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Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin was honored at the Women's Sports Foundation's annual Salute to Women in Sports on Tuesday night in New York City. So was softball player Jessica Mendoza. Dozens of female athletes from sports ranging from basketball to skateboarding were lauded from the podium.

And Gina Carano sat in the audience, wondering if her fellow athletes even know that her sport exists.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Last spring, I made a case under this banner for Chris Paul to be included in any future consideration for Next G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time). People had bandied about comparisons to Isiah Thomas and suggested Paul could maybe someday find himself in the upper echelon of the game's point guards. But the overwhelming assertion from the masses: Paul hasn't proved anything, and it will be a long time before we can call him the best.

Be as patient as you like, my friends, but I'm not waiting around to crown CP3. If his performance remains even close to last season's effort (at age 22), you're looking at the future greatest point guard of the modern era. After the jump, I'll explain my rationale.

Personal history and numbers don't always guide on-field performance, but they can give us a quick insight into who carries the advantage -- if ever so slight -- into a particular game. Tale O' Tape breaks down the starting pitchers to find an edge. Thus far, we've accurately predicted six of the eight advantages in starting pitching based upon the stats.

Well, we are here ... the Dodgers' proverbial backs are against the wall, and the pitching matchup doesn't appear to bode well for them. Chad Billingsley is pitted against the Phils' ace, Cole Hamels. Let's see if the numbers bear out that knee-jerk reaction.

Chad Billingsley

Personally - We've covered his personal success from this past season already, and he provided us with a bad outing against the Phillies in his last time out. He didn't last through the third inning, giving up eight hits, seven earned runs, and walking three. He did strike out five batters, but he obviously wasn't fooling the majority of the Philadelphia batting order.

Home Splits - He's a better pitcher at home. Not as much better as the record shows (10-4 at home and 6-6 on the road), because the ERA difference isn't huge. He sported a 2.95 ERA at home this year, as opposed to 3.33 on the road. He does have much better control at home (112/35 K/BB as opposed to 89/45 on the road in nearly identical innings pitched), so we'll see if he can be effective within the strike zone tonight.

Pat Burrell has a pretty sweet nickname. "The Bat." Not only does it make sense phonetically -- rare is the nickname that trickles forth from an announcer's tongue with such minimal effort -- but it implies that he excels at swinging the chosen tool of his professional trade. This is the stuff nicknames are made of, people.

Ah, but that's not Burrell's only nickname. It's just his most famous. Via Deadspin, today we found out that Burrell is also nicknamed "The Bait" for reasons far less savory than "skill at baseball":

During his appearance on Fox, Kalas introduced Pat Burrell as "The Bait," then said that was a story for another day. That day has come. Here's that tale: During Burrell's first few years with the club, before he was married, the older players used to command him to make appearances at the bar while the Phillies were on the road. They dangled him as "bait" to attract women.

That's just sad. Not only for the women Burrell has likely deked, just before turning them over to Brad Lidge. That's sad for the fellow members of the Philadelphia Phillies, who apparently need to enlist some sort of hired beefcake to attract women. Hey, dudes: You're PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYERS. You make millions of dollars. The rest of us do OK*, and we don't have half your money or undeserved social status. Get your own women, for chrissakes.

*Disclaimer: Does not include Tom Fornelli.

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Don't know if you heard, but the Celtics run this joint. And by joint, I mean league. So everything in the Atlantic starts and ends with the defending champs. Let's start there with our list of headlines, shall we?

Time Waits For No Man, But Is Still Scared of Kevin Garnett

Considering how interesting, exciting, and unpredictable last season was supposed to be, you have to wonder why we came to that conclusion. The Celtics traded for two legit superstars, had their role players develop into a cohesive unit, had the best team in the league from start to finish, then, despite several seven-game series, won the championship rather handily over a Lakers squad that was considered the heavy favorite. Doesn't really seem like rocket science. And there's no massive change to this squad. James Posey headed off to New Orleans to hit big shots elsewhere, but other than that, this is the same team that dominated for most of the season. Yet we have to create reasons why they won't repeat, because otherwise, well, that's called sports.

So let's see, what can we use.. oh! I know! The age card! That one's easy. Kevin Garnett is 32, Paul Pierce is 30, Ray Allen is 32, and Sam Cassell is three thousand years old. So eventually there's going to be a slide, right?

Of course, Garnett is in unbelievable form, Pierce is still in the tail-end of his prime, Rajon Rondo is only 22, the Celtics only needed Allen in spots, and the rest of the team has years in front of them. But still?

