Michael Beasley ate chicken and fries before basketball games.

Some players swear by never eating before games and if they do, it will usually be a light snack. But for a few specific individuals, they will have pizza right before the game and maybe go off for 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. Not everyone is the same, in Michael Beasley' case, we might have found why he has not played up to his expectations and it just so happens to be related to food.

From the Hang Time Blog:

As Michael Beasley slammed a chicken tenders basket at his locker about 90 minutes before his Phoenix Suns were to face the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, he seemed more pleased with the savory french fries than digging up the past yet again.
“These fries are good, man,” Beasley said between shoveling handfuls of the greasy goodness into his mouth.

Have you ever played basketball after eating greasy food? How can you play at your best with your stomach feeling bloated, mouth filled with grease residue and possible constipation? You can't and neither can the former number 2 overall pick.

After rifling through the chicken finger basket and dressing for the game while rapping out loud the inaudible lyrics streaming through his headphones, Beasley managed 12 points on 4-for-10 shooting and four rebounds. He recorded a team-worst minus-17 in 20 minutes and the Suns lost for the 30th time in 45 games.

Stick with the simple carbs, man. I am sure the Suns nutritionist have super foods that can help you perform better, after all this organization did extend Steve Nash's health and revived Grant Hill's career.

Charles Barkley hijacked a local Phoenix Newscast and did the weather.

Just when you thought that Charles Barkley might be retiring from doing the Inside the NBA for TNT, he goes and shows up on your local news without notice. Aside from being terrible at doing color commentary, his back up plan to work as a weather man will likely not work out.

Cool transition from the weather to talking about your plants. It is always good to engage a conversation that no one cares about with a weatherman. Stick with half time show, you only have to work on Thursdays. I know Shaq get be a little annoying, but it is only 6 hours. You can take 6 hours of mumbling and yelling right?

The Round Up - January 24th, 2013.

Stat Rundown + Short Recaps

Toronto Raptors vs. Orlando Magic: The Raptors did it! They won a close game! Up by double digits late in the game, the Raptors did Raptor-y things that allowed the Magic to crawl back from the deficit to tie the game with 20 seconds left on the game clock. Normally, this would go into overtime, where Toronto will crumble with a familiarity that we are accustomed to seeing and lose another hard fought battle, but DeMar DeRozan would not let it happen. The shooting guard scored 14 of his 22 points (10 of 17) in the 4th quarter, including this buzzer beating basket to win the game.

Demar DeRozan also did this to the Magic.

Shout Out: To Nikola Vucevic, who led Orlando with a team high 19 points on 8 of 14 shooting and 14 rebounds.

New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics: The Knicks finally snapped their 13 game losing streak at the TD Garden, where they haven't won since November, 2006. Carmelo Anthony had a game-high 28 points on an inefficient 11 of 28 shooting, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. This is Melo's 27th straight 20+ points game, moving him past Amar'e Stoudemire for the third longest streak in Knicks' history. On the other side, Rajon Rondo got his 27th career triple double, it is the 20th on national TV and the 4th one this season. His 23 points, 10 boards and 11 dimes ties him with Bill Russell for the 4th most triple doubles in Celtics History. Paul Pierce had a great first half, scoring 19 of his 22 points, but he would go without hitting a single field goal in the second. To make things even stranger for the Knick slayer, in the final two critical possessions of the game, Pierce turns the ball over twice, basically losing the game for his team. The Boston struggle continues. (Via: @cjzero)

Los Angeles Clippers vs. Phoenix Suns: Chris Paul was injured, the Clippers played awful and the Phoenix Suns took advantage. Goran Dragic led all Suns with 24 points on 5 of 12 shooting, 5 rebounds and 8 assists in the victory. As for the Clippers, Blake Griffin dunked. A lot.

Michael Beasley still has the coolest hair in the game.  (Via: @BeyondtheBuzzer)

Beasley may not be putting up the numbers he was expected to for the Suns, but his hair game is on point. It is almost different every basketball game.

The Round Up - January 17th, 2013.

