rats playing basketball

busy with school, but hoping to post my bull predictions sometime next week (before the first game). haven't had a chance to read this, but espn predictions of the the bull ...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-ChicagoPreview0809



looks like i missed the last lil wayne blog on espn ...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3636731
here's the most recent ...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3648826






this is from truehoop on espn today ...

These rats play basketball. Actual rats. Some of the training, as described on the website of Heureka, the Finnish Science Center. (No joke, in some ways this reminds of what us journalists learned at IMG, although if you watch the video you'll see that the rats get tons of snacks from their coaches, while we did not.): "The rats are gradually taught to play basketball. First, the rat kitten is taught to grab the ball and to find it on the court. The next phase involves coaxing the rat to travel with the ball in its mouth. At first, the distances are only a few steps in length, but slowly they increase. The rat is guided by hand to travel to a particular end of the court, because each rat must learn to recognise their own hoop. The basketball rat teams are established by teaching half of the rats to put the ball in the basket on the right side and half on the left side of the court. How does the rat learn to score? Scoring a basket is not taught to the rat kittens until the very end of their training period. To start, a platform is used to enable the rat to simply drop the ball down through the hoop. Gradually the platform is lowered and the rat learns to lift the ball up and into the basket. Finally, the rat kitten begins to be ready for an actual game with another rat. In Heureka's basketball programme, rats become professional players within 2-4 months of training. Does every rat learn to play? Any tame rat can learn to play basketball, but brave rats which are relaxed playing in front of an enthusiastic audience will be the best professionals!" UPDATE: More video.