Along with fellow Kings rookie Omri Casspi, Tyreke Evans is battling it out for Rookie of the Year honors. (You can throw Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings into that mix as well.) Not a bad couple picks in the first round by the Kings this past summer.

But neither Evan or Casspi is good enough to have their shots count if they shoot an air ball. J.R. Smith learned this one the hard way Saturday night:

D’oh.

HT: Ball Don’t Lie

Things I think I know: With instant replay, if a call is to be overturned, there has to be conclusive evidence that the call made was wrong. In the above scenario, that would mean this: the refs had to, without a shadow of a doubt, see that the ball was still in Brad Miller’s hands when the red light went off. If not, their ruling of the shot being good stands. And if it’s too close to call, hence no “conclusive” evidence? You go with the ruling on the court, too.

Things I think I saw: Contrary to what every single Bulls fan I follow on Twitter was saying, I think the ball was still on the tip of Miller’s fingers when he released the shot. Yes, it was ridiculously close. Yes, I wish the call had gone the other way. Yes, I agree there’s certainly a case to be made that since it was so close, there wasn’t conclusive evidence, and the ruling the refs made of the shot being good should stand. But I guess I just kept waiting to see the replay where I was like “A-ha, he got it off, Bulls win!” I never saw that, though. Every replay I saw I had a sinking feeling it was going to be overturned because it ever so slightly looked like it was still on his fingertips. I’m probably in the minority here, but so be it.

Conclusion: Here’s where it gets tricky. I will agree that the Bulls got jobbed. When you’re at home, it’s that close, and the refs called it good from the get-go, one would assume the call stands. But I think the refs huddled around the monitor and were like: “OK, dudes, even though we called it good, can we really justify that still, now that we’re looking at the multiple replays that aren’t really telling us that? I don’t think we can.”

The reason I’m so jaded about this? I’ve seen Indiana end up on the wrong side of these calls too many times this football season.

When you’re a kid, you get really excited about dumb stuff. Candy! More candy! Video games! A 20 dollar bill!

When you grow older, you become cynical, and realize that 20 bucks ain’t gonna cover your rent. Yet, it’s nice to see kids going wild over something; it takes you back to when life was a lot simpler.

Case in point, the kids in the below video going wild at Michael Jordan’s Flight School this summer when Carmelo Anthony makes a surprise visit. I JUST WANT A HIGH FIVE, CARMELO! (Via BDL.)

A shooting competition ensues where Melo and Jordan pick two kids out of the crowd to pair up with.

Jordan’s duo wins. Of course they do.

You know what happens when I have a scheduling conflict with someone? I pay an actor to mockingly dress up as them and then totally throw them out of a wrestling ring. Grrrr!

And it looks like Vince McMahon totally stole my move. Ass. Here’s the fake Stan Kroenke and the real Vince McMahon (with cameos from a fake David Stern, Jack Nicholson and Jerry Buss) bickering about how the WWE had to move from the Pepsi Center to the STAPLES Center after “Monday Night Raw” was scheduled during Game 4 of the Lakers-Nuggets series in Denver last evening.

Oh, and McMahon talks about starting the XBA, which is like the NBA, only way worse. (Start watching the first clip about 3:00 minutes in.)

Since I know this is a pro-WWE crowd I’m catering to, here’s video of a five-on-five tag team featuring wrestlers in Lakers and Nuggets jerseys that happened last night, too. Enjoy!

WWE planned to hold “Monday Night Raw” in Denver’s Pepsi Arena this coming Monday night. The problem is that the Nuggets have reached the Conference Finals, and they’re scheduled to play the Lakers at home on the same night. The Nuggets’ owner, Kroenke Sports, also owns the arena, so they offered to host Raw on Sunday night instead. As Kroenke Sports tells it, McMahon agreed, but then opted to move the event to the Lakers’ Staples Center without warning.

Kind of shady, but problem solved, right? No need to, say, hold a 5-on-5 “Lakers vs. Nuggets” wrestling match, write yourself into the show, and confront a fake Stan Kroenke on-air?

McMahon added the Monday show would include a 5-on-5 match pitting “Lakers” against “Nuggets” and his character would likely confront a character of Stan Kroenke, who owns Kroenke Enterprises, in the ring.

Taking Vince McMahon to task is sort of like telling a clown he’s silly, but I didn’t really know who Stan Kroenke even was before reading this. As owners go, he’s not the household name that someone like Mark Cuban or George Steinbrenner is. I know I wouldn’t be able to appreciate Stan Kroenke-centric satire if presented with it, and I doubt an arena full of wrestling fans will, either. If you’re upset with someone, the worst course of action is to tell a big, elaborate, esoteric, ineffective joke that nobody will get. Everyone at the party just stares at you, and then you pretend someone’s calling your cell phone, and in the middle of your fake conversation, the phone rings for real. Brutal.

Mark Cuban created a total ish-storm when he allegedly told Kenyon Martin’s mom that her son was a “punk” after Denver took a 3-0 series lead over Dallas in a highly controversial ending to Game 3. Cuban later denied the actual “punk” comment, although he did admit that he said something.

As a result, Mavericks fans have been heckling K-Mart’s mom and, as a result of that, Cuban has issued an apology. On his blog, of course.

So at this point I would like to apologize to you and your mom KMart for my comment. I should have not said anything and I was wrong. Hopefully you will accept the apology and we can move on.

When the series comes back to Dallas, your family, and the family of other Nuggets players are welcome to stay in my suite, with my family. Its amazing how tempers mellow when real people talk to each other and realize that its still just a game.

OK, this will work out awesomely in one of two ways: the Cubans and the Martins will either become hated enemies and totally rumble, causing an Artest-like spill out from the owner’s box into the stands of American Airlines Arena (I think that’s really the best scenario from a blogger’s perspective, right?); Cuban and the Martins will get along and this thing will just go away (not a terrible option given this storyline will be completely stale in another few days); or things are just straight up awkward the whole game as Cuban fistpumps in K-Mart’s mom’s face while his brother Twit-pics it. Either way, this is going to end up being fun for the rest of us.

Last night, I went to Houndstooth Saloon, a bar that boasts “Southern Hospitality on the North Side.” It was country night. As it was still early in the night and I wasn’t yet drunk enough to enjoy “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” even ironically, I had most of my attention focused on the NBA basketball on the few TVs in the bar not devoted to CMT.

It was at that point I witnessed Chris Anderson’s insane block of Rudy Fernandez, and the block was great enough. What sealed it was Anderson’s reaction:

During the broadcast, that was replayed in slow motion at least four or five times. I LOL’d and LOL’d and LOL’d. Then “Whiskey For My Men, Beer For My Horses” came on, and I needed another beer.