Player punches out fan on court during Eurocup game (VIDEO)

Usually when a fan invades the court or field, players typically wait around for the idiot to be caught and taken away by security. But that wasn't the case in Wednesday's Eurocup game between Buducnost Voli and Banvit Bandirma.

Late in the fourth quarter, a fan rushed the court and attacked Banvit guard Sammy Mejia. American teammate E.J. Rowland didn't get there in time to stop the intruder, but he made sure the troublemaker didn't get back on the court with a sweeping forearm to his head.



Both Rowland and Mejia were ejected but not before a melee ensued.



But not before Mejia went in for Round 2.

Filipino basketball player rocks wild 'lizard' haircut (PHOTOS)

This has to be the wildest haircut that any athlete has ever sported — and I do mean wild.

Filipino basketball player Ogie Menor decided he wanted to opt out of his usual mohawk when he recently visited his barber and changed over to a "butiki," or "lizard" cut.

Ogie's awesome hairdo really does resemble a fuzzy reptile clinging to his head with a slithery tail running down his back.

Post by Nuki Sabio.

Menor may have lost his seventh straight game with Blackwater Elite on Tuesday, but he's surely a winner in the hair department.

Kentucky fan gets pre-tournament 2014 National Championship tattoo (PHOTO)

If you don't have faith, you don't have nothing — so it goes.  But having that assurance permanently inked onto your body before the fact is another thing.

My man Tyrone had an unspecified Kentucky national championship tattooed somewhere on his hirsute body, but it's assumed to be a pre-NCAA Tournament prediction.

Don't know what the '9' stands for but if the Wildcats fall short of his expectations, old Ty could just do a comb-over with his ample body hair.

People are gonna hate, but I still got faith @TrillGeta15 @AaronICE2 @DrewRoc5 @AlexTheGreat22 @J30_RANDLE #BBN pic.twitter.com/VveZzlDQhJ
— Tyrone (@Tizzblack) March 13, 2014

4-foot-1 player celebrates birthday by scoring for his high school basketball team (VIDEO)

Seth Kraft had a birthday to remember on Saturday when he starred in his Montana high school’s senior nights basketball game and even scored a basket to cap a victory over their local rivals.

Oh yeah. Kraft is a haircut over four-foot tall.

At 4ft 1in, Kraft wasn't a regular starter for the team, but his passion for the game led him to be the boys basketball student-manager and student-coach for the Laurel High School's varsity team for the past four years.

In appreciation of all his hard work and dedication to the team, coach Pat Hansen decided to play him in Saturday’s game against local Montana rivals Billings Senior — and he came up big.

Spud Webb has nothing on this guy.




Before the big game, Kraft lead his teammates onto the courtby breaking through a sign held by the cheerleaders with this message: "Seth, you never fall short of amazing us."

"I will steal the ball if I have the chance," Kraft boasted to the Billings Gazette before the game.

"I’m not going to take it easy on them. It’ll be great if I score, but it’s OK if I don’t. I’ll be successful tonight if I make an impact, even a small one."

And, after missing his first shot, Seth scored a bucket before his two-minutes of game time were forever etched on the scorecard.

Fans from both schools filled the gym with a loud ovation for Seth’s first — and only — career points as Laurel won 75-66.

Way to go Seth — and the players from both sides.

Kenny Anderson apologizes for North Korea trip with Rodman

Just days back from joining Dennis Rodman on his controversial visit to North Korea, and birthday celebration of Kim Jong-un, retired basketball NBA star Kenny Anderson spoke about the trip during a live interview with Piers Morgan on Monday.

The former All-American at Georgia Tech, and a man who scored more than 10,000 points during a 15 year NBA career, was among the group of athletes that chose to join Rodman on his trip to the isolated nation ruled by its basketball-crazed tyrant.

Revealing that he hadn't done his due diligence prior to arriving on site, according to CNN, Anderson admitted to feeling compelled to go through with the charity game played in honor of the nation's supreme leader:

"I feared - you know, you fear what you don't know ... Like I said, I got the phone call, a few hours before the game. My wife was crying. She was like, 'don't play.' She was scared of my safety. So I had no choice. You know, when we got there, they took - you know, they take our passports away, you know? And I just - I had to finish what I got into," said Anderson. "I felt bad. I felt bad. I felt very bad that, you know, for my family, you know, for my close friends and Americans and people that [sic] looked up to Kenny Anderson."

Organized by Rodman, last week's expedition gained increased exposure following his outburst at the start of the trip. Anderson was just one of the former NBA stars who sat stone-faced behind Rodman while he went on his drunken rant supporting the brutal regime.

On Monday, seated across from Morgan, Anderson agreed that in hindsight he and his teammates were being made to appear as puppets. But while he regrets the experience, he candidly accepts his share of the blame:

"First of all, I'm 43 years old. I make my own decisions. And like I said, I keep going back to it — I was upset with myself," he told Piers Morgan. "I didn't think it was going to give me so much backlash."

During the broadcast, Anderson apologized for participating in the basketball game but refused to agree to give the money he was paid to charity.

Blind basketball player scores first basket for the books (VIDEO)

Here's Alek Wolfe, an eighth grader at Saint Albans City School in Vermont, scoring his first basket.

