 player. All I'm saying is if he could throw the ball better he'd have LESS people hating him. These flaws are definitely not endearing.

How to Destroy the Dunk Contest
David Steele of the Sporting News has an idea of how to save the dunk contest: A winner-take-all pot of, say, $2 million might do the trick. Not even a trophy. Just a big glass tank full of cash, rolled out to midcourt afterward. Heck, beforehand. Use it as a prop, even. The NBA can foot the bill. What they'd make up in ratings and buzz would cover that payout.

There are so many things wrong with this idea. First off, this would just make the players seem money-hungry and that's certainly not going to help their image that has already been damaged due to the lockout. Secondly, what if the top talent still didn't commit? For many of them it's not about the money. It's about the rest and not wanting to be embarrassed. How bad would it look if someone like LeBron won the competition and then DIDN'T donate the money to charity. The hatred towards him would be more than what he got from "The Decision."

Flawed Logic
Gwen Knapp of the San Francisco Chronicle believes baseball should not expand the playoffs because it will ruin the excitement for the spoilers: One of the most gratifying moments of that night was seeing Baltimore's jubilation over coming back to beat the Red Sox at nearly 1 in the morning. ... A wild-card playoff would dilute the effect of spoilers.

We're concerned about the spoilers? How about the multiple teams and fanbases that would have hope for a possible playoff spot? Have we really reached a point where playing the spoiler is preferable to having a shot at the playoffs? Is it really more enjoyable to ruin someone else's season as opposed to reaching the playoffs?

Most Frustrating Article of the Week
Mike Lopresti of USA Today took Linsanity to new heights. It's an article FULL of Lin puns. Here are all of them: Lin-cessant, Lin-ternational, Lin-tense, Lin-crowd, Lin there done that, Lin-satiable, Lin-ternet, Lin-agreement, Lin-compoops, Lin-communicado, Lin-comprehensible, Lin-credibly, no-Lin situation, Lin-side track, Those without Lin, cast the first stone., Lin-augural, Lin-definitely, Lin-ebriated, Lin-vulnerable, Lin-dianapolis, Lin-digestion, Lin-firmary, Lin-conveivable.

I'm sorry to have subjected you to that.

Short-Term Solution
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel thinks Dwight Howard should announce he's staying with the Magic just before the All-Star game: Not only will "The Happiest Place on Earth" become even happier, but your popularity will be off the charts. The national media will write that LeBron had "The Decision" but Dwight made "The Right Decision."

You will be lauded as unique, one of a kind, a different type of superstar. Barkley will talk about you with old-school reverence and commend you for not wanting to go play with Kobe in L.A., Dirk in Dallas or D-Rose in Chicago. He will say, "The true greats don't go play for somebody else's team; they attract others to come play for their teams."

That's all well and good until he's lumped in with Patrick Ewing as a great player that could never lead his team to a championship. For now he'd be lauded but he needs to decide whether he can win in Orlando and if not, it's time for him to jump ship and all will be forgiven if he does win one.