Ronaldinho can score from behind the goal now

Ronaldinho has scored from just about every spot on the pitch. That's all boring to him. That's old. So now, he's scoring from behind the goal.

During a Flamengo training session as he prepares for his first season with the club, Ronaldinho casually fires shots at a goal that's in front of him and facing away from him. Casual, of course, is a relative term, because though Dinho is just goofing around, he's still bending these shots with enough spin on them to bounce back toward the net.

So watch out, goalkeepers of Brazil, because now Ronaldinho is also a threat from behind. If, you know, that was legal.  

Video via 101gg

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Court Report Live Blog: Jim O'Brien is out in Indy

• The Pacers fired Jim O'Brien Sunday, a move that many fantasy owners and Pacers backers will qualify with "finally." Factors in making the move - and replacing him with top assistant Frank Vogel - were O'Brien's repeated public criticisms of Roy Hibbert and an unwillingness to give consistent minutes to his younger players, both of which highlighted his shortcomings as a coach for this developing team. Larry Bird offered the following during the team's press conference:

"I never did that when I was a coach and I didn't like it when I was a player. If you look at some of our players, especially Roy, he looks like he's down. He's not running around, not having a good time like he was earlier. Obviously it's affecting him."

While blame for the Pacers' dismal recent performance can't all be pinned on O'Brien, it was clear that he was doing little to help the situation. Vogel isn't expected to make drastic changes to the game plan, but he will make some tweaks and certainly figures to establish a different and more consistent rotation. Other notables from the press conference: Bird would like to see Paul George and Tyler Hansbrough play more, Vogel expects Hibbert's game "to take off," and the Pacers are talking to a lot of teams about their expiring contracts. We'll get our first look at the new-ish Pacers on Monday night, in a choice matchup at home against the Raptors.

• Joakim Noah had his cast removed Monday and could be cleared for non-contact work as soon as Tuesday. Noah may be a little bit ahead of schedule in his rehab and a return after the All-Star break seems likely. It's time to get Noah back up to universal ownership (currently at 88%), because he's going to be right back in the mix as soon as he's activated.

• Other status updates: Neither Deron Williams (wrist) nor Mehmet Okur (back) are expected to be active for the Jazz on Monday night ...  Devin Harris (shin) will be in the lineup for the Nets Monday, Jordan Farmar (back) will not ... Daniel Gibson is likely to miss the Cavs' next game or two because of a sore left quad ... Both Rodrigue Beaubois and Peja Sojakovic will have their statuses updated next Monday, and the active roster appears to be a consideration for both at that time ... 

• Monday's notable matchups: CLE@MIA figures to produce one of the most lopsided final scores of the season ... The Pacers have an excellent matchup (TOR) for the first game of the Frank Vogel era ... DEN@NJN will be worth watching in the wake of the Melo-drama that engulfed both teams a few weeks back.

These and many more topics will be discussed in the Monday live blog, so stop by and participate in the discussion or just lurk and take it all in. We'll get started at 7pm PT/10pm ET.

Check the comment thread for status updates or to post your own. The chat applet (and ability to send yourself a reminder email) is available after the jump…

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photo via Getty Images

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Mark Wahlberg and Will Smith offered $1 million each for celeb fight

Boxing has provided the backdrop for some of the most famous movies in the history of the filmmaking industry.

The best flicks featured actors who took their roles seriously. Will Smith of "Ali" fame and Mark Wahlberg, in the recent release "The Fighter," trained hard to portray Muhammed Ali and Mickey Ward, respectively. Now a celebrity boxing promoter wants them to meet in the ring for real next February.

According to RadarOnline:

Damon Feldman, CEO of Hollywood Boxing Federation, formerly known as Celebrity Boxing Federation, is putting the offer out to the two superstars Monday.

He told RadarOnline.com: "This will be a great opportunity for both stars to fight in the Superbowl of Hollywood boxing and to donate millions to their favorite charities."

Wahlberg said he trained for three years for the role, stays in pretty good shape and considers himself a real scrapper.

Feldman said the concept is for Smith and Wahlberg to fight three, one minute rounds.

"We don't think these two are going to rip each others heads off," Feldman said. "We're just hoping they get into the ring and have a little fun duking it out."

You wonder if Smith would take Feldman up on his offer. If he hasn't been training at all, two months is a short period of time to get ready. Believe it or not, Ali was made all the way back in 2001. There's also a pretty big size difference between the 6-foot-2 Smith and the 5-7 Wahlberg. 

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Donaire puts big fight at risk by fighting Sidorenko

Someone must've slipped something in Nonito Donaire's Thanksgiving dinner. He's doing the unheard of this Saturday.

With an HBO superfight against Fernando Montiel on the horizon, "The Filipino Flash" is moving up a weight class to take on a former champion this Saturday in Anaheim.

Donaire (24-1, 16 KOs) is already regarded by some as a Top 10 pound-for-pound fighter, but he has yet to get the premium exposure he might deserve. HBO is fired up for the February Donaire-Montiel fight at 118. Donaire, who has surprising power winning six of his last seven by KO or TKO, is prepping for his jump by facing Ukranian bruiser Wladimir Sidorenko (22-2, 7 KOs).

Since a huge win over Vic Darchinyan back in 2007, Nonaire said his recent opponents down at 115, like Hernan Marquez, Manuel Vargas and Rafael Concepcion, were too easy.

"There was a lack of motivation for those fights," Donaire admits. "There was a 'just another day at the office' kind of feeling. That's one of the motivations for the training camp because I'm fighting somebody good, an elite fighter. It does help a lot to be in there with somebody who is going to be really tough."