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. OC Register's Lakers Blog: Bad news for The Machine: Sasha has a fracture in that ankle and will likely be out the entire pre-season.

2. NESW Sports: Video: Kevin Johnson enlists Charles Barkley to help him campaign in Sacramento.

3. Free Darko. FD is previewing all 1,230 games of the NBA regular season ... before the season begins. October/November and December have been posted.

4. NY Post Knicks Blog: Strange, almost personally gleeful piece about the possibility of Allan Houston's comeback not happening.

5. NJ.com: More delays for the Nets' Brooklyn arena.

6. Celtics Blog: Fear not, Celtics fans: Brian Scalabrine isn't getting cut.

It was purely a formality, but the Celtics officially exercised Rajon Rondo's fourth-year option for 2009-10 today. He'll make 2.09 million. He'll be eligible for restricted free agency the summer of 2010 but hopes to sign a long-term deal next summer. While announcing the deal, Danny Ainge offered all the requisite superlatives:

"He's made great progress," said Ainge. "He's a strong point guard on a championship team. He's come a long way. He has sort of a love for the game of basketball."

Ainge's comments border on boilerplate (he's a championship point guard! he sort of loves the game!) but he did strike a chord with his first compliment: Rondo has made great progress. A year ago, I was chiding him for his poor shooting (in all fairness, he lost a shooting contest to an eighth-grader) and calling him the weakest link in Boston' lineup.

Joe Maddon switched up his rotation this morning by announcing that Scott Kazmir will take the mound in Game 5 at Fenway Park tomorrow instead of James Shields, who's now listed as the tentative starter in Game 6. Because of off-days, Kazmir will be pitching on normal rest, whereas Shields was originally going to be pitching on five day's rest.

Looking at the numbers, it's easy to understand the switch. Shields was lit up at Fenway this year, giving up 11 earned runs while lasting a grand total of 4 2/3 innings over two starts. If the Red Sox force a Game 6, it will be played at Tropicana Field, where Shields has posted a 2.59 ERA this season. Kazmir, on the other hand, has a sterling 3.02 ERA in 11 career starts at Fenway (albeit with a pedestrian 4.50 ERA in two starts this season).

As Chad Finn reports in the Boston Globe, however, there may be more to Maddon's strategy than simply putting his starters where they're most comfortable. Kazmir has some history with umpire Derryl Cousins, complaining after a start in June that Cousins was giving hitters "makeup calls."

Considering Cousins is currently scheduled to take his turn behind the plate in Game 6, it makes sense to move Kazmir up a day to avoid Cousins completely. When asked his thoughts about dodging Cousins, Kazmir told Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times, "That might be a good idea." Given the rest of the numbers supporting the move, it's pretty much a no-brainer.

Occasionally FanHouse's resident referee will chime in with thoughts on major topics relating to officiating. We call it The Zebra Report.

This already spiraled away from my original intent, in only three weeks. The reason I started writing this weekly feature was to attempt to educate the public as to the intricacies of officiating, even though I'm far less qualified to do so than an NFL official. Instead, in just three installments, the column had digressed into yet another forum for bashing the officials. That stops this week.

You know why? It's really, REALLY freaking hard to officiate football at any level. About 99% of the fans don't know this, because they've never given it a shot. It's okay to bash them because you'll never be in that position. I understand that we second guess and bash coaches and players, too, but there's a big difference here. You can officiate. There's a major shortage of officials, and many places are desperate for new ones. I suggest that instead of being part of the problem -- whining and screaming about how much the "refs suck" -- become part of the solution. Put your money where your mouth is and start working games. You'll find, as I did eight years ago, it's much more difficult than it looks.

The Cowboys could be without Tony Romo for the next month, but they're suddenly stocked at wide receiver. Too bad 40-year-old Brad Johnson can't throw more than slants and screen passes at this point.

Whatever, Roy (Not Roy) Williams will join Terrell Owens et al, which should magically change the Cowboys' fortune. Or, more likely, the offense will continue to be just as explosive as it was before Williams arrive.

Either way, he's in Dallas, and the Lions former first-round pick will get No. 1 money to play in T.O.'s shadow. According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, Williams inked a five-year, $45 million extension, although, to be fair, getting out of Detroit should be payment enough.

So everybody's happy, right? I mean, Jerry Jones finally lands a big-play threat and the Lions, for the first time this decade, actually make a great personnel move. Yeah, not everybody. Deion Sanders, now preaching the gospel on NFL Network, has a few concerns.