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Chris Brown is obviously not worried about his preliminary hearing Thursday for his two felony charges in the alleged assault of his former pop star girlfriend Rihanna.
In the last few days leading up to the hearing, he’s been caught singing, b-balling and youTubing.
Between breaks recording his new album Graffiti in Orlando with a single due out this summer, Brown has been spotted courtside during two of the Magic’s Eastern Conference Final games against Cleveland. He sat with Usher, Chris Tucker and Dwyane Wade to witness Orlando’s 99-89 victory on Sunday, and then Tuesday, he sat with his rapper best friend Bow Wow for the Magic’s 116-114 OT win to take a 3-1 series lead over LeBron James’ Cavs.
Brown also has been videotaped playing 2-on-2 pickup ball with Bow Wow, Tucker and Shaq on the indoor court at the former Magic, Lakers and Heat center’s Orlando home.
And Brown posted a YouTube video announcing his new album, his love for his real fans and he declared, “I’m not a monster.” Bow Wow chimed in “Believe that.”

A judge and jury will decide whether Brown is a “monster.” But Brown’s not worried about it. He will continue to hang loose in Orlando while his lawyer appears in court Thursday and tries to get the case thrown out.

By Teneshia LaFaye
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For the record, Orlando beat Cleveland 116-114 in overtime Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Magic need just one more win in the next three games for their first NBA Finals appearance in 14 years.
But replays of LeBron James’ second free throw to tie the game at 100 and force overtime make it appear that Anderson Varejao reached up and tipped the ball in, which would result in two points not the one point the Cavs were credited for James’ last free throw. If the officials would have credited the Cavs three points for James’ first free throw and a Varejao put back from James’ missed second free throw attempt, the game wouldn’t have gone to overtime. The Cavs would be 101-100 winners to even the East Finals at 2-2.
Instead James was credited with two free throws after his second attempt bounced off the backboard and looked like it was on the way out before somehow falling in with Varejao’s hands at the tip of the basket to tie the game with .05 remaining in regulation. But James, who finished with a game-high 44 points, couldn’t muster up a repeat of Friday’s game-winning trey for the best shot of his career. This time his 3-point attempt hit the lower left side of the backboard as overtime expired for the Cavs to fall to 0-4 in Orlando this season, including two in a row this series.
As the teams huddled for overtime, Cleveland coach Mike Brown credited Varejao for giving the team a chance to pull out the victory. Brown screamed, “You’re the reason we’re in overtime.”
But if that’s the case, game over. Cleveland 101, Orlando 100.
Yet Brown never questioned the score and now his team is on the brink of elimination. Only eight teams in the NBA’s 63-year history have rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series.

