Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (for those of you on the world-famous Ice Diet):

• We’re going to love these commercials the first six times and then want to pound Rajon Rondo with our shoe for the rest of the airings.  We suspect the Finals will pretty much be like this in all facets.
• We’re also easily entertained by this John Smoltz happy ending profile by Steve Hummer.
• We know we’re supposed to care, but we get the joke now.  It’s not funny anymore.  If he wants to keep coming back, fine; we support him.  However, please don’t tell us about it anymore.
• We wrote for SPORTSbyBROOKS on Sunday.  The storied goodness is on the right.
• We see Kyle Busch’s helmet is as big as ours.  Now maybe we should return it.
• No, we didn’t know that about Johnny Damon, either.
• We’ve been trying for days to find a way to work this into one story or another and failed miserably, so here it is:

And the Question of the Day (sponsored by Jack in the Box – Killing careers since 1989): Which former athlete do you wish had lived up to his or her vaunted “potential”?