Monica & Shannon Brown Secretly Wed

Monica & L.A. Lakers NBA-Star, Shannon Brown, had a secret wedding on November 22nd.  The couple won't have an official wedding and reception until June. 

"It's true," Brown, 25, confirmed to http://www.hiphopnonstop.tv/ Wednesday. "That's my wife, I'm her husband, you know. We're going to continue to make positive things happen."

There's been a few secret weddings going on lately; there's definitely nothing wrong with this!!  Congrats to Monica & Shannon!  Wishing you many years of happiness!

Monica is Engaged!

Monica recently got engaged to her boyfriend, L.A. Lakers basketball player, Shannon Brown.  Monica posted the following on Twitter:

"Material things have never mattered to me. I prayed for inner peace that would attract a man who would love me mind body and soul. And see."  She also stated, "We realize people will have their opinions. That's the way of the world. But we know who we are&who's we are.We pray 2 an awesome God 2gether."

Congrats to the couple!

Photo from Twitter

Serena and Venus Williams Considering Buying a Share of Miami Dolphins

Serena Williams and her sister Venus are in preliminary talks to become part-owners of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, the 11-time grand slam winner confirmed on Wednesday.

"There have been preliminary talks and hopefully it will work out," Serena Williams told reporters after her second round win over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova at the Toronto Cup. "That would be a great opportunity for both of us.

"We'll see what happens, you never know."

If they did acquire a stake in the Dolphins, the Williams sisters would join musicians Jimmy Buffet and Gloria and Emilio Estefan, who became minority partners in the team earlier this year.

Buffett, owner of Margaritaville Enterprises, signed a deal in May, which includes the team's stadium being renamed after his LandShark Lager beer for the 2009 season.

The Williams, who live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, are not described as big NFL fans but view the Dolphins as a vehicle to promote themselves.

"Venus and I are always trying to expand our brand," said Williams. "If the opportunity presents itself we would love to see where it can take us.

"Hopefully we'll be able to expand our brand."

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Stop Praising Vick and Let Him Play

By Glenn Minnis

Like most fair-minded and even moderately temperate souls, I am of the unwavering belief that Mike Vick has now paid his debt to society, served his time, and should again be free to live his life in the most upwardly mobile fashion he's blessed enough to navigate.

Being convicted of a crime, in and of itself, should in no way result in an automatic death sentence. Some of those who've sought to bury Vick by mercilessly stripping him of his already earned riches and NFL livelihood struck me as hypocrites of the highest degree in their straying beyond the law by insisting that Vick's transgressions not only be punished by the legal system but that his world forever be left in ruins.

That doesn't strike me as justice, but rather overkill. And yet, I couldn't help but feel as if the Vick Express on the road to redemption veered recklessly off course this week when he was to be honored in his Virginia hometown as something just short of a demigod.

'Celebration for Mike Vick' event organizer and Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter president Andrew Shannon intimated that hundreds of youths were expected to be on hand to cheer Vick on and hear him speak before an unforeseen scheduling snafu caused the entire event to be scraped.

I'll call it divine intervention.

Admit it, in a world where black and minority men make up far to high of a percentage of those incarcerated, the image and implications born of Vick being paraded as some sort of cause célèbre of indisputable virtuosity before so many impressionable minds could be more than just a bit dysfunctional for its audience. Idolatry, you see, can be a form of imprisonment of its own.

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Football Star Plaxico Burress Indicted On Weapons Charges

 

 

Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on weapons charges stemming from an incident last November in which Burress accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a New York nightclub, prosecutors announced Monday.

Burress, 31, was indicted on two felony counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment, according to the announcement by the Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce, Burress' former teammate who was with him at the club and drove him to the hospital, was not indicted for his role in the incident, according to the prosecutor's announcement.

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NY Times Reports Ortiz and Ramirez Listed Of Positive Test

 

In a statement he released Thursday afternoon, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz acknowledged that a New York Times report that said he was one of the players to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 was accurate.

"I have already contacted the Players Association to confirm if this report is true. I have just been told that the report is true," Ortiz's statement read in part. "Based on the way I have lived my life, I am surprised to learn I tested positive."

Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers star who has already served a 50-game suspension for a failed test earlier this season, was also named in the Times report. According to The Associated Press, he had no comment other than to direct reporters to call the players' union.

