Conan O'Brien mining L.A. sports for material

Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien passed the "Tonight Show" baton in the most obvious of ways -- by bashing the Clippers.

Jay's final monologue included a joke about the franchise being the only thing that never changed in his 17 years: "The Clippers still suck." Conan's first monologue informed his audience that, "This studio holds 380 people. It's exactly like being at a Clippers game."

On his second night, Conan turned to baseball. "Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez is now midway through his 50-game suspension, which he received after testing positive for a female fertility drug. When asked about it, Ramirez started crying and said, 'You never listen to me and you don't care about my needs.' "

Night 3 featured a surprise appearance by Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (video above). Later in the show, during a sketch in which Conan and announcer Andy Richter took turns predicting the future, Richter said, "Dodgers fans will suspect that slugger Manny Ramirez is again taking female hormones when, during afternoon games, he demands the jumbotron be turned to Oprah."

-- Adam Rose

ESPN ads let you relive magical Finals moments

ESPN begins its NBA Finals advertising campaign Monday. It's called "Elevated Moments'' and features some of the most memorable plays and players in Finals history.

Former Lakers prominent on digital billboards in several cities, including Los Angeles, will be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal.

For television, ESPN is replaying highlights such as Magic's junior sky hook (above) from the 1987 Finals against Boston and Dr. J's baseline reverse dunk from the 1980 Finals against the Lakers.

Cool video.

-- Randy Harvey

Los Angeles owners a mixed bag in Sports Illustrated's Best & Worst list

It stressed that this list was by no means scientific, but Sports Illustrated cited numerous factors when putting together its Best and Worst Owners list in the four major professional sports, the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. SI says the factors included the owners' willingness to spend money to improve the team, stability in the front office and management, amenities at the team's venue, how the team interacts with its fan base and one more important factor -- the team's overall success. Boil those five factors together and you'll see some of our L.A. owners on that list.

Stunner: Not-so-shocking hoop upsets

It may be time for a moratorium on headlines proclaiming every third college basketball victory this season "stunning" or "shocking."

It happened again Tuesday night, when No.1 Pittsburgh visited Providence and ... lost a regular-season Big East basketball game in late February.

Yet, the teaser on the MSN.com front page told a different story: "No. 1 stunner: Pitt falls."

Wait a minute. It wasn't like Notre Dame snapping UCLA's 88-game winning streak. Pittsburgh had been No.1 for, what, a week? And Providence, with the win, improved its record to 17-11.

It's been happening all year. A different team rises to No. 1 and then loses, and we're supposed to be "stunned" or "shocked."

In my mind, the only real "shocker" so far this year was Boston College upsetting No.1 North Carolina on Jan. 4 because the game was in Chapel Hill and North Carolina at the time was being proclaimed as invincible.

North Carolina began this year as the first unanimous preseason No.1 in the history of the Associated Press poll and almost even-bet money to become the first team since Indiana in 1976 to complete an undefeated season.

But then the Tar Heels lost, and have lost twice more since ... shocking!

There have been six changes at No.1 in the AP since early January. And shouldn't there be a limit as to how many times a team can get shocked in one year?

Pitt was already No.1 once before this season, before the Panthers were "stunned" at Louisville.

Let's face it: There are no dominant teams out there, no Lew Alcindor-led behemoths, no 1976 Indianas.

Twelve of the 16 schools in the Big East have winning records. Providence had already defeated Syracuse this year, and Cincinnati. It's not as though the Friars fell off the back of Dr. Naismith's peach truck.

We get it, begrudgingly, sort of, kicking and screaming. It's the Internet age, stupid. Everything has to be teased with a countdown or a question mark.

BRITNEY SPEARS TO BECOME A ZULU WARRIOR?

Click ... "No, but she has a new album coming out!"

Fool me 10 times ... shame on me.

It would be nice though, in sporting matters, if we could curb some of our enthusiasm and ration our exclamation points.

You know, save them for the real whoppers:

"BEN HOWLAND HAS TWO TIME OUTS LEFT AT END OF GAME!"

"USC HOOP GUARDS SEEN DINING TOGETHER AT DOWNTOWN EATERY!"

Sometimes, but not very often, a game warrants a bold-type statement.

Stanford, a 41-point underdog, upsetting USC in football back in 2007?

OK, now THAT was a shocker!!

-- Chris Dufresne