Stats Rundown:

Via: @ArashMarkazi

Following his historic night in Golden State, LeBron James went into the Staples Center to destroy all hope. The reigning MVP had 39 points on 17 of 25 shooting, 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals in another win. Instead of summarizing the game in a short paragraph, I am going to let the videos and .GIFs do the talking (writing).

This was how it started:

This was how the Lakers responded (Via: @cjzero):

And this was how it ended. (Via: SB Nation)

The Heat outscored the Lakers in the paint 68 to 28 without any big men that possessed any kind of offensive touch.

They allowed LeBron to do this (Via: @HPbasketball):

 And Dwyane Wade added 27 points (11 of 20), 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals.

The Lakers need to win approximately 31 games to make it in to the playoffs. Meaning that, from here on out, they can not lose more than 12 games. Just start tanking already, let the old dudes rest and hope Dwight's back can make a 100% recovery.

Buck Country: Monta Ellis's 24 points on an efficient 10 of 20, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and Larry Sander's 19 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks gets the Milwaukee Bucks their first win in Phoenix since 1987. The Bucks snapped a 25 year old, 24 road game losing streak. Kind of unbelievable.

Whoops: With nobody near him, Ricky Rubio missed a wide open lay up and still somehow remains adorable.

Euro Trip: The New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons traveled to the O2 Arena in London for a regular scheduled season game to promote the sport of basketball. Unfortunately, nobody should ever pay to watch the Pistons play, even people that live in Motor City don't attend the $5 ticket home games. Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 26 points (8 of 19), he also had 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks in the victory. Melo has scored 20 points+ in 25 straight games, he is 4 short of tying Richie Guerin's franchise (Knicks) record. In his first game of the season after knee surgery, Iman Shumpert and his Hi-Top Fade got 8 points (2 of 3 from three), 2 assists and probably a few new groupies.

Can someone get the dimensions of that glorious hair. Via: @BeyondtheBuzzer

LA Problems: Both LA teams rank as one of the worst free throw shooting in the league and this might explain why.

I think they need to get their eyes check, seriously get an eye exam, or aim somewhere else.
(Via: SB Nation and SB Nation)

Highlights

Put It Back: In case you have forgotten, Shannon Brown can still jump really high.

Fake Out: That is pretty bad defense by Derrick Williams. A simple head fake in the other direction, shouldn't be an easy reverse dunk for your opponent.

The Round Up - January 14th, 2013.

Stats Rundown

The Dynamic Duo of the Oklahoma City Thunder went ahead and dropped 77 points on the Phoenix Suns. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news or anything, but 47 of them came in the second half and that's not all. I just want you to know that the entire OKC team scored only 51 points after half time, think about it for a second.

Kevin Durant went for 41 points on 15 of 30 shooting, while grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing out 2 assists and blocking 2 shots. Russell Westbrook got 36 points (14 of 24), 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals in annihilation of the Suns.

Did you know Russell Westbrook can euro step from the three point line, and make a lay up from the free throw line?

Honorable Mention: To Rajon Rondo's third triple double of the season, his 17 points (8 of 11), 10 rebounds, and 12 assists led the Boston Celtics to victory against the Charlotte Bobcats. The Celtics are now on a 6 game winning streak and pushing themselves into the top of the East.

Boards: Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins has been on a roll in 2013, he had 26 points (7 of 14), 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in the win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Rookie Watch: The Cleveland Cavaliers have more than just Kyrie Irving, although their 2012 number 4 pick, Dion Waiters usually misses more than he scores, he is unstoppable when he gets hot. He came off the bench for 33 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 12 of 18 from field and was perfect from the three (3-3).

The Battle of the Uglies: The Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls are one of the better defensive teams in the league that also happen to be pretty bad on offense. This was suppose to be a scrappy, low scoring affair that will melt your eyeballs, but instead it turned into an Atlanta beat down.Where do I begin? Oh, the Hawks scored a franchise low 5 points in the 2nd quarter, where they turned the ball over 11 times, 3 more than field goals made. They only had 20 points (second lowest in NBA History, tying the New Orleans Jazz in 1975) in the first half, the fewest points Bulls have ever allowed. It didn't get much better after the break, Atlanta would finish the game with 58 points, setting a new opponent franchise low. As for the Bulls, Carlos Boozer is a consistently good now, so that's a thing. He had 8 doubles doubles in the last 9 games, and leads the Eastern Conference with 20.

