No, you are not seeing things. This was a real headline that appeared on ESPN’s mobile site early this morning.

It seems the worldwide leader of sports has had enough of the Jeremy Lin puns and decided to use the extremely inappropriate headline above to accompany a New York Knicks article written by Ian Begley.

Say it with me now, “What the f***?”

ESPN took the headline down after it had been up for over a half an hour and has since issued an apology.

“Regarding a Feb. 18 headline on its mobile website, ESPN issued the following statement: “Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile website posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 a.m. ET. The headline was removed at 3:05 a.m. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”

The story is that an intern was the culprit. Yeah, sure. But then how will ESPN explain this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ESEGRwnQW4k

That’s ESPN’s Max Bretos speaking with Knicks legend Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier on Wednesday. How on earth did this slip by without people noticing?

As silly – and annoying to some – as they are, let’s all just stick with the Lin puns for headlines. It will make life a lot easier and less controversial.

Take a look at this tweet from Fox Sports’s Jason Whitlock.

He tweeted it as the Knicks/Lakers game was ending. It was obviously about Jeremy Lin, an Asian-American man and you know that stereotype, right? Well, if you didn’t, Whitlock filled you in on the joke.

But why stop with just being racist? How about throwing in a little sexism for good measure also?

Oh yep. There it is. Thanks so much. Lucky ladies everywhere greatly appreciate it.

The other disturbing thing is that when I took the screencap of this tweet 24 people had it ‘favorited’. Really people? I guess there are 24 other asshats who like that sort of thing.

However I do understand why the number of retweets is so high. People were retweeting Whitlock and calling him out on his douchiness – for the most part – though, I’m sure there were people who actually enjoyed the tweet.

I’m also pretty sure that Whitlock will make some half-assed apology and tell people to lighten up; that he was only joking which is ironic since he’s usually so quick to call others racist.

Ahem.

Spero Dedes, who was slated to do play by play for the Knicks on 1050 ESPN was arrested for DWI over the weekend. Formerly the play by play guy on 710 ESPN in Los Angeles for the Lakers, Dedes was stopped for speeding by police in the Hamptons on July 5.

His lawyer, Colin Astarita, told the New York Post that he expects the charges to be dropped, “The early stages from the police paperwork show inconsistencies with the police allegations and what actually transpired that night.”

From ESPN New York:

According to the police report cited by media outlets, Dedes was stopped by Southampton police at 4:12 a.m. ET Sunday for speeding in a 2006 BMW. Dedes was charged with DWI and posted $500 bail. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Dedes is a local guy. He was born in Paramus, New Jersey and attended Fordham University in the Bronx. Dedes has done play by play on three of the four major networks, including calling field hockey for NBC during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens where he was the youngest member of the broadcast team.

He also has done work with the NFL Network and works for CBS Sports doing play by play for both NCAA Men’s Basketball and the NFL.

He was the radio voice of the Los Angeles Lakers from 2005 until this year. Dedes was expected to move onto doing television play by play with the Lakers but signed on to do play by play for the Knicks instead.

…it involves the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony in a way. Chris Sheridan of ESPN is suing Peter Vecsey of the New York Post for Libel and it centers around – what was at the time – the Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks rumors.

In an eight page suit filed against Vecsey and NYP Holdings Sheridan claims:

That they “published a maliciously false article” that impugned Sheridan’s “veracity and competence as a journalist.” Sheridan also claims he demanded a retraction in April, but that neither Vecsey nor the paper responded.

In an article on Forbes.com, the piece in question was written on December 14, 2010. In it Vescey talks about various ESPN personalities – Chris Broussard and Marc Stein – and how they got some scoops and should be given credit for them, but when he gets to Sheridan he says:

No doubt the same fountains of misinformation that frequently play make-believe with ESPN’s Chris Sheridan, whose latest fairy tale had Carmelo Anthony notifying the Nuggets he won’t accept a trade to any team but the Knicks.

Hmmm. It seems like someone – Sheridan – is a little too sensitive. Vecsey in the very next paragraph says:

While I thoroughly accept the presupposition ‘Melo will want to play in New York until the moment he understands that’s an impossibility unless he opts to become a free agent this summer, Sheridan’s account is such a fake he needs to be called out.

He goes on to call Sheridan out and call him a liar. Saying what Sheridan said about Carmelo going to the Knicks – and only the Knicks – was “Sheer nonsense! Every last word!”

I guess Vecsey does go a little far but on the other hand, who cares? Isn’t this what Vecsey gets paid to do? He calls people out when he thinks they’re being ridiculous.

The suit will probably not get very far but I thought it was pretty funny especially when I read in the New York Magazine article that the suit makes a reference to a comment on Vecsey’s web version of the article. Has Chris Sheridan ever read newspaper site comments? They’re mostly written by people who probably haven’t left their mom’s basements in 20 years.

Oh man, I hope one of them doesn’t sue me for Libel now…