By Teneshia LaFaye
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Cleveland point guard Mo Williams guaranteed his team will win the Eastern Conference Finals against Orlando because he said two of the next three games are in Cleveland and he can’t see his team losing two games at home.
Maybe Williams should have made his prognostication after Game 4 tonight in Orlando because last I checked, the Magic host two of the next three games in their Amway Arena, where the Cavs are 0-3 this season and haven’t won since February of last year. And with a 2-1 series lead, Orlando can use its actual home court advantage to grab the two victories needed to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1995.
Cleveland, which posted the NBA’s best regular season record, had home court advantage at the beginning of this series, but the Cavs let the Magic come back from 16- and 23-point deficits during Games 1 and 2 in Quicken Arena to steal a win before heading back to Orlando for three of the next four games.
In the last matchup on Sunday, the Magic shook off Cavs star LeBron James’ history-making, buzzer-beating, game-winning three-pointer two days earlier to defeat Cleveland 99-89 in Amway. And if Orlando continues its home dominance of Cleveland on Tuesday, the Magic would only need one more victory to win the series.
So Williams’ third prediction may be correct. He said he doesn’t foresee his Cavs losing two home games. Cleveland is scheduled to host Games 5 and 7. But there may not even be a Game 7. Orlando just needs to take care of home court in Game 4 tonight and Game 6 on Saturday to advance to the NBA Championship series.
Even if the Magic loses tonight, they only need to steal one more victory in Cleveland, not the two Williams suggested, plus one more home win to close the series. The Cavs can force a Game 7, but that could require them to win two games in Orlando, where Cleveland has lost three in a row.
I’m going to give Williams the benefit of the doubt and assume that he still felt disoriented from an admittedly head-ringing fall in the Cavs’ Game 3 loss that left him with a bruised eye and four stitches. Before tonight’s game, one of Cleveland’s trainers should hold up one finger in front of Williams’ face. If the point guard keeps seeing two, his head needs to be checked.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
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The Lakers aren’t the only NBA team that attracts celebrities.
Stars came out in droves Sunday for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals featuring the Magic and Cavaliers in Orlando’s Amway Arena.
Tiger Woods showed up on Amway’s Jumbotron early in the game. Then, right after halftime, Grammy Award winning R&B singer Usher walked to his courtside seat across from the Magic’s team bench. A minute and a half later, hip hop heartthrob-turned-bad boy Chris Brown was escorted to a spot two seats away from Usher followed closely behind by Rush Hour funnyman Chris Tucker and Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade and a couple friends to fill in the rest of the instant celebrity row. Utah forward Carlos Boozer was already seated earlier in the game and was a section over from the bunch under the basket near the Magic’s bench. Across the floor, Grammy Award winning rapper Lil’ Wayne sat with a female friend underneath the basket near Cleveland’s bench. The crowd gave loud ovations for Boozer, Lil’ Wayne, Woods and Usher when their faces appeared on Amway’s Jumbotron. Beyonce and Jay-Z, my favorite and my teen son’s favorite artists respectively, were rumored to be in the arena, but we didn’t spot them.
Usher, who also sat courtside two days earlier to witness LeBron James’ buzzer-beating game winner in Cleveland, switched seats with one of two guys in between him and Chris, and the throwback Michael Jackson singers chatted shoulder-to-shoulder through most of the third quarter and almost the entire fourth quarter. Since Usher is part owner of the Cavs, I wonder if he got the tickets for Brown, Tucker and Wade? And what were Usher and Chris talking about? Maybe Usher was apologizing for saying the younger singer needed to show more remorse instead of being photographed jet-skiing in Miami Beach in February shortly after being arrested for assaulting his pop star ex-girlfriend Rihanna and a photo leak of her battered face. And why was Usher wearing dark black sunglasses after 10 p.m. on a rainy night?
Usher left in the final 36 seconds with his Cavs down by eight and Cleveland starters Anderson Varejao and Zydrunas Ilgauskas fouled out of the game. Then, Chris Tucker slid over to talk to Brown, and when the final buzzer sounded, they shook hands and walked across the court with Boozer and Wade to exit through the VIP Entrance.
The Magic-Cavs game was Brown’s first public appearance since the jet-skiing photos. He privately celebrated his 20th birthday earlier this month and has been in seclusion for the last three months with the exception of courtroom appearances for the felony charges involving his then-girlfriend Rihanna. Brown’s preliminary hearing is in three days, but he is not expected to appear in court, and his attorney is trying to get the case tossed because of the leaked LAPD photos of Rihanna. But of course, Brown managed to appear on the Magic’s court Sunday in a black hoodie and blue jeans to see Orlando take a 2-1 series lead over Cleveland in the Magic’s first East Finals in 13 years.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
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Former Lakers general manager Jerry West injected himself into the debate of who is better: current NBA MVP LeBron James or last year’s MVP Kobe Bryant.
And West surprisingly switched sides and went with James, the former No. 1 overall pick out of a Cleveland high school. West brought Bryant to Los Angeles in 1996 after trading Vlade Divac to Charlotte for the Philadelphia high school standout.
West is credited for assembling the Lakers’ four NBA championship teams in the 1980s and the franchise’s three consecutive NBA champions from 2000-2002. The 70-year-old former All-NBA guard and former Lakers coach said that James can be “the greatest player ever to play the game”, even greater than Michael Jordan.
“LeBron James will do the same type of things because he’s getting better,” said West, now GM of the Memphis Grizzles. “He’s a much more effective shooter. When he’s making his shots from the outside, you can’t play him. He’s just too big, too strong, too quick. And he has incredible body control.”
But whoa, whoa, whoa.
Better than Jordan, who has won six NBA championships? And Bryant, who has three league championship rings?
Now, LeBron is a better team player than Kobe, and the 24-year-old Cleveland forward has better career averages in points, rebounds, assists and steals, but King James can’t be crowned until he’s won a NBA championship like the 30-year-old Bryant, who won three NBA titles a couple months before his 24th birthday.
First, LeBron has to lead the Cavs past Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals that begins tonight. The Magic won the regular season series 2-1 and “beat the hell” out of Cleveland, according to James’ teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in Orlando’s 116-87 home romp for the Cavs’ worst loss this season. But Cleveland, which posted the NBA’s best record this season, swept its first two playoff opponents to bring an 8-0 postseason record into the conference finals against Orlando, and James deserves most of the credit. He is averaging a playoff-best 32.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.
Bryant has averaged 28.4 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists in 13 playoff games, including a 40-point effort Tuesday to help the Lakers to a 105-103 come-from-behind victory against Denver to open the Western Conference Finals.
Kobe and LeBron can settle the debate on the court if they deliver a Lakers-Cavs NBA Finals.
And if it comes down to the game-winning shot, who would West rather have the ball?
“If I had to have somebody make a last-second shot, it would be Kobe Bryant,” West said. “But…….. I do think LeBron has surpassed Kobe as a player.”
James has to get the Cavs past the Magic for a chance to close the case.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye