The Blueprint for Success?

Kevin Durant, who shot a career-best 51% from the field this season, connects well on Js; now, he's well-connected with Jay-Z. On Monday, Durant signed with the rapper's nascent agency, Roc Nation Sports, becoming the first male hoopster to hop to the hip-hopper. Our reaction to him flowing to the fast flower: Jigga what?

Durant is the most unassuming superstar in The Association, but maybe that's the point. Perhaps he wants to raise his profile, so the bashful basketball player teams with the brash businessman (in this partnership, Durant brings the "big," Jay-Z the "pimpin'").

Durant isn't in line for a new contract until after the 2015-2016 campaign and currently holds seven endorsement deals (even making bread from Panini America, which weirdly doesn't make bread), so this seems to be a move made to boost his popularity, not profitability. Still, there has to be an easier way to hang out with Beyonce.

Tanks for Nothing

For 59 out of 66 games this season, the basketball didn't bounce the Bobcat's way and, on Wednesday, the ping-pong balls didn't, either. The Charlotte Bobcats hoped last night draft lottery would be a scratch and win scenario, since they had a 25 percent chance of obtaining the number one overall pick. Instead, it became a scratch your head situation, a new nadir for the team that finished with the lowest winning percentage in NBA history (what we like to label as "Silast" place). Ironically, the selection was awarded to the original Charlotte franchise, the New Orleans Hornets, who won triple the amount of games as the Bobcats (21 vs. 7). After Dan Gilbert-gate last year, could this be another conspiracy to compensate a franchise that the league felt it owed a favor to after its star's departure (this time, "the decision" was entirely the NBA's), a thank-you present to a new owner, an attempt to reward a team that tried hard until the season finished (the Hornets won 8 of their last 13 games), in contrast to one that fell faster than Facebook's IPO and cared as little as Mark Zuckerberg about it?

It's doubtful. If the league was going to intentionally interfere, it would've treated the team moving into the nation's largest media market, the Brooklyn Nets, so that they have something more significant to sell than Jay-Z sitting courtside*. Secondly, a shoddy squad still needs a lotto luck: the club with the worst record hasn't been awarded the top pick since 2004. In a draft that's widely regarded as weak - Anthony Davis is perceived as the best building block, a Lego in a class of Lincoln Logs - the Bobcats might've gone from hitting the jackpot to landing jack squat.

*Maybe if he performs at every halftime or they project Tupac's hologram into a front row seat.

Warriors Pony(tail) Up for Amundson

Believe it or not, amidst all the changes of address for LeBron, Amare, Bosh and Boozer, free-agent forward Louis Amundson got lost in the shuffle. No more. Golden State inked the golden-haired one, who was part of an effective rotation in Phoenix last season. The Suns showed him the door after signing Hakim Warrick and trading for Hedo Turkoglu. Amudson's stats aren't gaudy, but as Jay-Z once said, "You can't knock the hustle."