For its 23rd (!) season premiere, The Oprah Winfrey Show will be paid a visit by more than 150 U.S. Olympic team members.The guest list includes gold medalists such as Michael Phelps (who has become about as omnipresent as Eddie Cibrian on ABC), Nastia Liukin, volleyball queens Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and hoops stars Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Lisa Leslie and Dwayne Wade (who always cracked me up on A Different World).As reported by the AP, the episode tapes Wednesday at Chicago's Millennium Park (to air Sept. 8) and is fancied as a both a "welcome home celebration" for the athletes as well as a showcase for the Windy City, which is among the candidates to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. By noon Saturday, the line of Oprah and Olympic athlete fans hoping to nab one of the 2,000 free tickets up for grabs stretched several blocks. — Matt Mitovich
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After a nail-biter of a Super Bowl, an overtime NCAA men's hoops final and a resurgence of ratings in the NHL Stanley Cup, the NBA Finals are poised to continue a fantastic 2008 sports year. This is your father's NBA Finals. And get your grandfather in the room, too. The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics — two of the league's most storied franchises (and one of the most heated rivalries in all of sports) — are set to battle for league supremacy. Before Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls took over the world in the 1990s, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird owned the '80s, with the Lakers and/or the Celtics appearing in the NBA Finals every year, save one. Gone are the short shorts and the knee-high socks. This year, the Lakers' Kobe Bryant and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett lead a new generation of roundball phenoms battling for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. ABC analyst and former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy sees the series going the distance. "Whoever wins i...
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We're very torn on this one. Half of us say Kobe Bryant jumping over an oncoming Aston Martin could be real considering his athletic talent and height. Others are a bit more skeptical and are convinced it's merely some stealthy marketers and video editors planting this as a viral video to sell sneakers (or perhaps even give the car some brand recognition). You be the judge. And as Kobe says—do not try this at home.Your take: Do you think this video is legit, or just a marketing stunt? Would someone in the prime of his career like Kobe be willing to risk it all for a YouTube video?
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