Take a look at the Hawk's shot chart in the first half. (NSFW)

Via: @HPbasketball

The Bulls were having fun.

Two great things about this play besides Taj smashing the basketball on Anthony Tolliver, Stacey King and Al Horford, watch his reaction on the bench.

Join the Club: Andrei Kirilenko becomes the 15th player in NBA history (since 73'-74', where steals and blocks started to count) to record a minimum of 2000 assists, 1000 steals and 1000 blocks. The only other active player in this elusive club is Kevin Garnett.

Shout Out: To LeBron James for carrying his garbage of a team with 32 points (13 of 19), 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, wait.. he plays for the Heat and with 2 superstars? Were they hurt? No? Then what happened? Well, Coach Spo decided to sit Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade for the fourth quarter and left LeBron on the court alone with a bunch decent players that played like scrubs. Down 21 after the third quarter, the Heat outscored the Jazz 32 to 20 to make things interesting, but as good as LeBron is, he can't do everything.

Highlights

Buzzer Beater: Is it really necessary to throw a no look lob pass? We all know you looked. Turning away for a split second doesn't make the play any better.

Early Burial: R.I.P Marcin Gortat. You never should have underestimated Kevin Durant's wingspan.

As nice as the play was, if I was KD, I don't think I would do it again. I would rather not have Kendrick Perkins slap me on the side of my head after falling on my ass. Even the Durantula agrees with me.

Jermaine O'neal got a basketball to stop on the iron of the hoop.

This actually happened in a NBA basketball game.

Yep, that is definitely the work of the ghost of Antoine Tyler. Or it could be a display of Jermaine O'neal's ability to slow time at will, because that would explain why he is still playing in the league and not at home getting a retirement belly, while pursuing a career as an analyst on TV. Oh wait, wrong O'neal. Zing!

NBA Boxing Day involved some hard fouls.

A few players from the NBA took Boxing Day to a literal level, using various types of boxing during games from last night. To make it right for the victims, let's play a game of "Dirty or Not." The rules are simple, watch the video and determine whether it was "Dirty or Not."

First up from the docket, we have a sad Dwight Howard taking out his frustration on Kenneth Faried.

This was definitely intentional and unnecessary. Dwight is lucky he won't get a suspension because Faried's dreads softened the blow to his head. His Laker teammate, Jordan Hill however, took a full Dwight kick to his face and his hair ccould not help him in any way.

Verdict: Not. Just a hard foul that went the wrong way.

J.R. Smith picked up his own flagrant foul after a sneaky shoulder to the airborne Goran Dragic.

Dragic did not return to the game, thanks to the contusions he received to his wrist, hip and back.

Verdict: Dirty, he purposely ran into Dragic and kept his arms to his side to look like it was unintentional.

I saved the best (in this case, worst) for last, we have Dwyane Wade splitting Ramon Sessions's groin in half.

Ramon Session was a little too chill about this, making me believe the kick wasn't as powerful as shown on the video.

Verdict: Dirty, even though it didn't cause much damage to Ramon's future child-creating endeavors, a man should never lift their leg up to another man's party area.

The Round Up - December 23rd, 2012.

Stats Rundown

The Los Angeles Clippers are the hottest team in the NBA right now. It is only fitting that Blake Griffin had 23 points (8 of 12 shooting), 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals and a block to tie the Oklahoma City Thunder's win total, making them second in the west. (The Clips are have one more loss than the Thunder)

Dishin': Another 13 assists for Chris Paul in the 13th straight Clippers win. He had 17 points and 5 steals against the Phoenix suns.

Boards: Nikola Pekovic, the human ogre grabbed 17 rebounds to go with his 21 points in the loss at the Madison Square Garden.

Don't Come it a Come Back: Carmelo Anthony scored 19 of the Knicks' 23 fourth quarter points for the comeback win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Melo finished with 33 points (10 of 25) and 7 rebounds.

Phantom Punch: Carmelo Anthony whacks Andrei Kirilenko twice and then flops to get the call. Have you no shame? (Via: @cjzero)

Even Mike Woodson didn't like that. (Via: @cjzero)

It is not funny, don't abuse your star status to get out of fines.

