Back in 2011, when we were all a little younger and more precious, I did a little digging to answer an age-old question from people who aren’t Los Angeles Lakers fans – “Hey, who’s that old dude who dresses like a blind cowboy?” The answer, of course, was James Goldstein and the question was raised after he showed up to a game with that lovely young lady above. We also learned that her name is Amalie Wichmann, and she is a Danish model who is quite pleasant to look at. Even Bill Clinton agrees. And now that we’re all caught up, we can check in to see what both of them have been up to this week.

Oh, look at that, they went to another Lakers game together. Damn it, Jimmy Goldstein is awesome.

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Here’s a video of Chris Paul throwing down a two-handed dunk. The Mayan apocalypse might actually be upon us.

The best part of the clip is that his own son didn’t believe it happened. Hold on to your butts, because this is the most adorable thing you’re going to read today. From Kevin Arnovitz on Twitter, by way of The Basketball Jones:

Well, technically he’s right. Maybe we should bring in Little Chris as a special guest analyst for next week’s Wednesday Dunk Battle. You know, assuming we can convince him between now and then that this is a Legitimate Dunk, and that the world doesn’t end tomorrow.

If that doesn’t count, we can always use CP3 dunking on Dwight Howard from a few years back, because reasons:

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Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with Kate Upton.

It is not an easy task to put together a list, such as the Greatest Sports Moments of 2012, specifically because so many things happen in any given year that it’s all but impossible to universally gauge which one event or person is greater than another. But since we’re just a couple dudes who like to make fun of stuff and almost always ignore actual sports news, it’s really quite easy.

With that said, here’s a quick breakdown of how our team of fact checkers and sports analyst number crunchers determine which people, places and things were the most important and influential in 2012…

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Slam dunks happen, and when they do, it’s important to know which one was best. Don’t ask me to explain it.

To help us objectively decide which slam dunk is best, we’ve decided to bring back our weekly poll and let you, the With Leather reader, help us with our science. Below are four dunks of note, followed by a place where you can vote on your favorite. Participation in this poll is mandatory, so please set aside your work or personal obligations to watch some videos and play Internet.

Your choices are:

1. Blake Griffin catching his 770th alley-oop of the season, authoritatively dunking it against the Chicago Bulls
2. Minnesota Golden Gopher Rodney Williams’ 360 dunk versus North Dakota State
3. JaVale McGee’s one-handed alley-oop snag against the Detroit Pistons
4. Anderson Varejao faking out Dwight Howard, dunking on Not Dwight Howard

Videos of each dunk are below.

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In the style of our non-stop KIDS BEATING THE MIAMI HEAT AT BASKETBALL coverage comes this clip of Bailey, lion mascot for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, out-shooting Dwight Howard, a guy who gets paid to win at basketball. This contest of skills was made possible by the NHL lockout, which has given the league’s mascots a lot of free time, and the Los Angeles Lakers, who are currently 7-8 and still waiting for the NBA season to begin, I guess.

Here’s the recap, courtesy of ESPN’s Dave McMenamin by way of That NBA Lottery Pick:

Dwight said it didn’t count unless it was on the main court. So Bailey beat him at free throws on the main court. Then Dwight moved the contest out to the NBA 3-point line. They shot 3s from the corner and Bailey, a man standing about 5-10 wearing a lion costume, beat Howard, a man standing 6-9 and wearing his basketball practice uniform and sneakers as the first person to make five 3s.

That Bailey. He’s so smug.

Video proof that this was not just a Brandon Stroud fever dream is below. Warning: It is still not hockey.

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Despite me watching it last night, the NBA posted its new “BIG Color” commercial on YouTube today to celebrate both the holiday season and the surprisingly plain jerseys that some teams will be wearing on Christmas day. As we already know, the Christmas day NBA schedule looks like this:

Boston Celtics at Brooklyn Nets
New York Knicks at Los Angeles Lakers
Oklahoma City Thunder at Miami Heat
Houston Rockets at Chicago Bulls
Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Clippers

It’s a regular potpourri of games that we both care and don’t care about. Thanks NBA! But back to the uniforms and commercial at hand. The BIG Color commercial features four of the league’s most recognizable stars and Joe Johnson, as they bounce their jingle balls in rhythm to the tune of “Carol of the Bells”. For what it is, it’s a simple but cool spot that doesn’t play any favorites, except that 25 teams are left out of the fun. But that’s their fault for stinking.

Check out the commercial after the jump, as well as some special holiday cheer commentary from my favorite and most intelligent people on the Internet – YouTube commenters.

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