A – Atlanta. The Hawks reportedly sent a letter to fans encouraging them to buy season tickets in anticipation of landing both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul this offseason. Hahahahaha. All that’s going to get them, other than some laughs, is a possible tampering violation handed down by the NBA.

B – Brad Keselowski. The defending Sprint Cup champ was docked points for the second time this season on Tuesday, due to the front end of his car being too low to the ground…or something like that. Six points may be irrelevant, but it may be worthwhile for fans if it results in another NASCAR Twitter blowup — something for which Keselowski is always a candidate. He is +1200 at Sportsbook.ag to win this weekend’s Party at Poconos 400.

C – Canelo Alvarez. This dude’s nickname is “El Canelo”. That sounds a lot more daunting of a fight for Floyd Mayweather on Sept. 14 than it would be if it was billed as Mayweather vs. Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán. Perhaps even more importantly, someone needs to confirm — or deny — with certainty whether or not Money Mayweather put $5.9 million on the Heat minus seven points in Game 7….

D – Domonic Brown. Brown was named National League Player of the Month on Monday. In news that may or may not be related, Pope Francis I is Catholic. Philadelphia’s sensational newcomer has nine home runs in his last 11 games.

E – Elizabeth. The Royal Baby is due on July 13. Needless to say, you can get your bets in on the future name for William and Kate’s daughter. Elizabeth is coming in as the third choice at +550 according to Bovada Sportsbook. Alexandra is a +300 favorite, and Diana is second at +500.

F – Flo Rida. There was not much drama on the court during Miami’s 99-76 Game 7 rout of Indiana on Monday night. The stands, however, were a different story. Justin Bieber was decked out in some crazy conglomeration of leather and that did not even top the headlines. With two minutes left in the game and the Pacers trailing by 26, Jeff Pendergraph mixed it up with Norris Cole before getting into a heated exchange with the manager of Flo Rida. Pendergraph had already been ejected, and Flo Rida’s manager — Lee “Freezy” Prince — soon joined him in being escorted off the premises.

G – Gone. Jason Kidd finally hung up the sneakers on Monday, calling it a career after 19 seasons in the NBA. Kidd is second all-time in assists behind John Stockton, he was a 10-time all-star, a two-time gold medalist, and he won an NBA title with Dallas in 2011.

H- Hall of Fame. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Deacon Jones passed away on Monday. The legendary defensive end, eight times a Pro Bowler, was credited with changing the way his position was played. While Jones’ place in history is assured, his place in the history books is not, because sacks did not become an official statistic until 1982.

I – Iggles. The Eagles are probably going to have something like 54 quarterbacks on their 53-man roster in 2013. Well, they may have room for DeSean Jackson…. But Jackson does not have room for agent Drew Rosenhaus, whom the receiver fired earlier this week. Philly is +4800 at BookMaker to win the Super Bowl.

J – J-Lo. Jennifer Lopez apparently wants to make a comeback to American idle. Oops, Freudian slip there. “American Idol”. Word on the street was that Idol ended after Simon Cowell left the show following the 2010 season, but apparently it’s still going. Who knew!?!?

K – Kooch. Matt Kuchar has established himself as one of the best players never to win a major and the in-form player of 2013 outside of Tiger Woods. In the last two weeks, the match-play champion has a runner-up finish and a title at the Memorial. Most books have Kuchar as the third favorite at next week’s U.S. Open, trailing only Woods and Rory McIlroy.

L – Leonard vs. LeBron. Kawhi Leonard is expected to get the bulk of defensive work against LeBron James in the upcoming NBA Finals. A lot of people may not know who Kawhi Leonard is, and he should hope it stays that way. If he becomes a household name this month, it’s probably because he got embarrassed. Sportsbook.ag has Miami as a -5.5. home favorite over San Antonio in Game 1 on Thursday.

M – Matt Lauer. The “Today Show’s” ratings are in massive decline and it looks like its host is, too. Reports are surfacing that Lauer has been horrible to fellow colleagues at NBC, especially those below him. “Derogatory” and “demeaning” were just two of many words used to describe Lauer. Hmmmmm…. It sounds like he would fit in well at Rutgers University.

N – Nike. Tiger Woods is back, baby. He is back! Tiger is rebounding from marital problems almost as fast as Will Ferrell’s character in “Old School.” Not only is he back in form (last week’s performance at The Memorial notwithstanding), but he is also taking care of business off the course (see Vonn, Lindsey and NIKE, Inc.). Tiger is reportedly close to signing another deal with Nike, as his initial contract signed in 2006 is up at the end of this year.

