Folks we have a new Slam Dunk Champion and he’s a familar face. New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson, who won the contest in 2006, won the contest again last night during the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest.

The scary thing about it is he won the contest because he used his opponent, the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard, as a prop.

Like he did in 2006 when he jumped over Spud Webb, Robinson this time jumped over Howard and dunked the ball in. After that Howard had no chance.

Howard did impress the crowd earlier in the night when he dunked on a 12 foot basket with ease.

Here are the highlights from Robinson and Howard during the dunk contest.

Round 1

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Finals

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8dldx_dunk-contest-rd-2_sport[/dailymotion]

After this morning’s first workout for the pitchers and catchers, Boston Red Sox catcher and captain Jason Varitek addressed the media for the first time since re-signing with the Sox.

Here’s a few quotes of what Varitek had to say courtesy of Alex Speier of WEEI.com:

Was there every any doubt you’d be back?

I wouldn’t say there wasn’t any doubt, but there was never any doubt in what I wanted.
I know where my heart is, and this is where I’ve always wanted to be.

How difficult was the process, given that it lasted all offseason?

I’m just glad at this point it’s over with. I’m ecstatic that I’m a Red sox. I’m ecstatic for the fact that I had peace of mind to know that I’ll be in this uniform. I get closer to retiring in this uniform—not saying that I see retirement anytime soon—but it allows me that opportunity to do what’s most important for me, to wear the ‘C’ for this group of fans and people in this organization who have spent a lot of time building a championship.

Did you ever second guess your approach to the offseason?

Ultimately I got what was important to me, which was being able to maintain the legacy and maintain the opportunity to be here and knowing there’s a commitment back from this organization that I’m going to be here. That was the most important thing for me from the get-go. I’m just happy. I’m happy that I’m here, I’m happy that I’m part of this organization, still, and happy with this opportunity with what this team has coming into camp, to get back and win another championship.

Varitek speaks on his return [Full Count]

Tek: ‘Happy and confident’ [Extra Bases]

The depth of the No. 1 UConn Huskies took a big hit today as it was learned that Jerome Dyson will be out indefinitely and could miss the rest of the season with a torn lateral meniscus. He will undergo surgery to repair the damage sometime next week, presumably after the swelling goes down a little

Depending on the severity of the damage, it’s quite possible he can return before the end of the season. From experience having done this myself, the typical recovery time is anywhere from 4-6 weeks. But it’s all going to depend on how serious the damage is once they get inside the knee.

“We are obviously all very disappointed for Jerome, who has been such a big part of why we are 23-1 and in first place in the Big East,” Calhoun said in a statement. “I know that he will work hard in the offseason and be back next year as a major contributor to our future success. As for our team going forward this season, it is another challenge we will have to face. We have very good players who I know will rise to the occasion and fill the void left by Jerome’s absence.”

Not only will Dyson be missed on the offensive end but he’s also one of the Huskies best defenders. I’d expect Craig Austrie to move into the starting lineup.

In 24 games (24 starts), Dyson was averaging 13.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists as well as leading the team with 44 steals.

Dyson has torn lateral meniscus [Norwich Bulletin]

Here is some video of Torrington High School’s Jordan Williams breaking a backboard on Tuesday night. Williams by the way will be attending the University of Maryland next season.

Terry Francona: Yesterday I made mention of the new book coming about Manny Ramirez. While the Boston Red Sox had no official comment about it, Sox manager Terry Francona had this offer to about incident involving Jack McCormick. “I think we did everything in our power to protect Manny,” Francona said. “At the same time, we wanted him to own up to his actions. We tried to do it privately but also make him understand that there were consequences for his actions. I thought we did the best we could. I think we bent over backward for Manny, like we did many times.” Definitely going to be interesting to see what is said when the book is released and people have had time to read it. [Boston Herald]

The Alex Rodriguez interview with Peter Gammons Fitzy style. As always, Fitzy’s videos are NSFW.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbUR3IthKWA[/youtube]

Who says you can’t go home?

Tina Charles broke out of her funk with 21 points and 6 rebounds to help the No. 1 UConn Huskies get past the St. John’s Red Storm 77-64 at Carnesecca Arena in Jamaica, NY.

The UConn women improve to 24-0 (10-0 Big East) while the Red Storm fall to 15-8 (3-7). This is the first time the Huskies have opened a season at 24-0 since 2002-03.

Renee Montgomery also added 21 points and 7 assists while Maya Moore had yet another double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds to go along with 4 blocked shots. Tiffany Hayes continues to impress since being thrust into the starting role as she added 12 points. The only other Husky to score was Meghan Gardler who had 3 points before fouling out.

Stamford, CT native Da’Shena Stevens led all scorers in the game with a career-high 27 points and had 9 rebounds for the Red Storm. Kelly McManmon added 13 points and Sky Lindsay chipped in with 10 points.

St. John’s held a couple of 1 point leads early on and then stayed close with the Huskies for the first 7 and half minutes. Then with UConn leading 22-20, the Huskies went on a 9-0 run to open up an 11 point lead. The Red Storm cut the lead back down to 8 points at 34-26 before a 7-0 run opened up a 15 point lead at 41-26. The Huskies took a 45-30 lead into the locker room.

Over the first 4 minutes, the Huskies built their lead to 20 at 54-34 before St. John’s made it a ball game again with 13-0 run to cut the lead to 7 points. Like any championship caliber team, the Huskies took the blow and responded back with a 6-0 run to keep the Red Storm from pulling off the upset of a lifetime.

The lead swelled to 19 at 75-56 when Moore hit two 3-pointers and Hayes added one of her own. The Red Storm would get no closer than the final margin the rest of the way.

Everyone expected the Huskies to blow out the Red Storm tonight and yes at times it looked as though might happen. But a resilient St. John’s team gave the Huskies a test and it was a test that the Huskies passed.

For Charles, it was good to see her bounce back from her poor efforts the past few games. She must now use this and build upon it as the Huskies close out the regular season.

The Huskies are back in action on Sunday afternoon when they host the Pittsburgh Panthers at 3:30 PM at Gampel Pavilion. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

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With Brett Favre getting ready to announce his retirement from football again, apparently the web editors at ESPN are only focused on that. Take a look at the right column and then look at the left.

On the right, you have the headline that says “Jeter will wait to talk A-Rod” while on the left you have Jeter talking about ARod. Nobody expects ESPN to be perfect but they should at least be consistent in my humble opinion.

Dustin Pedroia, author: Apparently anyone can write a book these days as Dustin Pedroia’s new book “Born To Play: My Life in the Game” will hit bookstores around the All-Star Break this year. “I’m really excited to be doing this book. I hope that by telling my story it may be something some people out there might connect with.” Now this is definitely a book I want to read. [Inside Track]

Everyone’s favorite former Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez has a book coming out on March 10th. He didn’t write it but it’s an authorized biography written by Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg with the foreward written by Leigh Montville.

The book covers his entire life from the Dominican Republic and Washington Heights all the way to Los Angeles where he finished the 2008 season after his trade from the Red Sox.

Included in it is the incident with Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick.

“Jack disrespected Manny for many years and on many occasions,” Ramirez’s former agent Gene Mato says in the new, authorized biography “Becoming Manny.”

Manny’s bride, Juliana, added that her husband’s request for tickets to a Sox-Astros game was for fewer seats than the 16 cited in media reports.

“Jack’s response was very rude,” she recalled. “And Jack had a history of insulting Manny in front of the other players.”

The big question though is will any Red Sox fans read it? I know I’ll probably will read it.

Book gives Manny Ramirez’s side of the meltdown [Inside Track]

[BecomingManny.com]