Anyone who knows me knows I love me some Shaquille O’Neal. And if you aren’t following him on Twitter, you’re missing out!

Shaq is always good for entertainment. There is absolutely no disputing that. To further his case, he will begin filming on a new reality TV project titled “Shaq Vs.” this week. The show will feature Shaq challenging other elite athletes to competition in their respective sports.

Each episode is to include preliminary challenges, banter from news conferences, interaction with needy kids, and O’Neal and his rival negotiating a handicap. The laughs come from “trash talking,” but “when it comes to competing, there is no joking,” O’Neal says.

Athletes confirmed to tape episodes are Ben Roethlisberger (football), Oscar De La Hoya (boxing), Albert Pujols (baseball), Serena Williams (tennis), Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh (beach volleyball), and swimming’s own Michael Phelps.

I’m already laughing at the thought of seeing The Big Shaqtus in a LZR Racer! It will definitely bring the LOLZ!

The series debut airs August 18th at 9 PM (ET/PT) on ABC. I can’t wait!

It seems like every few months there a lawsuit filed on behalf of a swimmer against some triflin former sponsor that just couldn’t get their shit together.

We’ve seen it with Kaitlin Sandeno, Aaron Peirsol, and Mark Spitz. And now it’s Amanda Beard’s turn.

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Amanda Beard claims GoDaddy.com breached a 2008 settlement agreement in which the Web host company agreed to stop using her name and image. In the suit filed in Superior Court, Beard said the December 2008 agreement terminated a previous contract she had with GoDaddy.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Go Daddy. Be prepared to feel the stiff arm of justice!

Speaking of GoDaddy, though, I think I need to renew some domains I have registered there. Not this one, though!

It seems that the only times TMZ picks up and posts stories about swimmers not named Phelps is when a lawsuit is involved.

The last time I recall was the Penta Water issue, which also involved Mr. Aaron Peirsol.

This time around, a ‘marketing company’ has been using Aaron’s image, without permission. Big no, no. He appears in swimwear ads that have run in popular swim mags such as Swimming World and USMS.

Aaron doesn’t like when shady people seek to profit from his image. It makes him sad. We can show you what his face would look like in such a situation:

Classic, right? This picture will forever be in the Swim Aids Hall of Fame.

I know it’s appeared that our posts reppin’ for Austin Staab have disappeared. We can explain!

See, what had happened was…

#1. He completely fell off our radar last Spring/Summer after NCAAs. And, to our knowledge, did not compete at the Olympic Trials.

#2. Our West Coast Correspondent left the Bay Area, in favor of SoCal, and no longer can make a short 20 minute trip to Stanford to check in on young Austin.

I’m from his hometown, but it’s not like he competes for WAC anymore. So, our bad!

Anyway….this post is to congratulate Austin on that bad ass 100y Fly he swam Friday at the Pac-10 Championships. He turned in a 44.69 to establish not only a new Pac-10 and Stanford Record, but also American Record that previously belonged to teh Crockah. You may now refer to Sir Staab as ‘American Record Holder Austin Staab’. Bad. Ass.

It does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

So, now that I think about it, this should have been the post that had the title “The Return of ___”, but since that one’s already taken by the previous post, and it’d be terribly tacky to repeat a post title like that, I had to switch things up!

After Trials, which brought an extreme wave of sadness to the Swim Aids when Davis Tarwater didn’t make the team, we thought we’d seen the last of him in the pool. That night in Omaha, there were tears, or maybe “man tears” would be a more accurate description. Point is, we were devastated.

Our sources didn’t know any more than we did about the future of his swimming career, so we thought it was a past tense thing. To make matters worse, we knew that there were only 2 post-grad swimmers training in Ann Arbor, and both of their last names are Vanderkaay. So T-Dub!! had to be done, right?

WRONG!

Last week, I took a quick look over the Austin Grand Prix psych sheet and I saw something that made my jaw drop:

So, apparently after the quadrennium came to a close, T-Dub!! said to himself: “Take me to another place. Take me to another land.” And the Lord guided him (back) to Tennessee and the local Tennessee Aquatics swim program.

Davis is competing this weekend, in Austin, and is already off to a great start. He turned in the fastest time in the men’s 100y Fly prelims this morning.

So, can I get a “T-DUB!!” or what?

This post is brought to you by Arrested Development (the group, not the TV show, you damn young’uns):

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First Phelpsi gets a shout-out in a rap song, and now comedians are talking about swimming. And by talking about, I really mean making fun of, but I’m sure y’all are bright enough to have figured that out.

Anyway, over the weekend, Comedy Central premiered a new stand-up special from comedian Jo Koy called “Don’t Make Him Angry”. In it, he discusses the American men’s dramatic win in the 400 Free Relay. He’s launched his own personal campaign against France, because he thinks the entire country sucks. Remember, that’s his opinion, not mine. Don’t send me hate mail yo!

I honestly can say that I shed a tear laughing so hard at this bit. I’m sure you will too!

And if you’re sensitive to profanity, this may not be something you want to view. Personally, I didn’t notice any. But at this point in my life, I’m pretty much immune to all of that. Is that bad? Oh well.

Enjoy the clip, below. It’s about 5 minutes long.

The marketers of Guitar Hero went and signed the US sports world’s heavyweights for their new TV spot. You won’t get it if you haven’t heard of or seen the old Tom Cruise movie “Risky Business”.

It was nice of them to include Phelpsi in the ad with Kobe, Tony Hawk, and A-Rod. Also glad to see MP is letting his hair grow…

Regardless of the inclusion of swimming’s biggest name, it’s still Kobe Bryant FTW. Just keepin’ it real. It’s what I do.