After winning a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps has earned a rest. Instead, he’s spending the rest of this week in Beijing making appearances for sponsors such as Visa and Hilton Hotels.

Once again, newsmakers are tripping over the differences between their public statements and their private email. This time it’s the owners of the Seattle Sonics who have to explain the wide gap between their PR stance (We want to do everything possible to keep the team in Seattle) and their behind-the-scenes conversation (Can’t wait to move them to Oklahoma!).

Advice to anyone who wants to become a successful (and rich) men’s college basketball coach: Connect to Kansas.

For years, Chuck Knoblauch has been the answer to this trivia question:

“What Yankee second baseman hit Keith Olbermann’s mom with a wild throw?”

But now, Knoblauch, 39, has become the answer to another trivia question. On baseball blogs, people are asking, in one way or another:

Andre Agassi

Hey, bowling fans, ever wondered whom to thank for ESPN’s coverage of your once-neglected sport? That’s Steve Miller, who, while president and CEO of the Professional Bowlers Association, negotiated two exclusive television deals with the network.

This week, Miller was named to the newly created post of chief executive officer of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which is trying to become national in scope.

Once again, it’s the cover-up and not the crime that gets someone in trouble.

Olympic track star Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in federal court for not telling authorities the truth in two unrelated cases.

Roger Clemens got to the courtroom first last night, suing the man who has accused him of using steroids and human growth hormone.

The suit raises the stakes in what had been a war of words, creating the possibility of testimony under oath and all its consequences.

The suit against Brian McNamee was filed on the same night Clemens went on 60 Minutes and denied ever receiving illegal injections of performance enhancing drugs from McNamee.

Time will tell, but right now it would seem that the vitamin B12 explanation isn’t working much better for Roger Clemens than the flaxseed oil defense did for Barry Bonds.

Clemens told Mike Wallace in a 60 Minutes interview to be aired this evening that, contrary to allegations, he received injections of vitamin B12 and lidocaine earlier in his career, not steroids and human growth hormones.

Sports writers and sports columnists don’t seem to be taking Clemens at his word, in part because they’ve been down this road before.

The producers of 60 Minutes couldn’t have asked for a better buildup to Sunday’s scheduled broadcast of an interview with baseball’s Roger Clemens about allegations that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

The stakes in that interview, already high, have been raised by the lawyer for Clemens’ chief accuser and former trainer, Brian McNamee.

He’s said that if Clemens, who has denied using the drugs, calls McNamee a liar in the interview, he’ll sue for libel.

What do Jack Shephard, Paris Hilton, Robert Levy, Andre Agassi, 50 Cent, “Don’t tase me, bro!”, Robert Chambers, Barry Bonds, Benny Hinn and Northrop Grumman Corp. have in common?

Not much really, except that they were the subjects of some of the most read stories on Muckety during 2007.