"And I was like, 'Toronto? Sorry, wrong number. No Steve Nash here.'"

Depending on whom you ask, the Los Angeles Lakers either just pulled off a fantastic or terrible trade that makes them instant contenders again or just makes them older. Yesterday, the Lakers defiled our nation’s birthday by making the day’s biggest sports news all about a Canadian athlete. The Phoenix Suns have agreed to ship Steve Nash to L.A. for a goodie bag of draft picks and cash.

Specifically, the Suns inked Nash to a 3-year, $27 million extension and will swing him to the Lakeshow for $3 million and four draft picks. The Lakers were able to make the deal happen thanks to that exemption they received from Dallas in the “Lamar Odom’s worthless presence” trade last season.

So what sold Nash, who had interest from a bunch of teams, on this particular deal?

“This is what I call a family values contract,” Nash’s agent Bill Duffy told USA TODAY Sports. “He was seriously considering retiring so he could remain close to his children. We had to twist his arm to have an open mind. He didn’t want to be away from his children, and this allows him to be in a competitive situation, and even though it’s a rival, he wanted Phoenix to get some value back. It’s a win-win.” (Via USA Today)

Added Duffy, “I was all like, ‘Retirement shmetirement, bro. Daddy needs a new beach house in San Diego. Think about others for once, you selfish dick.’ And boom, Lakers.”

Of course once the news broke, so did the dam that keeps all of the Internet’s hyperbole from drowning us. Nash is 38-years old, and he’ll turn 39 in the middle of the 2012-13 season, so can he still be the point guard that Kobe Bryant and the Lakers have desperately craved since Derek Fisher’s age caught up to him?

Let’s speculate and debate and then hug.

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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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The sports world is abuzz with the news that a Magic-Johnson fronted group broke the dang old bank in order to purchase the Dodgers for over $2 billion, which is a figure so absurd that it may as well be written like a comic strip character says cuss words.

“Yes  Mr. McCourt, and our counter-offer is #!%*& dollars.”

Anyway, it’s no secret by now that Magic Johnson, while not a billionaire himself, is a mega-entrepreneur and philanthropist. Already in 2012, he’s bought a baseball team and announced he’s launching a television network. What’s next, a chain of restaurants that are like Applebee’s, but with edible food? A series of Wal*Mart-style superstores? It’s almost like he’s some kind of business wizard. Almost like he’s … gathering spectacular assets.

Wait a minute. Wizard … gathering … Magic … I think we may be on to something here, ladies and gentlemen. In the spirit of Magic Johnson’s spectacular purchase, I am pleased to present the nerdiest sequence of jokes to ever appear on With Leather. It is my pleasure to present to you a very special type of card game: a collectible one.

Faithful readers, I proudly present Magic Johnson: The Gathering.
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"Stay tuned for Air Bud, followed by an encore presentation of Teen Wolf."

Instead of attending what should have been the Orlando Magic’s season opener last night, I laid on the couch and caught up on my DVR and then watched the new “South Park” (I thought it was pretty bad until Polly Prissypants pooped herself, which totally saved it). What I didn’t do was spend $9 on Coors Light from the tap and I didn’t stand in line for 20 minutes to use the bathroom while a bunch of jerkoffs cut the line by walking in through the exit door. I stayed at home, saved some cash and really didn’t think much about the NBA at all last night, and I imagine that’s pretty much par for the average NBA fan.

The NBA is currently no closer to playing a game than it was last week or on July 1 when the owners locked the players out. The players union is standing firm in its demand of 52% of the Basketball Related Income, despite anonymous source reports laden with “The Wire” analogies that claim Derek Fisher is pushing to meet the owners’ demands of 50/50 because he is corrupt. More than 4 months later, here we are – allowing an arrogant columnist to make himself the top story.

At least Steve Nash gets it. It’s not about the owners and the players anymore. Their time to be the victims has expired. It’s about the fans now, and our time to be furious has officially begun.

“You have two wealthy sides arguing over percentage points,” Nash said. “It’s hard for fans to understand that this is a business. I don’t blame them. If I were in their shoes, I’d be critical, frustrated or even angry. You just want to see the game you love. Both sides are arguing for inevitably selfish reasons, but also for what’s right when they are gone. It’s a big mess.”

(Via the Tucson Citizen)

Don’t worry about it, Steve. You guys take your time. The NFL season has been great so far and I’ve been watching more and more hockey lately. Even bought me a new St. Louis Blues shirt. I put it on the hanger that my Dwight Howard jersey was on.

The other day we celebrated New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski for his shameless use of Twitter as a way to hit on ridiculously attractive women, like our beloved Kate Upton. In fact, Gronk’s Twitter use led him straight into the arms of adult film actress Bibi Jones last weekend, while the Patriots were enjoying their bye week. Jones claims that nothing happened between the two, that Gronk always carries his jersey with him so he can take pictures of girls wearing nothing but it, and that all they did was watch her movies together… with 5 other guys. I know, it’s a little too much for me to put together in my head this morning, too.

But the national media has, without any surprise in the world, blown this story up into something way beyond how cool Gronk is. Most of the old school reporters and columnists see this as deplorable behavior and have brought down their hammers of Murrow with rage upon the single 22-year old eventual millionaire. Sadly, they won, because after meeting with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Gronk has issued an apology.

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Yesterday I wrote about how the NBA players were making a too little, too late effort to win fan support as the deadline had already passed to save the first two weeks of the season by starting a hashtag campaign on Twitter. By no means was I suggesting that the owners are the good guys in this whole mess, but I’m also not saying we should all stand behind the players. Look, both sides are wrong, just as both sides were wrong during the NFL’s lockout. The only side that is right is the fan side, because we pay the money. But my point yesterday is that neither side has seemed to give a crap about us, so we should be angry.

With that said, the players have been lighting up Twitter to try and explain to us why we should care that two weeks of the season have been canceled. As many commenters have pointed out over the past few weeks, we shouldn’t care. As far as I’m concerned, as long as the agents are poisoning the players for the sake of preserving large contracts, we shouldn’t care. But as a season ticket holder for the Orlando Magic, I do care. As a friend of people who work for a NBA franchise and people whose small businesses depend on the NBA season for income, I care a lot. This whole thing is frustrating, disappointing and sad.

But the players are speaking out – and more importantly they’re trying to clear up some misconceptions (like Steve Nash above) and have intelligent conversations about the lockout – so let’s see what they have to say. Especially if it’s in rap and/or Twitter form.

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