America’s favorite ex-NBA journeyman has become America’s least-favorite ex-ESPN contributor. Paul Shirley, who wrote a very funny book about his basketball career, was declared persona non grata by the monolith after Shirley posted a controversial blog post about the relief effort in Haiti. ESPN severed its ties with Shirley through a statement:

[Shirley] was a part-time freelance contributor. The views he expressed on another’s site of course do not at all reflect our company’s views on the Haiti relief efforts. He will no longer contribute to ESPN.

While there are good arguments to be had about how aid should be delivered to the Haitian people–both post-recovery and beyond–Shirley gave enough ammunition to his detractors to pass off many of his comments ["Dear Haitians – [C]ould some of you maybe use a condom once in a while? Sincerely, The Rest of the World.”] as garden-variety racism. Instead of fighting an oversimplified argument with an oversimplified argument, I give Shirley credit for trying to tackle an unpopular point of view, even though, like some of the Haitian people, the roof fell in on him. That’s not really a joke so much as pisspoor allegory. Hey, what do you want from me?

Chicago Bull Derrick Rose high above the rim with a sweet dunk, leaving the Suns stunned by a 115-104 loss.  But better yet, Rose was dunking for dollars.  For each point he personally scored he donated $1,000 to Haiti relief–a country, as you’ve heard, has now suffered a major earthquake with two huge aftershocks leaving them completely devastated and death tolls are climbing.

He is one of a long list of ballers to step up to the cause, including Dwayne Wade, Alonzo Mourning, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and Gilbert Arenas, Pau Gasol, Joe Johnson, and Tyreke Evans.  Mourning and Wade have started a fund called “Athletes Relief Fund for Haiti”.  Other organizations providing relief can be found here.–vid via The Sporting Blog