I’m a big sucker for fan art – well, appropriate fan art – and that’s why I’ve been pounding my desk all morning over the news that the world’s biggest patent troll is going after Etsy’s new $40 million investment. But while soulless thieves are going after the sources of the Internet’s showcases for art and inspiration, they’ll thankfully never be able to crush the actual artists. At least not yet. I’m sure they’ll find a way eventually.

My Internet Artist of the Day of the Week goes to the guys at Double Scribble, a Tumblr site devoted to NBA fan art.

Double Scribble is the lovechild of basketball and art; two of Nick Kastner and Mike McGrath’s favorite things in the world. From the coldest, murkiest depths of Cleveland, OH (and now to some extent, some obscure part of North Carolina) Nick and Mike have forged a blog out of blood, sweat and tears in their unwavering vision to provide you, the viewer, with a never ending source of basketball related art.

And it’s pretty awesome. I’ve been shuffling back and forth through its archives since a friend emailed the link last week and there is just a ton of great artwork on this site that has really inspired me to consider re-launching my web comic series, “The Erotic Adventures of a Sports Blogger.” Spoiler alert: it’s sad and gross.

After the jump, I’ve included many of my favorite efforts of Double Scribble’s authors, but I encourage you to check out the submissions that they’ve posted from other artists as well. It’s a highly recommended worm hole to limit your productivity today.

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TNT has really stepped its Photoshop game up this year.

With all of their injuries and adversities, the New York Knicks never stood much of a chance in defeating the No. 2 seed Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. But at least they gave it a fighting chance, as they fell 4-1 to the eventual Eastern Conference Champions after last night’s 106-94 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. But what’s a Heat victory without a little cocky showboating at the expense of the underwhelmed opponent?

With less than 5 minutes left in the game, and a deficit of 16-points to Lebron James and Co., Amar’e Stoudemire fouled out with a charge on Shane Battier. To make matters worse more entertaining, Stoudemire reached out to help Battier to his feet only to withdraw his hand and make Battier look the fool. Because nothing says, “Haha, in your face” like pulling a “SYKE!” when your team is getting stomped.

Luckily for Battier, Heat public address announcer Michael Baiamonte had his back. As Stoudemire headed back to the bench to begin planning his summer vacation, Baiamonte shouted to the crowd, “He has been extinguished from the game!” Team employee trolling grade: A+.

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I took a couple weeks off from doing these here ROFLMNBAO posts for two reasons: 1) because the last two weeks of the season were soooooo boring and B) I forgot. But I figured what better time than now to resume posting these NBA meme pictures since the news that they’re so in demand. Form a line to the left, attractive girls who want to give me money to create ridiculously corny-sounding sites!

Also, I figured it was a better time than any for this week’s installment with the playoffs in full swing and individual awards being presented by the league. As we already know, Tyson Chandler is the Defensive Player of the Year, Jason Kidd received the Sportsmanship Award and Gregg Popovich is the Coach of the Year. “What about the other awards?” you ask while peeling apart the pages of my vintage Hustler collection. The NBA is taking its sweet ass time with those, so I’m issuing my own awards.

A lot happened in this condensed season, so it’s only fair that we recognize everyone for their efforts.

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For the first time in three years, Brooklyn Nets Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard failed to win the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, which I am just going to assume he’s blaming on Stan Van Gundy. Instead, this year’s honor went to New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler, because when you think of the Knicks, you think of defense.

And that’s the kind of easy joke that so many people were ready to make, before Chandler beat us all to the punch and made the joke himself.

That’s some good comedy right there, namely because the Knicks played less-than-stellar defense this season, as evidenced by their inability to play better than the 7 seed and/or stop the Miami Heat from pummeling them into the dirt in the playoffs.

But to be fair, the Heat actually ranked lower than the Knicks in team defense this season, while the Knicks led the NBA in jackasses who punched glass.

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Strip club pep rallies > any other pep rallies

If you need proof that New York City is one of the greatest sports cities on Earth – I can’t rule out Middelfart, Denmark – it’s hard to look beyond the incredible enthusiasm that our good friends at Rick’s Cabaret constantly show for all of their teams. Obviously, we’ve already discussed their incredibly warm welcome for Tim Tebow, and hopefully they’ll listen to me and Mets Fan Motorboat Mondays once the team loses a few more games and slides into last place.

Right now, though, the ladies – pictured above with Sal the Stockbroker from The Howard Stern Show – are focused on showing support for their faltering New York Knicks, who are currently down 0-2 to the Miami Heat. That’s not going to last, according to the bridesmaids at my third wedding.

Rick’s Cabaret Girl Trina said that she considers some of the NY Knicks her favorite VIP customers. “We are not allowed to mention any names,” she explained. “But the basketball guys are awesome.”

Rick’s Cabaret Girl Karina said, “Look, Miami killed them in the first two games, but they are coming back to New York on Thursday. It is not over. The girls and I wanted to do something to show them how much we appreciate them. So we held a pep rally this afternoon to cheer them on. They can still turn it around – anything can happen.”

Asked about Amar’e Stoudemire’s injury, Rick’s Cabaret Girl Gianna said, “I appreciate his passion, but he went too far. I’m not worried, Carmelo Anthony will step it up. Carmelo is my favorite Knick. He can do it.”

We can joke all we want, but these girls appreciate their New York sports. Hell, if they started commenting on some gambling sites, they could be writing for ESPN Playbook by the end of the week.

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(Grover is Bosh.)

One of my professional goals is to make an appearance on Sesame Street and teach Grover the difference between two obvious things he should’ve organically learned about at some point over the last forty years. Sadly there isn’t a lot of room for bloggers on children’s programming (“hey kids, this is the difference between CREDITING your source and claiming you ARE the source, even if you just typed ‘cheerleaders’ into Flickr!” etc.), so here’s a clip of New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire living that dream for me.

Watch as they teach Grover what it is to “compare”. Carmelo can shoot the ball into the basket. Amar’e can shoot the ball into the basket. Grover can shoot the ball… way below the basket. They should’ve had Patrick Ewing walk on and say, “I can also shoot the ball way below the basket”.

I feel like he should’ve just transformed into Super Grover and started traveling all over the place. Super Grover is too popular for traveling calls.

They should bring on Stephon Marbury and have him call Elmo a sellout for doing the “Elmo’s World” segment instead of talking to kids on the street.

[h/t Sportress of Blogitude]