The NBA has gone Lin-sane.

Will Dean witnesses the birth of a star

Luol Deng has become the first British player to be selected for the NBA All-Star Game.

Uh-oh. If it's about underwear, David Beckham must be involved.

The list of things to make print journalists feel better about the impending demise of their medium is brief, but may include free ice cream, a generous voluntary redundancy package (yeah, right) and/or the launch of a well-funded new website featuring exclusive, long-form writing composed by a cohort of peerless hacks.

The BBL side Cheshire Jets have pulled off an audacious swoop for the Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest, rated one of the NBA's best defensive players, who has confirmed he will start in November on a £1,000-per-month deal as long as the NBA's current labour dispute is unresolved.

Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid have overtaken baseball team New York Yankees as the best paid team in sport.

So now it becomes clear why Arnold Schwarzenegger spent millions of dollars of his own cash on a private jet to commute from Los Angeles to Sacramento during his eight years as Governor of California: the Golden State's political capital has been officially named one of America's "most miserable" cities.

Sporting achievement is often described as "a dream come true", and that is exactly what happened at Spain's inaugural National Siesta Championships in Madrid. Contestants lie down on sofas in a shopping mall and try to fall asleep for 20 minutes. They are awarded a maximum of 20,000 points if they snooze for the full duration, while extra points can be picked up for good posture and even loud snoring. "The mission of the championship is to spread the idea that the nap is something of ours that must be defended and practised because it is healthy and good for everyone," say the organisers, who are worried at the decline of the Spanish tradition. But it was clearly a case of not dropping off in Benidorm when the Moroccan stunt rider Mustapha Danger had to be rescued after getting stuck trying to ride a motorbike across a high wire between the 43rd floors of two hotels 610ft above the ground without a net. He negotiated the 1,640ft crossing second time around. He still had to pay his mini-bar bill.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic is engaged to marry Maria Sharapova after the Slovenian told reporters before an exhibition game that the Russian former tennis world number one had accepted his proposal.