German Fade away: Dirk Nowitzski returns to the NBA game for the first time after knee surgery. He went for 8 points on 3 of 4 shooting and grabbed 6 boards against the San Antonio Spurs.

Splash: The San Antonio Spurs sets a new franchise record for 20 three point makes in a game. 7 of those were courtesy of Danny Green who only missed one shot in the victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

The Original 3: Manu Ginobili's unnecessary no look passes are the best.

Denied: Shannon Brown didn't want to embarrass Blake Griffin by going to his full 50 inch vertical.

Put Back: Dante Cunningham cleans up Ricky Rubio's mess.

Late Rotation: No stare downs or any taunting from J.R. Smith, I don't even know this guy anymore.

You can apply to be Charles Barkley's intern.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work for a retired profession NBA superstar? Well, Charles Barkley is here to offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you don't mind being on call 24/7 with his food, listening to Chuck repeating himself over a thousand times and working without any compensation besides the satisfaction of hanging around him, go apply to be his intern now on his official website.

Here is some tips from the guys in the TNT studio:

Good Luck.

Oh, and if this helped you get the gig, please send me videos of Charles's golf swing.

A Quick NBA Round Up - December 6th, 2012.

Stats Rundown

In the rainstorm brought on by the New York Knicks, only LeBron James stood tall. 31 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals in the loss.

Honorable Mention: Raymond Felton put on his best Carmelo impression, 27 points (10 of 20 shooting, 6 of 10 from three), 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in the blow out victory over the Miami Heat. This 20 point loss for Miami is the worst at home, since the Big 3 era.

Boards: Markieff Morris grabbed 17 rebounds (7 Offensive) to go with his 15 points, 3 assists and 2 blocks in the money-back guaranteed loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Not the greastest business idea.

Watered Down: Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh combined to shoot 6 for 25 from the field to much of LeBron's delight.

#STARER: Guessing she was not a fan of Wade's game tonight. (Via: @cjzero)

Tres: The New York Knicks shot 41% from the three point line today. Cashing in 18 of their 44 attempts, you may allow your jaw to drop on the floor in response to Miami's terrible defense.

SHEEEDDD: He is on that Novakane. (Via: @cjzero)

Speeding: A good rule of thumb when playing basketball against LeBron James is you don't ever get near him if he is at top speed.

Air Combo: Double-Oops.

Butt Dudes: Right in between 4 cheeks. (Via: @cjzero)

Jokes: Byron Scott knows how to get out of an interview.

No, that's not Mike Brown, but hilariously fitting.

Rasheed Wallace gets ejected, because "Ball Don't Lie."

I guess you can't yell all you want Sheed, especially not after messing up Luis Scola's beautiful locks. Everything about this was awesome, you knew Sheed was going give us another "Ball Don't Lie" to treasure, because the man never disappoint fans. He clearly knew he was going to get ejected if he did anything stupid (by stupid, I obviously mean great) during the heat of the moment, but he yelled anyway. And of course he wasn't even close to being done, Sheed can only leave games in the one fashion, something he will be forever remembered for - mouthing off and death staring refs as he exits the arena.

Oh, did I mention this was his first ejection after returning to the NBA and it took only 85 seconds? Now, this is a real welcome back.

A Quick Round Up - November 2nd, 2012.

Stats Rundown 

This must be why Kendrick Lamar used to be jealous of Arron Affalo, 30 points (11 of 18 shooting), 5 rebounds and 5 assists against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Honorable Mentions: To Carmelo Anthony's 34 (11 of 27) points and 6 boards and Kobe Bryant's 34 (12 of 27), 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

Boards: Dwight Howard had 21 points and 15 boards in the loss to the Orlando Magic.

Spoiled Meeting: Despite the fantastic line Dwight Howard put up against the ex-girlfriend that he hasn't seen for months, he didn't do so well on the free throw line. The Orlando Magic abused the Hack-A-Dwight and rightfully so, as the indecisive big man only went for 9 of 21.

Last Quarter: The Orlando Magic scored 40 points in the 4th quarter, which is 14 more points than the Los Angeles Lakers.