Donaire will try to become the first opponent to finish Sidorenko.

"We're in there against a tough guy and we have to come up with a good game plan. But Nonito's style and his footwork are perfect for either outboxing this guy and looking great against him, or even trying to go for a knockout if possible," Donaire's assistant trainer Roberto Garcia said. "I know that he's never been down or out, but Nonito has very good power so he can be the first to knock him out."

Donaire isn't worried about focus. He know he's got to get by Sidorenko if he wants that shot on HBO.

"I've never been really motivated like this before. I've never been in as tremendous shape as I am now. I'm in the best shape of my life,' Donaire said. "I want to see where that takes me. I think that being in the best shape gets me to see my real potential in boxing and my ability." 

Donaire-Sidorenko is now the main event of this weekend's "In Harm's Way" PPV. Julio Cesar Chavez had to bail from his fight because of the flu. The card also features Humberto Soto against Urbano Antillon.

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Injury Bug Cooling Miami Heat

Filed under: Heat

MIAMI -- Maybe it was Dan Gilbert's angry letter putting a hex on the Miami Heat and LeBron after the Decision. Maybe it was LeBron James' fateful tweet about karma directed at Gilbert weeks ago. Or, maybe it's just the fact that the Heat are simply going through a rough patch where an assortment of players, including their top three stars, have suffered a rash of minor and not-so-minor setbacks over the course of a long NBA season.

Even LeBron, one of the more durable players in the league who only missed 16 games due to injury in his entire career prior to joining Miami, hasn't been able to dodge the bad luck that began in the preseason with Dwyane Wade injured minutes into their first game together and continuing throughout the regular season with the losses of Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem.

"The injury bug has struck our team," LeBron officially announced after their comeback win over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. "I think everyone is playing with some injuries. You hate for it to happen. Everyone is trying to figure it out but at the same time, health is number one. We have to be healthy."

That meant Wade being a last-minute scratch from the game after putting on a shooting clinic in New York the night before. The results of a precautionary MRI on his wrist came back negative the next day but his status for Sunday's game on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder remains very much in the air, as is the status of Chris Bosh, though he surprisingly traveled with the team. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn't have much time to worry about his inactive players against the Pistons because his guys out on the floor were busy collecting injuries of their own.

 

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Random musings of footballers before they fall asleep...

Franck Ribery

Things have not been coming up Franck of late. ... I remember when I was awesome -- playing well, playing pranks on people, banging underage prostitutes, hanging out with Luca Toni. ... Now, everyone thinks I'm a scumbag, my pranks don't work anymore, Luca Toni is gone and my knee is busted. ... This is not a good time. ... Maybe I should finally move on and pursue nude modeling. ... Maybe I should find Luca and stage that live version of Gilligan's Island we always talked about. ... Maybe I should find some more underage prostitutes. ... Yes. I'll find some more underage prostitutes...

Giuseppe Biava

I knew there wasn't a sandwich in here. 

Gouramangi Singh

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT TO LOSE TO ME IN A THUMB WAR? WHO WILL BE THE NEXT TO DINE IN A REINCARNATED BODY?

Sanharib Malki

OK. ... Something has gone wrong here. ... If this is my leg, then this is really, really bad because I don't remember being able to kick myself in the head like this before. ... If this isn't my leg, then some other idiot is kicking me in the face instead of kicking the ball. ... If that's the case, then I'm going to beat the snot out of him after I wake up from what will surely be a long spell of unconsciousness. ... If it is my leg, I'll probably just scream. ... Again, something has gone terribly wrong here...

Didier Drogba

Time for the disgraces. ... First, confidence at Chelsea is low. This is a sad f***ing disgrace. ... Then, Benfica are asking for way too much money for David Luiz. That's a greedy f***ing disgrace. ... Then, Kalou squeezed really hard when he shook my hand today like he was trying to prove he's better than me or something. That's a mind-gamey f***ing disgrace. ... Then I realized Kitier Katba is looking even fatter after the holidays. That's an obese f***ing disgrace. ... Then, there were those times those two bald referees who probably eat human hair like spaghetti cheated us out of the Champions League. That...that was a...

Photos: AP, Reuters, Getty

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Stop the presses: Jose Mourinho is refusing to talk

Instead of talking, he's just going to do this.

As flocks of birds fall out of the sky and Snooki becomes a New York Times bestselling author, the final sign of the apocalypse has revealed itself in the form of Jose Mourinho refusing to speak. Sevilla have been on the offensive ahead of their Copa del Rey semifinal against Real Madrid on Wednesday, announcing extra security for the match officials to keep Real away and releasing a creepy hype video where shirtless and paint-smeared players tell Mourinho that "we will leave you without the title" in Portuguese.

Instead of responding with verbal barbs sharp enough kill or the dismissive words of supreme confidence, Jose Mourinho has refused to speak at all. On Tuesday, he sent assistant Aitor Karanka to speak to the press (via Reuters): 

"Mourinho doesn't want to get involved in what's being said and what's happening," Karanka told reporters at Real's training ground in Madrid.

"He doesn't want to be punished for trying to defend the club. He wants normality and has decided I appear instead. He doesn't want to add to what's coming from Sevilla. Whatever he says will be used to punish him."

Granted, he has given media the silent treatment as a means of punishment in the past, but Jose not wanting to get involved? Not wanting to add to what's coming from Sevilla? Biting his tongue so as not to be punished?! Surely something has gone horribly wrong here. Florentino Perez must have him tied up in a basement somewhere with an entire roll of duct tape wrapped around his mouth. That's the only explanation. 

Photo: AP

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