Pop Culture Hot List

SI Staff | Nov 18, 2009

Pop Culture Hot List /

Pop Culture Hot List

Bill Belichick

One of the drawbacks to being an NFL coach is that when you have brain freezes, they're captured on national television and analyzed to death the next day. Like when your team leads 34-28 and you have the ball fourth-and-two from your own 28-yard-line with two minutes left and you decide to go for it. Now, in <i>Madden</i>, you can just hit the rest button and pretend it never happened. Unfortunately, in life, there's no reset button.

Manny Pacquiao

There's no question that "Pac Man" is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world after beating up Miguel Cotto to win his seventh title in seven weight classes. But there's also no question that Pacqiao might also be the worst singer in the world. Moments after beating Cotto, Pacquiao had a concert at Mandelay Bay. Let's just say he sounded like a boxer trying to sing after a championship fight.

LeBron James

James is going to switch from wearing No. 23 to No. 6 next season because he wants the NBA to retire Michael Jordan's number. That's fine, but Bill Russell, who won 11 NBA titles, and Dr. J, who was dunking from the free-throw line while Jordan was in high school, should have their No. 6 retired first. Then again, anything that happened before 1991 probably isn't on King James' basketball radar.

USC Football

Was this team really ranked in the top three at the beginning of the year and in the top 10 as of last week? After seven consecutive BCS bowls, 11-win seasons, Pac-10 titles and AP top-four finishes, the Trojans saw their run come to an embarrassing end with a 55-21 thrashing to visiting Stanford. After years of complaining about going to the Rose Bowl at the end of each season, USC won't have to worry about that this year. The Trojans are likely heading to El Paso for the holidays.

College Basketball

A day of live, around-the-clock games marked the start of the season. Sure, it might not be fair to make student-athletes play past midnight or tip off at 6 a.m., but it's all about making money, right NCAA?

Larry Johnson

Of course Johnson would end up signing with the Cincinnati Bengals, this generation's version of the Raiders, after being released by the Chiefs for making inappropriate and homophobic comments. Where else would a disgruntled player who was cut for off-the-field problems go to be among his peers?

Allen Iverson

Iverson once tweeted that "God chose Memphis" as the place for him to continue his career. Well, the Big Man upstairs apparently has had a change of heart and has now chosen the waiver wire for Iverson.

Brandon Jennings

On the heels of Jennings' 55-point game against the Warriors, expect the floodgates to open for high school athletes to play one season in Europe before going to the NBA. Sure, none of them will probably be as good as Jennings, but that doesn't matter. By the way, how much easier would it be to picture LeBron James in a Knicks uniform next season if New York had Jennings in the fold instead of passing on him in the 2009 draft? Good job Isiah, er Donnie Walsh.

Ron Artest

Sunday's Lakers-Rockets game produced one of the best players of the young season. As Trevor Ariza bent down to put his shoe back on after it came off, Artest grabbed it and threw it out of bounds. After the game, Kobe Bryant waved off reporters who wanted to talk to Artest about the peculiar play, telling them to get out of the locker room. A shoe toss hasn't caused this much controversy since a pair was thrown at President Bush.

Lance Armstrong

Movember is probably the coolest idea ever. It calls on all men to grow mustaches in a stand against men's cancers and raise money for Armstrong's Livestrong foundation. For his part, Armstrong is growing his own mustache, and let's just say it's been more of a struggle than climbing the Pyrenees.

Published Nov 18, 2009

SI STAFF