Metta World Threes: Metta World Peace hits his 1000th three pointer today, and apparently he is the 68th p;ayer to do it, which is quite a surprise.

Slow Motion: You know you can't defend, if Metta World Peace can go by you without any effort. Someone needs to correct MWP's running form, dude runs like a flightless bird.

Points: Carmelo Anthony is now 86th in the NBA all time scoring list, leaving James Worthy behind him.

Double Flop: I don't know if I should be upset or be amazed by this thing of beauty. Sebastian Telfair is sneaky, flopping even after hitting Pablo Prigioni in the face.

Spanish Denial: Getting blocked by Glen "3 inch vertical" Davis pretty much sums up Pau Gasol's season so far.

The Round Up - November 25th, 2012.

Stats Rundown:

Jrue Holiday scored a new career high of 32 points, to go with his 13 assists in the victory over the Phoenix Suns. The last Sixer to ever put up those numbers were none other than Allen Iverson in 2006.

Honorable Mention: Tony Parker carved up the Toronto Raptor defense, scoring 32 points, grabbing 6 boards and handing out 5 assists in the double overtime victory over the Toronto Raptors.

Boards: Ed Davis of the Toronto Raptors came off the bench for 14 rebounds (8 Offenisve) and 15 points in only 22 minutes of play.

Dishin': Rajon Rondo tied John Stockton for the second longest double digit assist streak (37) in NBA history with his 16 assists tonight. He also had 15 points in the overtime win over the Orlando Magic.

Historic Block Party: Tim Duncan's rejection of 3 Toronto Raptors shots, gave him, his 2,500th block. The 9th most in NBA history.

Rookie Watch: The Lithuanian Raptor, Jonas Valanciunas showed no signs of fear against Tim Duncan, pouring in 22 points (9 of 13 shooting), 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in another tough loss.

Time Machine User: Tim Duncan is still alive and ballin', 26 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks against the Toronto Raptors.

Phoenix Captured: Luis Scola is a G. (Via: @MikePradaSBN)

Cool Fact Bro: In the win over the Portland Blazers, Deron Williams became the 11th player since 85'-86' to register 15 points, 12 assists and 4 blocks.

Old Man Bloopers: Paul Pierce is old, so his legs doesn't listen to him sometimes.

Manimalism: Kenneth Faried preys on your puny dunk attempts.

Highlight of the Night: Manu Ginobili is the coolest and is probably a lowest of keys street baller back in Argentina.

Phoenix Suns sings to Flo Rida' Whistle.

What is better than getting NBA players to sing to a song that is full of sexual innuendos and highly inappropriate for radio? Well, you get Foreign players from the Suns (And there is a lot of them) to do it. I hope the Suns can tolerate Michael Beasley's singing, because his ex-foreign teammate Ricky Rubio hated it, but he was definitely not the worst in the video.

Jermaine O'neal looking happy was not exactly how I remembered him growing up. It is super weird to see a guy that everyone referred to as a thug, to actually sing "This is going to be fun" (To be fair, he seems to have let loose at the near end of his career). And what is with Sebastian Telfair, for a guy that has been in the NBA for quite some time, I am not sure I have seen anyone more awkward on camera than him, good smile though, bro.

New NBA trend: Justin Bieber Backpack Rookie Hazing.

Photo by Jordan Strauss, AP

If you watched the Rookie Rising Stars challenge last year, a few rookies were forced to wear some ridiculous backpacks by older peers. While some rocked the Disney Princesses, Ricky Rubio took up the biggest challenge and wore the Justin Bieber backpack. He managed not to only pull it off because of his spanish pop star good looks, he might have began a trend.

The Suns welcomed Kendall Marshall with a Bieber pack of their own, with a newer and a less moppy headed Justin.

Update with Video:

Man, Kendall does not look pleased at all, come on at least be like Ricky and take it in stride. You can't show weakness.

If this trend really picks up, we already know who to call.

I have got to say, NBA rookie hazing is super disappointing, the NFL knows how to do it right, Tebow's rookie hair cut still gives me the giggles.

Sources: National Post (Picture), Suns Blog.