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

• New Range Rover = $85,000

• 2nd hand snap-back = $5

• Finding out the $100K worth of bling you’re wearing is actually chocolate = Priceless.

There’s some things money can’t buy… For everything else, there’s JaVale McGee.

#badpun

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

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.

26 down… 4 to go!

On today’s episode of #believethehype, Tom & Benyam preview the NBA Conference Finals series between the Heat/Pacers in the East & the Spurs/Grizzlies in the West. The boys look at everything from key match-ups, players who’ll need to step up & give their predictions for how the series will go down.

Don’t forget that that you can follow us on twitter @traread and @benyamkidane and using the #believethehype tag to ask questions to be answered in next weeks episode.

Download:

• iTunes
• Direct Download
• TuneIn
• Facebook – click on the “Listen to the Podcast” App

High school senior Nicole Muxo reached out to Dwyane Wade with this youtube video asking him to come to her prom as her prom date and after no response Wade arrived at the prom on the night to surprise her.

She already had a date organised,who claims he was cool with D-Wade coming, but lets face it, you get all excited for prom and the D-Wade subs in for you….ouch, but then again D-Wade is hanging out with you at prom, so that’s pretty cool.

Today on another Playoffs edition of #believethehype, Tom & Benyam open up by discussing the most important news from today – Towelgate & the potential repercussions that this could have for the Grizzlies team moving forward… On a more serious note, the boys chat about the two series that finished today in Memphis v Oklahoma City & Miami v Chicago. Furthermore, they look ahead to the final games of the San Antonio v Golden State &  ndiana v New York series… Furthermore, the boys chat about Sacramento/Seattle, George Maloof trapped in a closet, Nate Robinson plus ‘what’s next’ for both the Thunder & Bulls.

Don’t forget that that you can follow us on twitter @traread and @benyamkidane and using the #believethehype tag to ask questions to be answered in next weeks episode.

Download:

• iTunes
• Direct Download
• TuneIn
• Facebook – click on the “Listen to the Podcast” App

Today, with 5.09 left in the 3rd Quarter of the Memphis Grizzlies 88-84 series clinching win over the Oklahoma City Thunder… We unfortunately saw what could only be described as:

“The ugliest moment in towel waving history.“

After a year of solid bench gee-ups notably by bit guys Robert Sacre, Chris Duhon, Kent Bazemore, Patty Mills & Aron Baynes, we saw something from Grizzlies starter Tony Allen that would shame the fore-mentioned towel waving legends.

Allen, finding some rare minutes on the pine… Got “happy with it” & waved a towel around when Derek Fisher was taking a 3pt shot in-front of him. Unfortunately, whilst performing the move what Mills has dubbed “the smoke alarm”, Allen accidentally picked up 2 towels & threw one onto the court, right next to where Fisher was shooting.

The ruling – technical foul – basket counts – 1 shot.

People just shouldn’t be waving towels when it’s not their role, someone could have got hurt… Fisher could have slipped on the towel & done his knee, or worse yet… Allen could have in-fact dislocated his shoulder through the un-usual rotations & air-density that towel waving causes for someone who’s not used to the practice.

Stick to the court Tony & leave the towel waving to the guys who get paid to wave towels.

Check it out!