Isn't it fresh when the Williams sisters dominate a tournament so much that they end up facing each other in the final? Eff the haters, we love it! On Thursday, Venus Williams secured her final spot first after beating Elena Dementieva of Russia 6-1, 7-6. After the match, Venus hung out to watch her younger sister Serena beat Zheng Jie of China 6-2, 7-6. The two will face each other in the final on Saturday. The last time they met in the finale was in 2003. And if you've seen a Venus-Serena match, you already know that the sisters don't play nice, with Serena holding a 5-1 edge over Venus in Grand Slam title matches, but Venus is the defending Wimbledon champ.

"Our main focus is obviously both of us getting to the final," Venus told ESPN. "Then, from there, it's every Williams for themself."
"We've both been working extremely hard," Serena added. "It's just coming together."

The sisters haven't lost a set in this tournament and are a combined 100-13 at Wimbledon. Who knew that one of the best rivalries in sports would be a sibling rivalry? Especially when they're best friends.

Check out the video preview after the jump:

Spanish network, Univision, announced that they will be hosting the first ever annual "Tecate Premios Deportes", an award show recognizing the best Latino athletes. According to Univision, the nominees are in ten different categories and have been selected for their talent, character and perseverance, as well as their contributions to and impact on the Hispanic community.

"The Academy went through an arduous selection process to identify the nominees. We wanted to ensure this event recognized athletes based on their merit and not popularity," said Oscar de la Hoya, executive member of the "Tecate Premios Deportes" Academy. "We are confident the list encompasses the best Hispanic athletes and look forward to honoring our colleagues at the event airing nationwide on July 20th on Univision."

Here are some of the nominations (after the jump):

LeBron James has teamed up with Nickelodeon to help promote their Big Green Help campaign. King James will be the star of LeBron James: Worldwide Big Green Bike-a-Thon, a mini-game featured on http://www.biggreenhelp.com. Players are asked to help a bike-riding LeBron avatar deliver green tips across the globe to rack up points and progress to the next level of play.

"We all need to be aware of how to take care of the environment," James said. "I'm glad that I can show kids what they can do to help."

Your favorite shaving cream and razor company, Gillette, announced that Derek Jeter will join Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry and Roger Federer as a Gillette Champion. Basically, Jeter becomes a part of Gillette's global ad campaign and gets a free life supply of Gillette products. So you'll see him in print, on television, and probably hear him on the radio hawking some shaving cream.

Last week's sports highlight was from a New York nightclub featuring Shaquille O'Neal ripping into Kobe Bryant in a freestyle rap that got cheers from the crowd. But Shaq hasn't been getting many cheers beyond that. An Arizona sheriff already asked for Shaq's honorary deputy badges back from him, now Virginia's Bedford County sheriff Mike Brown is asking for their department's badge back. Shaq was given the badge after his work with the Virginia county's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Brown also told the Associated Press that Shaq's likeness also will no longer be used to promote Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, a unit of the department that O'Neal worked with in investigating Internet predators.

The 2008 NBA Draft is going down today and nobody knows where anybody is going, but at least O.J. Mayo knows he's got an endorsement deal with Nike. According to our good friend Darren Rovell at CNBC, Mayo signed a four-year deal with Nike making him the first rookie of this year's class to sign a major shoe endorsement deal.

"It's a great deal," Mayo's marketing agent Maverick Carter, CEO of LRMR Marketing, told Rovell. "This is the best company for him. There was discussions with other brands about giving him more money if he was drafted into a bigger market like New York or Los Angeles, but Nike showed they really wanted him because they didn't care what market he was in."

While everyone is having a laugh about Shaquille O'Neal's freestyle except Kobe and Laker fans, the police in Phoenix aren't too happy about it. In 2006, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy and earlier this year promoted him to colonel. Now Sheriff Arapio wants those badges back.

"I want his two badges back," Arpaio told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they're fired. I don't condone this type of racial conduct. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think that either conduct should be out there publicly, even if media wasn't there."

In an effort to clean up his image and start with a clean slate with a new team and season, Pacman just wants to be called Adam Jones for now on. In an interview with the Sporting News, Jones said he's ready to move on and start anew.

"There's really just a lot of negativity behind it," Jones told the Sporting News. "It's just time for a change, man. I'm doing everything to make sure that I'm all right as a person, mentally and emotionally. My mom is going to call me 'Pacman.' That is what it is. I can't change that. I'm not saying that my teammates won't call me 'Pacman' on the field. But for the most part, I want to be Adam or Mr. Jones."

