Our last show of the week (three day weekend!) so we leave our habitual comfort zone a bit.

First, we talk about the free transfer of Oguchi Onyewu to AC Milan and what that means for Gooch, and for American soccer. On the surface, this is a great move and another big step forward for the American side. That is, if he plays. Brian Cook at TSB had a good breakdown of Gooch’s chances to play for Milan and Nick and I discuss if it’s good to be on a top team and sitting, or on a lower level team and playing. Like the old problem with minor league baseball players -- do you keep a prospect in the minors to get at bats, or is it good for him to be a part of the top club, even if that means riding the bench.

We agree, and think you will as well, that playing is the most important thing. The US players getting international recognition is a great step for the American game. But they need to play. Hopefully Gooch will get ample opportunities at one of Europe’s top clubs.

We also lead off with the video of LeBron James getting dunked on. What’s that, there’s no video? What’s that, there WAS video but Nike and the people who run the camp confiscated it by telling the cameramen the were filming when they shouldn’t have been? Oh, and what’s that last part, LeBron was the person who told the officials to confiscated the tapes?

Yahoo has a good breakdown of the events. And LSU Freek at TSB has a great visual representation of what the video might have looked like.

We’ll say this, LeBron James is a winner. He doesn’t shake people’s hands when he loses, because he’s a winner. He doesn’t let college kids get famous on YouTube for dunking on him in a scrimmage....because he’s a winner.

LeBron could stand a little humility. So what if you got dunked on? Give the kid his moment and in turn, you’ll look human. LeBron is so conscious of his image that he forgets to be human. He’s been trapped in this world of everyone always telling him he’s the best, he’s the king, he’s the MVP, that he forgets that it’s okay to fail, and how you react to that failure is what shows true character.

Now, getting posterized by a college kid isn’t exactly the kind of failure you want people to see if you’re the top player in the game. But let us in a little bit man. You’ll benefit in the long run.

Print’s Not Dead:

Will Leitch wrote this week on Deadspin about the new media website Mediaite, which has been getting beaucoup internet buzz this week and is about as hard to pronounce as anything I can imagine. I took issue with Leitch’s stance that nobody cares about the media and it’s all of us ‘insiders’ just stroking each others’...egos...for show.

Personally, I think people do care. More people care about Michael Wilbon looking down the dress of Kendra Wilkinson than the fact that Hank Baskett married her. Those not in Philly just went “who is Hank Baskett?” Which helps my point.

So to me, the ‘nobody cares about the media we should stop talking about the media’ that people write is some weird public self-loathing that seems to be more for show than stroking egos. It’s like the old-time sports columnist who has penned countless articles on steroids yet goes on a talking-head show and says that the public doesn’t care about steroids and it’s just a media creation. Then stop doing it.

But Leitch and I agree that ranking the media based on some kind of Buzz (Dan Shanoff does a great job of explaining this and giving a readable list of names) is totally self-congratulatory and media insiderish. And kinda silly.

That doesn’t mean it’s not worth talking about. And that also doesn’t mean that my new goal in life is to make those rankings. Hell, I’ll take ARV.

(Note: This hops into our next segment, but we do discuss if Dan Abrams, who has made himself into a go-to media star, being the guy who created Mediaite doesn’t seem like too much of a conflict of interest, what with his constant presence on NBC’s networks and being the former GM of MSNBC. I’m not sure we agree with the notion, but felt it was worth mentioning.)

The Weekend That Is:

Ask and ye shall receive. We talk about MMA and specifically UFC 100 this weekend. While neither of us are going to watch the event, we do realize how big the night will be for the sports and the company. As Sherdog says, ‘watch or die.’ Let’s hope we don’t die.

We talk about UFC the way two outsiders would talk about UFC -- we wonder if it will ever really cross over into the mainstream sports world, and wonder if that’s even a good thing. Has Dana White found the perfect balance of being a niche sport, yet being mainstream enough to have cable TV shows, PPVs every month, magazines and blogs solely dedicated to your company and, when he needs to, the ability to crossover into the general public’s consciousness.

Either way, MMA has completely ruined professional wrestling for us. The fact that two men -- including some former rasslers -- can get in a ring and ACTUALLY fight, makes what they don in WWE look ridiculous. So you have that going for you, MMA.

And you know what the shame of it is...I loved wrestling. And my wife used to go to the old UFC matches in Jersey, waaaaaaaay back in the day. We’d probably get into the sport, if I didn’t think Dana White was such an asshole. Look, the guy is a really smart businessman. He’s done an amazing job with UFC. But he just comes off as such a dick, and at least for me, it’s turned me away from being a fan. I don’t want to give that guy my money. Maybe it’s petty, and maybe I’m missing out on great fights by the likes of Georges St. Pierre, but I bet I’m not the only person who feels this way.

Either way, my dislike for White shouldn’t take away from the fact that his company has done an amazing job in the last few years becoming relevant. Other businesses can really learn from what they’ve done. Oh, and I’ll take Lesnar, St. Pierre and Bisping. Let’s see if I’m right. If not, Sherdog might want me to die.

Housekeeping:

We neglected to mention in our soccer talk that Bob Kraft -- owner of the Patriots and one of the original investors in MLS -- is part of a group trying to bring the World Cup back to American soil for 2018 or 2022. This would be huge for the sport in America. Last time, there was no professional league. There was no true soccer infrastructure. This time, it would be a nine-year (or 13-year) buildup to something great.

Nick also shares a story about meeting SNL’s Bill Hader in New Mexico, the same day Page Six had Hader getting turned away at a party in Chelsea. Someone’s lying! (Or he simply saw Nick on his way to the airport and was actually in two states on the same day. But I like the lying angle).

I also get a chance to finally tell the story of when I met Jeff Van Gundy in a hotel in Tarrytown, NY. We wish you all a good weekend.