We don’t cover clips from ‘The Colbert Report’ as much as our friends at UPROXX, but last night’s sports-rich segment, starting with the NFL fining Troy Polamalu for concussion-dialing his wife on the sideline and ending with Colbert’s second pro-NBA-owner Colbert Super PAC ad (with Mark Cuban’s face superimposed on the American flag), was glorious and needs to be shared.

I won’t pretend I can say it better than Colbert. Here’s the accompanying press release for the video:

Colbert Super PAC has decided to take its talents to a new TV ad about the ongoing NBA contract negotiations. The spot, entitled “Ball Gag,” attacks NBA Commissar David Stern’s “gag rule,” which bars team owners like Mark Cuban from talking to press, friends, or even their own spouses.

The spot, the second in a planned quadrilogy, is made possible by a generous donation from Colbert Super PAC S.H.H., an independent nonprofit which does not reveal its benefactors’ names, donation amount, or what (if any) NBA team they own.

“My beloved game of ball-in-hoop is in danger, and David Stern is throwing elbows, kneecapping team owners right in the mouth.” said Stephen Colbert, President and MVP for Colbert Super PAC and Colbert Super PAC S.H.H. “You know who else supports Cuban censorship? Fidel Castro. It seems to me that Commissioner Stern needs to either grow a beard, or let owners speak their minds.”

You can check out the rest of the press release after the jump. He’s totally right, I turn to that Fort Worth station I don’t get in Austin for all of my Texas news.

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I hope you’re sitting down – I assume you’re on the toilet – but I have some very shocking news for you – NBA Commissioner David Stern has set another deadline. I know, right, super scary dude. Anywho, Stern’s latest threat comes a week after he canceled the first two weeks of the 2011-12 season, costing the owners and players approximately $250 million each, which is ironic because the current gap in the labor negotiations is reportedly around $250 million total.

So what’s so special about today, Mr. Stern?

George Cohen tried to resolve the NFL’s labor dispute. Now he’s overseeing basketball’s negotiations for the first time. Stern wants immediate results, saying during interviews last week that proposals could get worse and more games could be lost without a deal Tuesday.

“If there’s a breakthrough, it’s going to come on Tuesday,” he told NBA TV. “And if not, I think that the season is really going to potentially escape from us because we aren’t making any progress.”

(Via the Boston Globe)

And if nothing happens today, you can forget about the two-week blocks that Stern previously mentioned, as he’s ready to cancel everything up to and including the Christmas Day games. Clearly I’m not an employee for the NFL or NHL, but I have to think someone in their scheduling departments must be making a few calls.

As always, I will point out that the lockout began on July 1 when the last CBA expired and the owners and players had zero meetings in July and just one meeting in August, before someone finally said, “Hey, we should probably try to get something done.” All the while, Stern and the owners have been blatantly misreporting their so-called concessions (you can’t give up what you never had) in their negotiations with the players, while the players’ agents have been pitting them against the union and pushing for decertification to preserve their desire to receive 53% of the basketball related income. It’s all just a big hoot, you see?

Thankfully, someone has stepped forward to be the voice of reason and logic in this mess, and that someone is Stephen Colbert.

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