Crunch Time: LeBron vs. Frank Isola, Steve Sarkisian, Julian Edelman’s pinky

Cranky King

It looks like LeBron James has lost his smile.

The Cavaliers’ superstar shredded Charles Barkley last week and this week he destroyed NY Daily News writer Frank Isola for reporting that LeBron has asked the Cavs to trade for Knicks star Carmelo Anthony even if they have to part with Kevin Love.

“It’s trash. And the guy who wrote it is trash, too,” LeBron said of Isola. “That’s just outside noise for us right now.”

Isola then called BS on LeBron during an interview with Sirius XM.

“When he said ‘trash,’ he meant ‘trash’ for coming out when it did,” Isola said. “It’s almost like on an off-day, maybe I’d be OK with it. But don’t write it – don’t have the story come out right before we play a game.”

Playbooks & PBRs

If the best way to deal with depression from a soul-crushing loss is to drink yourself into oblivion, then the Atlanta Falcons made the correct choice in hiring former USC head coach Steve Sarkisian as their new offensive coordinator on Tuesday. Sarkisian is best remembered for showing up hammered to a USC football practice in October of 2015 as well as a USC athletics event that year.

“Get ready to f***in’ fight on baby, let’s gooooo!” Sarkisian said while slurring his words at a Trojans pep rally that year.

Some USC assistants, at the time, believed that Sarkisian was also drunk during an actual game that season. Via @InsideUSC: assistant coaches “pulled Sarkisian out of a player huddle on the sideline during the Arizona State game (on Sept. 26, 2015). They believed he was not sober.”

Pinky ring

Two years ago, Julian Edelman 109 yards receiving and a touchdown in the Patriots’ 28-24 win over the Seahawks in Super Bowl 49. Hours later, he spent the evening with a young lady, and the young lady posted a picture of a sleeping Edelman on Tinder with a caption that read, “Just f***ed Edelman, no lie.”

Edelman was also the star of that year’s Patriots victory parade, taking his shirt off in freezing temperatures and generally acting like Ferris Bueller atop a float.

In the aftermath of this year’s Super Bowl, it looks like Edelman has matured a tad. He kept his shirt on in the parade Tuesday in Boston, and there are no pictures or videos of his sexual exploits floating around the Internet today. The only real Edelman news that came up this time is that he apparently has a right pinky finger that doesn’t bend … like, at all. It makes his juggling catch against the Falcons Sunday that much more incredible, but it also might be time for him to Ronnie Lott that bad boy.