Hump Day Headlines: Afternoon Edition

In this week's Hump Day Headlines, we discuss Barry Bonds' latest mess, Michael Phelps potential criminal charges, David Beckham's failed soccer experiment, and LeBron reaches 12,000 points...

• As we have mentioned in past Hump Day Headlines, we've been waiting a while for the day to come when Barry Bonds would finally get nailed for cheating his way to baseball's all-time home run crown.  Despite everyone's best efforts to discredit the hundreds of pages filled with evidence damning Bonds in Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada's Game of Shadows, and the fact that not enough has been made of the fact that Bonds has already admitted to steroid use but says "he didn't knowingly take them", we now know that the proof is in the pudding, or urine sample.  The Federal Government has decided to unseal evidence against the slugger that includes multiple positive drug tests.  Bonds attorneys will try yet again to discredit these drug tests, which date back to 2003, but how a jury could actually be convinced that Bonds didn't know that he was taking steroids yet was consistently failing drug tests would really be a miracle.  Then again, O.J. somehow got away free.
• Now that Michael Phelps had been caught in a photo smoking marijuana from a pipe at the University of South Carolina, he could face criminal charges for his actions.  The Richland County Sheriff's department is investigating the situation, and apparently has a very tough stance on drugs (then again, who doesn't?).  The photo was revealed in "News of the World" a British tabloid, and can also be seen right here on this very site, courtesy of Scott's recent post.  Unlike Scott, I don't think you can give Phelps a pass for this act despite the fact that he's 23.  I'm 23, and Scott is 22, and if either of us were caught smoking pot we'd get into trouble.  Granted, many could chalk it up to us being young and dumb, and for that opinion those people would be right.  But neither of us is making monopoly money for endorsements with countless companies or is expected to be a role model for kids across the globe.  Phelps is a moron for rolling the dice with his reputation, especially after he had already been picked up for an under-age D.U.I.  I say Phelps deserves whatever prosecution he gets, and it's a shame he would be so dumb.  I guess he's not the wholesome kid we all hoped he might be.
• Remember when David Beckham came to the U.S. to play soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy as a way to popularize the world's game in this country?  That experiment surely failed.  He's barely through two years of a 5-year, 32.5 million dollar contract that was going to pay him far more cash in endorsements, and he's trying to get out of his deal to remain with Italy's A.C. Milan, the team he has been playing with for the last month and a half.  His lawyers are currently talking with the Galaxy to see if he can get out of his deal.  So basically, David Beckham's career in the states was short, filled with injury, and unimportant.  It was a novelty at the beginning, but fizzled quickly, like when Katie Couric got the CBS News job and people tuned in for the first week and then went back to their regular destinations.  That ends the argument that soccer could ever be popular in America.  If David Beckham can't do it, no one can.
• With his 33 points in last night's 101-83 win over the Raptors, Cavaliers forward LeBron James has eclipsed the 12,000 point mark for his career.  He is the fastest player ever to reach that scoring total, faster than Michael and faster than Kobe.  At 24 years, 35 days old, he passed Kobe who reached 12,000 at 25 years, 220 days old.  Said Cavs coach Mike Brown, "He's still going to get better, that's the scary thing."  There's an understatement.  The way LeBron is going, there's no telling what kind of statistics he can amass as his career moves along, and he could finish with the best statistics of any player in NBA history.  But until he wins a bunch of titles, and makes his team a champion around him, he'll never get to where every new NBA star has to get to, and that of course is Michael's standard.