Ugh, I’m so sorry, you guys, but I’m really pissed off so we’re going to talk about politics for just a second. Philadelphia 76ers center Spencer Hawes is 24-years old, attended a highly-regarded prep school, and went to the University of Washington. Because he’s 7-foot-1, he’s been able to play basketball his whole life and he parlayed that into being the 10th player selected in the 2007 NBA Draft.

In his 5th season in the NBA, Hawes averaged 9.6 points per game during the lockout-shortened season, while only actually playing in 37 games due to injury. But despite injury, he still collected more than $4 million in salary from the Sixers. Not counting endorsements, Hawes has earned roughly $13,566,963 during his NBA career, and that’s important to note because he thinks we live in a communist country because the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Obamacare.

It’s ironic that Hawes, a millionaire, is complaining about living in a communist country on Twitter, the greatest example of free speech that has ever existed. A lot of people agreed with Hawes’ chain of Tweets, that he posted while taking time out from his basketball camp for children today. And a lot of people disagreed. On the surface, he came across as just another dude mindlessly spouting anti-government rhetoric without actually justifying his argument. Then he made a joke about a bald eagle crying, and it wasn’t funny. Seriously, it was stupid.

I won’t get into my politics because you don’t care about my politics and I hate politics, so it’s a waste of time. I only bring this whole stupid mess up because we often criticize athletes for staying out of politics, but when they do speak up, we jump all over them for expressing their beliefs. I think Hawes is a hypocritical jerk, but I also respect that he’s willing to be himself.

Above all, though, I think the most important thing to take away from today’s news about socialized health care is this…

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"Dude, that was awesome! Also, we still want to trade you."

It’s really strange looking at last night’s NBA Playoffs scores and seeing that the Chicago Bulls have been eliminated. The Bulls were supposed to meet the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, and not another team in the East stood a chance against either of them. It was going to be LeBron James/Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh vs. Derrick Rose/Joakim Noah/Luol Deng in the battle of a team that depends on three guys and a team.

But then that team was apparently in a train crash, because Rose went down with a torn ACL and Noah sprained his ankle and everything went to hell. Perhaps 76ers coach Doug Collins put it best after his team pulled off the 4-2 series victory with a 79-78 win over the East’s top seed last night.

“I don’t know how we won this game.”

The 76ers won the game because Andre Iguodala, the guard they’ve been trying to trade for the past year or so, hit the turbo boosters with a rebound on Omer Asik’s second missed free throw with 7 seconds left and went coast-to-coast to miss a layup but make two free throws to win the game. And those two free throws might guarantee that a team will come calling for a veteran like Iguodala, despite the fact that he’s owed more than $30 million over the next two seasons.

In case you missed it, you can watch the play that made millions of Bulls fans wonder, “How the f*ck did this happen?” after the jump.

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Sometimes sports news has nothing to do with Playboy parties and gossipy rumors or Tebowing or who’s psychic told them to divorce who — sometimes sports news is “this guy is awesome at sports”. Take, for example, Philadelphia 76er Andre Iguodala’s amazing circus shot from Monday night’s game against the Lakers.

Seriously, look at this:

I left the basket in the upper righthand corner so you could see what he’s working with. This is more or less the best shot I ever made by complete accident f**king up a game of Horse, and I applaud him for it.

Now let’s see him do it again!

[h/t My Sports Rumors]

To say that things aren’t going well for the Orlando Magic would be an incredible understatement. Since defeating the Indiana Pacers on Jan. 24, the team has fallen into a four-game skid that if defined as abysmal would be a compliment. But it all actually started the night before that win, when the Magic produced a pathetic 56-point performance in a loss to the Boston Celtics. That Monday night game should be remembered as the moment the Magic crumbled.

To be fair, the 66-game schedule hasn’t been kind to many teams at this point, with back-to-backs packed in like strippers in a trunk. But for the Magic – with my obvious homer status aside – it’s been a fascinating season with only 21 games behind them. And it all starts with the man who set the tone for Orlando’s season by requesting a trade, Dwight Howard.

After last night’s hideous 74-69 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers (and the game was a lot worse than that score suggests), Howard maintained that his team can win, but he still wants to play for a team that can win.

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Last Friday, the not-surprisingly-terrible New Jersey Nets earned their second win of the season with a 97-85 tickle fight against the slightly-less-terrible Toronto Raptors. But the scoreboard be damned, because the Raptors fans above earned the biggest victory of all as they reportedly heckled Nets forward and ex-Kardashian enabler Kris Humphries throughout the entire game with their giant cutout signs of E!’s First Family. Damn that classic Canadian wit.

The rest of the weekend and early season action has continued as expected, with the biggest surprise thus far being the 7-2 Philadelphia 76ers and their 6-game winning streak. It looks like all the City of Brotherly Love needed was a little Will Smith injection of jiggyness and some of the ugliest mascot options in sports history. Good for the 76ers and the other little engines that could, as they will inevitably be decimated by the Miami Heat.

Before we get started, though, let’s take a look at the ballsiest basketball bros you’ll see upgrade their seats this season…

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I’m not sure I could recognize Philadelphia 76ers guard Lou Williams if he passed me on the street, so it’s good news that I wasn’t the guy who tried to rob him on Christmas Eve. For both of us, I guess.

Maybe the guy recognized him from his weird shirtless, pensive-stare-at-probably-porn background on Twitter. Regardless, Williams seems like a cool guy and I wouldn’t wish Holiday Murder on even my least favorite sports celebrities (even the Kardashians get a “kill them on a less wistful day” nod). It also allows me to use my two best armed robbery pop culture references, the episode of Fresh Prince where Will gets shot so Carlton flips out and buys a gun for revenge and the episode of ‘Dawson’s Creek’ where Joey gets held up but the robber gets hit by a car so she takes him to a hospital and gives him all her money there, but I’m not going to make them.

Maybe Lou didn’t get robbed at all, and this is just a worked cautionary tale to get players to bail out their hoods, like ‘Christmas Shoes’ for basketball players. Who knows?

[by way of Larry Brown Sports]