O – Orb and Oxbow. The Belmont Stakes is being hailed as some kind of titanic showdown for the ages between Orb and Oxbow. How about no? Whenever there is no chance for a Triple Crown, the Belmont is irrelevant. And it’s not like these two horses finished 1-2 in the first two legs. Oxbow was pretty much terrible when Orb won the Kentucky Derby, and Orb was pretty much terrible when Oxbow won the Preakness. For those wondering, Orb is a +300 co-favorite with Revolutionary, according to BookMaker. Oxbow is the third choice at +350.

P – Postponed. Tuesday’s New Kids on the Block concert in Ottawa was postponed a day due a border dispute involving the band’s equipment trucks trying to go from the United States into Canada. You know what the Maple Leafs must be thinking right about now: “Jeez, if only we could have had a border dispute going the other way last month….”

Q – Quarterback sack. Everett Golson is hard to bring down on the field, but Notre Dame’s former QB was an easy target when it became clear that he had a habit of avoiding the classroom. Golson is toast for the upcoming season (and likely beyond), leaving the Irish as an even bigger longshot than they already were to make a repeat appearance in the title game.

R – Rope-a-dope. As they say (or at least as Chris Berman says), “nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills”. And as George Foreman knows, nobody rope-a-dopes like Muhammad Ali. Well, Buffalo and Ali may have company in Dwyane Wade. Having scored 10 points in each of the two previous two games, Wade matched his 2013 postseason game-high totals with 21 points and nine rebounds in Miami’s Game 7 romp. WagerWeb has the Heat as a -230 favorite to beat San Antonio for the NBA Championship.

S – St. Jude Classic. This is one of the more minor events in the FedEx Cup season, but it is deserving of attention simply because it occupies the week leading up to the U.S. Open. How will guys who have not done much of late — like Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker — fare before the season’s second major? Mickelson and Snedeker are +900 co-favorites at Sportsbook.ag to win the St. Jude Classic.

T – Twitter. You can wager on just about anything these days. Yes, even Twitter followers. That isn’t even particularly puzzling. What’s puzzling is how books decide on which Twitter users to handicap. Sportsbook.ag is currently offering bets on Tim Tebow and Bill Simmons.  Tebow is -140 to have fewer than 2,305,200 followers and even money to have more than that number at noon Eastern on June 30. The “over/under” for Simmons on the same date is 2,128,800 (both the over and the under are -120).

U – Upton. Sportsbook.ag has Justin Upton at +1800 to lead Major League Baseball in home runs during the regular season. According to most people with a brain, B.J. Upton is +30000 to hit one more homer this entire season. According to the same sources, both Upton brothers are +750000 to be more awesome than Kate Upton at any point in their lives. Okay, those last two odds were made up. But that does not mean they are inaccurate.

V – Victoria Azarenka. Just about every tennis commentator in the business refers to Redfoo as Azarenka’s “companion” when he attends her matches. But let’s just tell it like it is: they’re shagging. While her off-court exploits with her significant other steal most of the headlines, Azarenka is continuing to get it done inside the white lines. The world No. 3 currently finds herself in the French Open quarterfinals.

W – World Cup. We’re still one year away from another World Cup, but the U.S. men’s national team is set to resume its bid for the right to get humiliated by some West African country like Ghana or the Ivory Coast that has like a total of like 20 people living there — all of whom are surely awesome at soccer. Team USA is a -125 road favorite against Jamaica in Friday’s qualifying match, according to Sportsbook.ag.

X – Ten. It is not unfair to use roman numerals to describe the first two games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between Boston and Pittsburgh. That’s just how epic of a beatdown it has been so far. A total of 10 goals were scored in the pair of Pittsburgh-hosted contests, nine by Boston. The Bruins powered their way to upsets of 3-0 and 6-1, and Bovada has them as a -120 home favorite in Game 3 on Wednesday.

Y – Yu Darvish. Darvish has remained in dazzling form since coming within one out of season-opening perfect game at Houston. He has had three additional starts with a zero in the runs column, including on Sunday night against Kansas City (seven innings, three hits, no runs, six strikeouts).

Z – Zzzzzzz. That’s what Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic did en route the French quarterfinals. While almost the entire rest of the field waged epic encounter after positively epic encounter in what has been a wild fortnight at Roland Garros, Nadal and Djokovic mostly sleepwalked their way through four rounds. But that will end sooner rather than later. The tournament’s top favorites (Nadal, Djokovic) are on the same side of the draw and are on course to face each other in the semis, not the final.

Read more articles by Ricky Dimon