I’m still crawling out of my vacation cocoon, so I’ve been thinking all day about which aspects of the incredible Eastern and Western Conference Finals series that I most wanted to talk about today. Right off the bat, there was last night’s incredible finish in San Antonio, as the Oklahoma City Thunder barely held off the Spurs in what was one of the most amazing and intense 3-minute stretches in recent memory.

Or we could discuss LeBron James and his whole “I don’t foul out” attitude as people heaped blame on him and Dwyane Wade for the Boston Celtics tying their series at 2 each with the Miami Heat the other night.

But I’d rather talk about my favorite thing about the entire playoffs so far – Rajon Rondo. Normally, I’m not much of a Rondo fan, because he seems like a dick. And from what I can tell from interviews and highlights, he is definitely a dick. Without that dick, though, the Celtics are already done and the Heat have their feet up, waiting for the Thunder and Spurs to kill each other.

So instead of going back and recapping everything that has happened, I just wanted to pay a little respect to Rondo with my favorite highlights of him through this ECF thus far, because he’s the only reason this series has been so entertaining.

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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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This is a video of Paul Pierce “Tebowing”, which caused CBS Boston to ask the question, “Is Paul Pierce Tebowing?”

Many people thought he was doing the move named after New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, who gets down on a knee and bows his head for a brief prayer on the field.

“You just want to thank God for putting you in those positions,” Pierce told reporters after the game. ”It wasn’t pre-scripted. It just came to me.”

I love that. He should hit a three-pointer and start planking, then have a press conference afterwards where he googles “planking” and laughs as he shows it to reporters. “I don’t know, I just made it up!!”

Not looking forward to early next year when they find out about Jeremy Lin.

[via The NBA Mistress]

Reality TV’s knockout combo of talking heads and inanimate 38-year old women has made “The Real Housewives Of ______” an easy joke, but when it’s done right, it can be really, really right. Case in point:”The Real Houseweives Of South Boston”, by way of Buzzfeed.

Somehow it manages to be hilarious, exactly like a real Real Housewives episode (complete with inexplicable dinner party) and a perfect encapsulation of every character I’ve ever seen from a movie set in Boston. Seriously, if one of these women had a gun this could pass for five minutes of The Town. If they aired the show as is on ESPN in Primetime I wouldn’t even know it was a joke.

Moments to look out for: Paul Pierce Jr. (and the pitch-perfect dichotomy of prejudiced white folks who love black people), Boston fans only liking home runs (didn’t need a parody video to tell me that) and the phrase “I f**k athletes. These are my trophies”.

[backwards hat tip to Mr. Matt Ufford]

As I’ve pointed out a few dozen times since July 1, whoever is running the public relations strategy for the NBA players union is doing a terrible job. But I’m also willing to bet that nobody is really in charge of the spin machine, as we’ve seen both the players and owners struggle to grasp reality during this entire lockout.

However, it’s worth pointing out that the players, despite coming off as greedy and arrogant at times (*cough, Dwyane Wade claiming he deserves $50 million per season, cough*), really do have their acts together for the most part. Sure, some of them are acting like they don’t give a crap about whether or not there is a season, but some of them are using their free time for the betterment of society and they’re not necessarily doing it so they can pose for the cameras.

Us basketball fans may be pissed, annoyed, frustrated, and flat out angry, but we’re also ignorant to the better efforts because a couple guys giving out Playstations to terminally ill kids doesn’t make a front page look as sexy as Wade telling off the league’s commish. Fortunately, I was doing some fall hard drive cleaning and came across a slew of images that proves that even the most robotic, soulless eventual billionaires like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have big hearts. They just don’t have good marketing teams.

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Yesterday was a strong day of traffic at With Leather thanks to an appearance by Kate Upton playing baseball in little shorts. Unfortunately, Kate spent her Monday evening chilling out, eating celery sticks or whatever and watching the Home Run Derby on the 2,000 inch flatscreen in [insert billionaire rapper industrialist here]‘s private jet, so we don’t have another gallery. However, the Internet doesn’t work in real time and these pictures are great even if you’ve flipped through them already, so support your local website and pretend like you had no idea who she was until you clicked the following link.

Thank you for your patronage.

Sports

Kate Upton, Erin Andrews, and the Best of the MLB Celebrity Softball Game - What’s weirder, how less hot Erin Andrews becomes when she’s standing beside Kate Upton and Jennie Finch, or Andy from “Parks and Recreation” without facial hair? Dude looks like a thick Stephen Dorff, I don’t know if I can handle it. Also, couldn’t somebody drag Aubrey Plaza to this thing? I want to see her swing a bat. |With Leather|

NBA Lockout Report: Paul Pierce, High Stakes Poker Player - Hopefully Pierce has linked his PSN to the Rockstar Social Club and obtained the Gentleman’s Attire, allowing him to get into the high stakes poker games at Blackwater Hotel. To make this joke even better, Pierce should change into his Miami Heat outfit before the next game so LeBron and Wade won’t show aggression toward him until he tries to score. |Smoking Section|

Today’s 25 Most Successful Comedy Actors by Winning Percentage - Winning percentage is a sports thing! But it’s pretty unfair to start Danny McBride at Pineapple Express, considering how awesome he was in All the Real Girls. “I know that albóndiga is meatball soup. Uh, dios is…” |Pajiba|

K-Swiss Kenny Powers Ad Campaign - Speaking of Danny McBride, I realized the other day that I’ve inadvertently collected nearly his entire filmography. The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report, Up in the Air, Hot Rod, All the Real Girls … I just need to justify owning a copy of Land of the Lost and I’m set. Hey, I hear they put a bunch of adult situations into a thing meant for kids. LOL! |Warming Glow|

Not Sports

Marine Asks Mila Kunis to Marine Corps Ball, She Accepts - I like to think Mila Kunis in real life is just her character in Black Swan, young and beautiful and passionately perfect at everything. Oh, and also when I’m having sex with her backstage I get to freak out and pretend she’s Natalie Portman. Mila Kunis is awesome. |Film Drunk|

New Rebecca Black Single Dropping Soon. You’ve Been Warned - It’s gonna be hilarious to see the Internet justify their “meh, underwhelmed” and “sophomore slump” talking points about a girl they only supported because she was terrible. I hope the new song is like, Lady Gaga “Monster” good and blows us out of the water. That’s the only way this can work. |UPROXX|

Nerd Beats Super Mario Bros. with Lowest Score Possible - A testament to how good this game is: 30 years later we’re still finding ways to play it. This is still nowhere near as funny as Hamid’s Super Mario Bros. speed run.|Topless Robot|

The Best of Wonder Woman Cosplay - Gonna use this to try out my “the rest of Uproxx” headline. Best of Wonder Woman Cosplay? Best of Wonder Woman Cosplay. Hey, that’s fun! |Gamma Squad|