The active Wolfe competes in cross country events, manages the boys basketball team, and even provides color commentary during the games. But he’s also blind and never thought he'd play for the team he supports, but that's exactly what happened last week. 

On Thursday, his coach put him in the game to score his first basket. Alek missed once, missed twice but on the third try, he made a basket and went in the official scorer's book. The crowd went wild and even the opposing team cheered him on.

"It was nothing that I was expecting," said Wolfe, after his coach surprised him by asking if he wanted to inbound a play. 

"So he comes over, ‘would that be awesome?’ I looked at him and said yes. He told me you're going to be in the books, if you score a point this place is going to go absolutely nuts. For him to do that for me is a big honor,” Wolfe said. 

"I went into the game with strategy; the feeling about this was that I was pumped. I was nervous, I was excited about it." 

Basket: two points. Moment: unforgettable.

Dennis Rodman's apologizes for North Korea outburst: 'I had been drinking'

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman apologized Thursday for his much-criticized outburst about an American citizen imprisoned in North Korea, saying he "had been drinking" when he made the remarks on CNN.

The eccentric Hall of Famer is in Pyongyang for a controversial NBA veterans exhibition basketball game against a North Korean team — a trip which has been filled with surreal moments, including Rodman's rendition of "Happy Birthday" to the country's leader Kim Jong Un at a packed sports stadium on Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview Tuesday with Chris Cuomo of CNN's "New Day," Rodman provoked outrage by appearing to suggest that Kenneth Bae, who has been held in North Korea since 2012, may have done something to deserve his sentence of 15 years of hard labor.

Rodman attributed his bizarre rant to stress and liquid courage.

"I had been drinking," he said in a statement released by his publicist Jules Feiler Thursday. "It's not an excuse but by the time the interview happened I was upset. I was overwhelmed.

"I embarrassed a lot of people," he added. "I'm very sorry. At this point I should know better than to make political statements. I'm truly sorry."

He said the day leading up to the interview had been "very stressful."

"Some of my teammates were leaving because of pressure from their families and business associates," adding that his dream of "basketball diplomacy was quickly falling apart."

"I want to first apologize to Kenneth Bae's family," Rodman said. "I want to apologize to my teammates and my management team. I also want to apologize to Chris Cuomo."

Bae's sister, Terri Chung, said her family was shocked by Rodman's comments about her captive brother.

"He was in a position to do some good and to help advocate for Kenneth," she said Tuesday. 

"He refused to do so. But then instead he has chosen to hurl these outrageous accusations against Kenneth. He clearly doesn't know anything about Kenneth, about his case. And so we were appalled by that."

She had no immediate comment Wednesday night after Rodman's apology was announced.

Smart enough not to take the shine off the dictator's birthday gift, Rodman's squad of former NBA players lost 47-39 to their North Korean hosts.

Typhoon Haiyan's devastation can't stop pick-up basketball game (PHOTO)

One reason basketball is one of the most popular games in the world is because of its simplicity. Find a basket, a ball, a couple of friends and you've got a game.

Not even the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan could keep these resilient Filipino youth from throwing down the rock. More importantly, it brings a small sense of normalcy back to the young men's shattered lives.

Pretty amazing. Remember this when you're whining about your $8 beers watching the Knicks.

Tweeted by Andrea Barocci. His story here.

Philippines: nothing can stop the basketball. pic.twitter.com/4LzijVWn1s
— Andrea Barocci (@AndreaBarocci) November 19, 2013

Couple of Mormons school street ballers in game of 2-on-2 (VIDEO)

There's a pretty interesting video going viral on YouTube that reportedly features two Mormon missionaries—who were making their usual rounds—getting into a two-on-two pickup basketball game with a couple of locals from the hood they were canvassing. After a casual shoot-around, the two visitors in their pressed white shirts and loafers bring the celestial kingdom straight to their opponents without even loosening their ties.

As the game gets going, the Mormons go all Danny Ainge and Jimmer Fredette on the home team— sinking layups, hitting jump-shots and nailing dunks —all in a friendly, if somewhat expletive-filled, atmosphere in front of amazed onlookers.

I don't know if the two missionaries made any converts, but that one stuffed shot should be called The Block of Mormon.

Andrew Garfield, in Spider-Man costume, shoots hoops with kids in NYC park

You never know what you'll glimpse while strolling the streets of Manhattan but seeing Andrew Garfield —decked out in his full Spider-Man costume — taking time out during a break to play some hoops with a group of kids on a public playground isn't usually one of them.

The movie star, who's in the middle of filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in Chinatown, nonchalantly showed off his Spidey skills with these lucky kids as his on-screen and real-life girlfriend Emma Stone stood to the side of the court with her dog.



Shooting movies on location in New York is big business but the street closures and the constant yapping of the P.A.'s to stay out of the shot can be a nuisance to real New Yorkers. So it was nice to see a big star take time out to make a couple of local kids smile.

The best part is watching Spider-Man walking away from the court, still in costume, casually waving to surprised pedestrians on the sidewalk. He seems like a nice guy.  Just like Peter Parker.

Too bad the Knicks didn't have Spidey around last week.