I don’t know why Anna-Megan Raley blogs for CBS Houston under the name Claire Crawford, but after last week, I assume it’s because it allowed her to get away with writing incendiary click bait with headlines like, “Is This Girl ‘Too Chunky’ To Be An OKC Thunder Cheerleader?” Yeah, sh*t just got real.

First, let’s consider some actual talking points for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. For starters, there’s the question of how the team plans to return to the Finals with Russell Westbrook out for the playoffs after knee surgery. One step further, there’s the timing of Kevin Durant’s Sports Illustrated cover, on which he claims he’s ready to be the NBA’s No. 1, as he must now carry the Thunder on his back. And there are obviously many more angles one could run with, but Raley believed that a Thunder dancer’s muffin top was the Pulitzer magnet.

Raley drew the ire of her site’s readers and beyond when she asked the aforementioned question of Thunder dancer Kelsey Williams, who you can see in the banner image.

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Because YOLO, here’s Portland Trail Blazers color commentator Mike Rice donning a satin jacket and a pair of sunglasses to do “the Gangnam” and “the Dougie” with the BlazerDancers. It’s cute, and also should make you feel good about every time you have refrained from dancing. (via That NBA Lottery Pick)

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Links

Party Like It’s 2003: Hear New Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes Songs |UPROXX|

Guess Who ‘Maxim’ Named TV’s Most Beautiful Woman? |Warming Glow|

An Important Discussion About The 1996 Film ‘Vibrations’ |Film Drunk|

An Oklahoma High School Ran Up The Score Thanks To A Special Needs Student |With Leather|

‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’ Lets You Customize Your Dismemberment |Gamma Squad|

Best Songs For Drunk Dialing |Smoking Section|

Better Know A Draft Pick: Geno Smith |Kissing Suzy Kolber|

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Continuing with my theme of “Hey, here’s some good news, let’s talk about this!” that started with Andre Johnson’s incredibly kind effort and continued with Chris Paul’s equally generous charitable act, sports teams in every league except the one with a commissioner who is ruining Canada’s Christmas have been pitching in to help kids in their communities. Earlier this week, for instance, Orlando Magic players Jameer Nelson, JJ Redick and Glen Davis each held separate events for local kids, and the Charlotte Bobcats even took time away from not being in last place to give a little back.

As part of their Cats Care program, the entire Bobcats team gave 40 kids from the Salvation Army Center of Hope Women’s and Children’s Shelter, Hope Haven and Church of God Children’s Home of North Carolina their own $150 gift cards to run around Target and pick out toys for themselves and presents for their families. As in most cases like this, it meant as much to the players as it did to the kids.

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Is this PSY or Warriors hype man Franco Finn? You make the call …

PSY, IT’S PSY

So yeah, here’s another Gangnam Style video (the “Gangnam State Warriors”), but this one features the Golden State Warriors cheerleaders, so that’s something. Cheerleaders, dancers, whatever. Plus, Franco Finn does a pretty excellent Psy impression. You’ll need that for this Halloween, when every fourth person you pass will be dressed as Psy.

Video is below. If you’ve got reservations about watching this, remember: it’s only like a minute and a half long, and Golden State has some pretty phenomenal-ass dancers.

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Last we checked in on Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber, he was skating with the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada’s efforts to make a young girl’s dream come true, before he headed off to hand out food at the Daily Bread Food Bank. After all of that, he recorded a Christmas special for a Canadian TV station, and everyone was all, “Aw what a good kid who has more money than most African nations.”

So of course he deserved to take a little time off last night and have some fun at a Toronto Raptors game – as he was still in town after his grandparents were in a serious car accident. But those darn Raptors had to spoil the fun by sucking losing to the Indiana Pacers, 90-85.

However, the news isn’t that Bieber was at a game or that he wears his pants halfway down his ass like a schmuck. Nope, the tabloids are going crazy today because someone took a picture of J-Biebz looking in the general direction of the attractive female Raptors dancers. WHAT WILL SELENA GOMEZ THINK? OH THE HUMANITY! WHERE IS OUR GOD NOW? THE WORLD IS ENDING!

I need more coffee.

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I’m sure there’s plenty of NFL news and notes to update today, but the majority of games were on Saturday and you’ve probably seen Jerome Simpson landing a flip into the end zone 600 times by now (if you haven’t, it’s here). What you may not have seen nearly enough of are NFL cheerleaders dressed in all of their best holiday attire during the NFL’s Week 15 and 16 action. And I know that most of them are dressed like Santa Claus to honor Christmas, but I say holiday attire because the Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders wore blue and white so they could technically be giving the NFL’s Jewish fans some bigger candles this Hanukkah season.

Among the teams to feature their festive females were the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Colts, Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, among others. And even the Los Angeles Clippers’ dancers got in on the action, as if to say, “Merry Christmas, NBA fans who stayed up late to watch the newest media bandwagon darling lay a complete thrashing on the Golden State Warriors.” Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, indeed, friends of With Leather.

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