Junior Beard DeShawn Stevenson is officially in over his head (plus, bonus MMRF 5K recap).

04.27.2008 | 8:20 pm | Great Beards in History, Mad Russian's Poetry Corner, Pogonophobia, Town Business, Warrior-Less Playoffs

Apparently, the NBA Playoffs are now where dis records happen. This might be the most interesting subplot of the playoffs so far. And there’s even a Bay Area connection.

It all started when DeShawn Stevenson decided to call LeBron James “overrated” to some media types a few games ago. LeBron responded by comparing himself to his friend and mentor figure Jay-Z and DeShawn to Soulja Boy. That got Soulja Bizzle all riled up, and I half expected a musical response. But I never saw this coming. A pre-emptive strike from Jay-Z? Frankly, I figured that Hova was too busy for Jr. Beard. But no. And not only did he go ahead and record a quick dis track, he used a Too $hort beat for it. Blow the whistle indeed. And Hova even compares The Town to Brooklyn in the intro. Sweet. But the best part might be where he debuted the cut. I’ll let Mike Wise of the Washington Post handle the particulars.

Afterward, LeBron twice said, “There is no LeBron-DeShawn rivalry.” But he had reinforcements behind the scenes, big guns that came out Friday night at a club called Love.

That’s right, in the wee hours of Friday night at Love, the Northeast club which hosted Gilbert Arenas’ million-dollar 25th birthday party last year, the deejay played a new cut by Jay-Z. The hip-hop icon actually cut it Friday and had it downloaded for a party hosted by LeBron James at the club that night. Stevenson was told that the lyrics just eviscerated him — in his own town.

Then teammate Damon Jones, who last did something to collect an NBA paycheck two years ago, took the microphone and talked junk about Stevenson.

Caron Butler, the only Wizard present, left because “he felt I was being disrespected,” Stevenson said.

I’ll bet he did. And I’m pretty sure that Jr. Beard was more than ready for the final whistle to sound in game four too. Especially, after he looked up at the scoreboard after the three-point loss. BronBron went for 34 to his 13. The Cavs and their beard of superior grooming will now be looking to close out this little chapter in game five at home. And, oh by the way, a frustrated DeShawn got a flagrant for slapping the headband off of James on a drive and almost creating major ruckus. It’s in the clip above, and isolated for further viewing after the jump.

And to think I was out running to raise money for cancer research when all of this hit the hardwood. Make the jump for the unlikely segue into the FTB fun at the Multiple Myeloma Reaseach Foundation 5K this morning in the city and more on DeS vs. LeB.

Turman

As promised, Tom Meschery sounded the horn to push us on to something that involved lots of running and sweating out last night’s gin and tonic. The red mist didn’t clear for me until after brunch. But, as of this moment, we helped goose Tom’s donations page up to nearly $2,500. The meter is still ticking if anyone out there wants to throw another log on the fire too. Nonetheless, the event has raised nearly 300 large to benefit research into causes and treatments for this particularly debilitating form of the disease. But even with the seriousness of the cause, a great time was had by all. Oh, and apparently the FTB crew couldn’t resist bidding on a basketball signed by the 2007/08 Warriors that was lingering within reach during the endgame of the silent auction. And last but not least, I won some sort of medal for semi-fast old dudes running in really big hoop shorts.

Update: More on the LeBron/DeShawn thing.

First, DeShawn’s flagrant foul in game four Sunday without the rest of the material:

LeBron’s post-game interview:

PS. Hat tip to Youbeenblinded for helping fill in the gaps.