Boston Celtics minority owner James Pallotta traveled to the Vatican yesterday on a side-trip whilst in Rome for the Italian Cup Football Final. Whilst there, he presented Pope Francis with a Celtics jersey with “The Pope – 1″ embedded on the back.

Judging by the images, The Pope seems pretty psyched about getting his hands on a Celtics jersey.

After the Dalai Lama wore a New Orleans Pelicans hat last week, you’d think that there could be a potential race happening behind the scenes between NBA teams to recruit religious leaders from all-over the world.

With Buddhism & Catholicism now both ticked off, us at #believethehype have pulled together our projection of where some of the remaining leaders may sign as fans this off-season:

• Mormon -Thomas S. Monson
  - Utah Jazz: Mormon Populated State factor.

• Church of England – Justin Welby
  - Chicago Bulls: Luol Deng factor.

• Islam – Anga Kahn
  - Toronto Raptors: Became a honorary Canadian Citizen in 2005.

• Scientology – Heber Jentzsch
  - Los Angeles Lakers: Tom Cruise goes for that team factor…

We will keep you up to date as more of these religious fan announcements are made…

via: Ball Don’t Lie

After the Spurs crunched the Grizzlies 105-83 in Game one of the Western Conference Finals, Lionel Hollins was a bit frazzled in post-game press conference, forgetting Jerryd Bayless’ name.

Popovich knows he is in Hollins’ head when his counterpart can’t even remember the name of one of his key players.

Mental edge: Pop, 1-0

via: Slam Online

Sooooo this is what Dennis Rodman wore last night to the finale of the US Celebrity Apprentice.

If the make-up, lipstick and blond mowhawk wasn’t enough, Rodman lifted one of Russell Westbrook’s blazers for the event to really make his outfit pop.

I’d maybe stick to international diplomacy Dennis, you are mildly better at that than appearing at television shows looking normal.