It's no secret that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal had their differences during their last season together on the Los Angeles Lakers. That ended with Shaq heading out to Miami to join the Heat. Over the seasons it appeared that Shaq and Kobe made up and were all cool and the gang. But the other night footage of Shaq freestyling at a New York City club appeared online and he had some choice words about the Kobester.

"You know how I be/Last week Kobe couldn't do without me.../I'm a horse/Kobe ratted me out, that's why I'm getting divorced/He said Shaq gave a b*tch a mil/I don't do that 'cause my name's Shaquille/I love 'em, I don't leave 'em/I got a vasectomy, now I can't breed 'em."

Regardless, clubgoers enjoyed the freestyle, but now it's getting spread all over the sports world and analysts are dumbfounded. To clear things up, Shaq spoke with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith saying:

"I was freestyling. That's all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. That is what MCs do. They freestyle when called upon. I'm totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. And by the way, don't forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don't make something out of nothing."

Whether it was malicious or all in fun, the bottom line is, Shaq isn't too shabby off the top of the head. Check the video after the jump:

It was about six years ago when the WNBA saw its first dunk. In a game against the Miami Sol, the Sparks' Lisa Leslie received a pass from her team mate Latasha Byears on a fast break, took it to the hole and threw it down. The crowd and the team went crazy.

Well, over the weekend rookie extraordinaire Candace Sparks matched that historic moment. In a game against the Indiana Fever, after a missed shot and long rebound, Parker ran the court, found herself alone and dunked the ball, making it her first dunk in a WNBA game and only the second dunk in WNBA history.

"Just trying not to miss," Parker told the LA Times of her approach on the dunk. "It's exciting to do it in front of Los Angeles, at home and on the same basket that Lisa did it on."

Check out the highlights after the jump:

Just a month ago, former NBA star Charles Barkley announced that he was taking a break from gambling because... well, it was a waste of money. Actually, Barkely made the announcement that he wasn't going to gamble for a couple of years after reports came out that the Wynn Las Vegas Casino was suing Barkley for failing to pay a $400,000 debt. He repaid the debt and swore off gambling.

That is until "Ante Up for Africa" invited him to come and gamble for the people of Sudan. According to the Associated Press, the event is designed to raise money and awareness for the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. More than 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced since ethnic warfare began in 2003, according to the U.S. presidential envoy to Sudan.

While most pro athletes are busy jetting to Caribbean islands with their ladies or families, Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford is banging away at that degree. The former University of Florida star headed back Gainesville, Florida, where he won consecutive national titles, to work on his telecommunications degree – even though he deserves a vacation after the beating they put on the Boston Celtics during the playoffs.

"I did have some second thoughts [about registering]," Horford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "But I needed to get away from Atlanta, and I really wanted to start out right. I felt if I had waited a few years to start summer school, I might not be as willing to do it as I am now. Being at the pro level was a new experience for me and I loved it. You do miss some of the college stuff, but I'm the type of person who likes to live in the moment. During the season I was all about the NBA. Now I'm back in school and I'm loving it, taking advantage of being back in the college atmosphere."

Terrell Owens is probably the hottest receiver on the field during the NFL season, but he's looking to have the hottest kids' football camp in the offseason as well. Owens will be hosting his third Youth Football Camp at Duncanville High School in Dallas, Texas, July 9-10 and he's bringing in some special guests. U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Maurice Greene, Adam 'Pacman' Jones and Hall of Famer Michael Irvin will all be at the school working with the kids.

"I am very excited for the third season of my youth football summer camp," Owens said in a statement. "The camp is committed to teaching kids how to improve their football skills and increase their knowledge of the game. I'd also like them to understand that their activities off the field are just as important as scoring a touchdown. In past years, everyone has learned a lot and they've had a great time. I'm looking forward to another fun year."

Because of his work with the NineMillion.org campaign, an effort to give more than nine million refugee children better access to education, technology and sport, Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng has been selected to receive the 2008 UN Refugee Agency's Humanitarian of the Year Award. Deng, who is a former refugee from Sudan, will receive the award on June 20 at the World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C.



















"I am honored to receive the UNHCR's 'Humanitarian of the Year' Award," Deng said in statement to SlamOnline. "Giving back is important to me. The ninemillion.org campaign is a cause that is very close to my heart, and I am committed to helping refugees make a new life for themselves.