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Newport News Celebrates Michael Vick

 

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Community organizers in Michael Vick's (FSY) Virginia hometown are preparing a "celebration" for the former NFL quarterback.

Andrew Shannon, who is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter in Vick's hometown of Newport News, says the event is scheduled for Aug. 8.

 

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So Far No Team Wants Vick

If any NFL teams are interested in Michael Vick(notes), they’re not saying.

A day after the quarterback was conditionally reinstated to the league, only the Baltimore Ravens would directly acknowledge evaluating him.

“We’ve had long discussions about Michael Vick and we have a feeling about how he would impact our team and not impact our team,” coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday.

General manager Ozzie Newsome declined comment. Previously, he has said the Ravens have enough quarterbacks.

Other teams either refused comment or insisted they wouldn’t pick up the former Atlanta Falcons star, who served 18 months in federal prison for running a dogfighting ring and was released from home confinement on July 20.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that Vick can immediately take part in preseason practices, workouts and meetings and can play in the final two preseason games—if he can find a team.

Once the season begins, Vick may participate in all team activities except games, and Goodell said he would consider Vick for full reinstatement by Week 6 (Oct. 18-19) at the latest.

Two clubs that might have seemed like a logical destination—the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals—said they wouldn’t pursue Vick.

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African American Sports: Judge tosses evidence in Barry Bonds case

A federal judge says she might toss some of the strongest evidence against Barry Bonds, a blow to prosecutors trying to prove the home run king lied when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said her "preliminary thoughts" were to exclude from trial three 2000-2001 positive drug tests that prosecutors say belong to Bonds unless there is a direct link that the urine samples came from the former San Francisco Giants slugger.

"If there's no testimony to establish that, I don't think any of them work," Illston said.

The only person who can do that seems to be Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who spent more than a year behind bars for refusing to speak to a federal grand jury investigating Bonds. And Anderson's attorney, Mark Geragos, has said his client will not testify against Bonds at the trial, scheduled to start March 2.

If her preliminary thoughts stand, the government's case against Bonds will suffer a significant blow — but not a fatal one, legal analysts said.

"It hurts, but the government still has quite a bit of other evidence," Golden Gate University law professor Peter Keane said.

That includes a recorded conversation between Anderson and Bonds' former personal assistant Steve Hoskins in which they discuss injecting steroids; a conversation Illston said she's inclined to allow at trial.

Illston will issue a formal decision on the evidence discussed Thursday at a later date. She also will hold a separate hearing on whether to allow testimony from expert doctors the government hopes would persuade a jury that changes in Bonds' body were due to steroid use.

 

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Big Shaq Traded to the Phoenix Suns

"The Daddy" has been moved. Shaquille O'neal, long-time NBA superstar and dominant center, has been traded to the Phoenix Suns. The deal comes as a surprise, as the once great O'neal has reached the sunset of his career.

The Suns acquired O'neal in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. The Suns gain a stronger inside presence and a seasoned veteran, but not the dominant player that O'neal once was.

O'neal didn't talk to reporters when he arrived in Phoenix, but the crowd gave him the same kind of warm welcome he received when he went to Miami. He didn't make the open promise that he would win a championship (as he did when he arrived in Miami), but he did point to the ring on his finger and give a thumbs up. This made the crowd go wild.

The chances that O'neal could lead the Suns to a title are not as great as they once were. However, it is not out of the question. O'neal has brought championship caliber performance everywhere he has gone, since his days with The Orlando Magic, LA Lakers and finally, the Miami Heat. Should O'neal choose to step up his performance, a title may be in the works for his new team as well.

O'neal has recently been out with a hip injury and had an MRI on Tuesday.

"I'm well aware that I'm on the line," Suns General Manager Steve Kerr said. "That's my job. That's why I'm sitting in this seat."

Over 16 years, Shaquille O'neal has averaged 25.6 points and 11.5 rebounds. This year, has has only averaged 14.2 points and he is dealing with a highly publicized divorce off the court. He was also not selected to the All-Star team for the first time in 14 years.

"We have to move on with our team," Miami president and coach Pat Riley said. "This is not the most desirable place to be right now."

O'neal is set to earn $20 million per season for the next two years.