It has been 11 days since the NBA’s team owners voted unanimously to lock out the league’s players while a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is negotiated, but that hasn’t stopped the players from moving on with their lives, professionally and personally. As we’ve already pointed out, stars like Kobe Bryant and Deron Williams are already making plans to play elsewhere, while plenty of younger role players are also weighing their European options.

Now sold on Europe as well, Ron Artest, AKA Metta World Peace, told LA Times finger-painter Bill Plaschke that he will play in London if the lockout affects the upcoming season. Additionally, Kevin Durant’s agent claims that the NBA scoring leader is strongly considering playing overseas if the option is there.

“If the opportunity presents itself and the lockout persists, he’s going to have to consider it just as other players are considering it,” Goodwin said, SI reports. “Kevin has shown some interest to know what the situation is and we’ll reach out to the players’ association and make sure that they’re aligned with the guys in case they do take an offer. But I think what you’re going to see happening is a lot of players are going to look at the opportunity if the lockout prolongs that they can go somewhere and play basketball.” (Via Yahoo!)

Translation: “Pay my guy and he’ll go half-ass it for your team.”

Meanwhile, after Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade Tweeted for some job opportunities, his old stomping ground of KFC is calling. The fast food chain has offered $250,000 to a charity of Wade’s choice if he mans a drive-thru window for one day like he did as a teenager. Speaking of $250,000, that’s what Wade’s teammate Chris Bosh just spent on food alone for his surprise wedding on July 16. Why is the wedding that people already know about a surprise, you ask? Because Bosh actually got married three months ago, then had his Las Vegas bachelor party and is now having a lavish South Beach vow renewal for all his friends.

And as you can see after the jump, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is continuing his “war” with the league’s owners and their lawyers to make sure that the players get what they deserve and the fans aren’t robbed of their season. Haha, just kidding, he’s in a planking war with Gilbert Arenas.

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Orlando Magic guard Gilbert Arenas Tweets a lot, in case I haven’t mentioned it before, and his 140-character thoughts usually fall somewhere between “LOL wut a jackazz” and “OK I’ll admit that’s pretty funny”. But on a few isolated occasions, when he’s not calling Orlando a state or planking in random places, he has been known to make a pretty good point, and two of his Tweets caught my attention yesterday.

rumor is DWill has a contract to play overseas if the lockout continues pass oct 1st…he aint the only one u know ya boy Agent has one also

all this overseas talk..and when we had to play preseason games over there everybody started complaining about the flts and food

By “flts” he means flights, I assume, and he makes an excellent point about the mindset of professional athletes. I knew some guys who played college basketball and after they graduated they went to play in Japan, Ireland, Turkey and Greece. A few of them did it for the experience, but mostly they all did it for the money, because these teams were offering as much as low 6 figures (considering conversion rates and living expense) to 22-year old guys who had no chance at making the NBA.

That’s important to keep in mind, because with the exception of Rudy Fernandez’s record offer from Real Madrid – which is more about bringing a star home and less about pillaging the NBA – the offers aren’t going to be as considerable as some players might think. That’s why this supposed mass exodus of angry and vengeful players isn’t going to be as large as some pundits expect, because it comes down to the difference between a comfort zone and culture shock. Basically, these players can make all the threats they want but after a few weeks they’d be Tweeting xenophobic rants that would haunt an Arizona legislator’s dreams.

After the jump, you can check out the latest in NBA-players-heading-overseas developments, as well as Arenas’ latest planking escapades.

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On June 25 and 26, teams from across Europe will travel to Gravesend, Kent (England) and the Vigo Rugby Club to participate in the fifth-consecutive Bike Polo European Cup. That’s right – Bike Polo. No horses, just bikes. Guys on bikes with mallets hitting a ball into a net. Well, it’s certainly better than Quidditch.

Gareth Collins, club secretary, said: “Over the four years we have been in the cup we have got better and better. Getting the draw against Sanvic (who won last year’s competition) was a real bonus. The French have a league and play every two weeks so to get to theirnlevel is really something.” (Via The Gravesend Reporter)

And while I don’t know what theirnlevel means, you can put your worries to rest – Yes, Americans have discovered bike polo. In fact, there’s a World Championship for bike polo, too, and the reigning champions just so happen to be from these here great United States. The Beaver Boys from Milwaukee are the defending World Hardcourt Bike Polo Champions, and will look to retain their title later this summer. Highlights after the jump.

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Leave it to the Swedes to not only make affordable dorm room and bachelor pad furniture, but it seems they’ve also invented the most adorable form of animal competition not called the Puppy Bowl. Known as Kaninhop, this Swedish sensation involves bunny rabbits show-jumping as if they were miniature fluffy horses with big, floppy ears.

But the bunny in the box, Daily Mail…

Over the past few decades to sport has spread far from its Scandinavian homeland and clubs have now sprung up in several other European countries, the U.S., Canada and even Japan.

Rules vary from country to country, but generally the more jumps a rabbit clears the higher its score. There is also sometimes a time element to competitions.

You also lose points if your rabbit starts a bunny orgy in the middle of the course, but you gain points for how many female rabbits your male impregnates. It’s pretty complex. I just wish we had a video of bunnies competing in Kaninhop set to Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best”…

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Say what you want about their submarine doors and flashlights, but Polish people are pretty hellbent on their soccer support. The Lech Poznan under-12 team recently competed in the 2010 Lech Cup and they lost all of their matches, so you’d think they’d be pretty bummed, right? Well they probably weren’t, seeing as the fans of the main club showed up in ridiculous force, putting on a display of support that we’ve never seen before. Ever. I looked it up.

I’m hardly Albert Einstone when it comes to European soccer, so I’ll simply point out the obvious – Polish soccer fans are maniacs. Their support for their child athletes sure beats the hell out of the mandatory one inning of play rule we used to have in Little League and the participation trophies we received. But I guess you could count the players’ dads smoking next to the dugout as a fireworks display. So we had that going for us.

Videos of the insane fans after the jump…

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The Year Of Weekday Morning Sporting Events continued today with the conclusion of what the cool kids call the 38th Ryder Cup Matches. This is the event every other year when the best American golfers play the best European golfers and pretend that white people still rule the world. Europe won again by a score of 14½ to 13½, which is pretty awesome, since you can’t really score a half-point in any other sport that doesn’t involve camel-toe.

Graeme McDowell, whose legacy of American ass-kicking is approaching that of the Japanese auto industry, sealed the deal with a clutch putt on the 16th hole. McDowell, for the record, won the US Open at Pebble Beach earlier in the summer, would then watch as a Hunter Mahan duffed a chip on 17. Mahan would miss his ensuing putt and then concede the tournament.

There are probably some good socialism jokes to be made here, but it’ll just get the crazies riled up in the comments section, so I’ll pass. Apparently, people are still convinced that name-calling emblazoned in all-capital letters qualifies as an argument. Maybe this has something to do with why we suck at golf so much. Well, that and Phil Mickelson’s chubby man breasts. It’s a toss-up, really.