Welcome to Thursday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

WHAT’S HAPPENING LOCALLY THURSDAY:
MLB: Red Sox at Tigers, 1:05 p.m. (NESN; WEEI)

AROUND THE WEB:

♦ Controversial Giants legend Barry Bonds apparently has formed a bond with the family of Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was beaten after a game in Los Angeles. Bonds visited Stow in the hospital and wrote on his website: “I look forward to taking Bryan and his kids to a Giants game when he recovers.” Bonds also indicated that he will be funding a college tuition fund for Stow’s two children.

And in a note from The New York Times, former Bonds trainer Greg Anderson, a convicted felon who sat in jail rather than testify against his longtime friend, is a coach for a youth baseball team outside of San Francisco. Some parents aren’t happy about this situation.

♦ The Lakers hired former Cavaliers coach Mike Brown to succeed Phil Jackson. In The Los Angeles Times, Bill Plaschke writes that the team made the wrong hire. At Yahoo! Sports, Adrian Wojnarowski writes that the Lakers should have consulted Kobe Bryant, who had no comment on the hiring after offering his support for assistant Brian Shaw.

♦ In the latest from Charles Barkley‘s feud with the Heat, the TNT analyst said that he got a call from Nike questioning his criticism of LeBron James. These athletes today are all wussified,” Barkley said. “I’ve been saying LeBron’s been the best player in the league for three years. And I say one thing criticizing “The Decision,” and I get a phone call from Nike saying why don’t I like LeBron? It’s interesting how this [expletive] works. These groups today, if you don’t say 100 percent positive about their guy or their team, they overreact.”

♦ Forbes magazine has a piece on how sports attendance figures speak lies, with an explanation of how teams fudge the numbers to work to their benefit.

♦ In The Washington Post, Sally Jenkins writes about 61-year-old Diana Nyad, who is preparing to swim from Cuba to Key West.

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On May 26, 1987, Celtics legend Larry Bird stole Isiah Thomas‘ inbounds pass and fed which teammate for the game-winning layup to beat the Pistons, 108-107, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals?

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “What was more disappointing is probably the fact that I don’t know if I agree with those calls. Hopefully what was said today didn’t have any impact on that, because if it did, I’d be really disappointed. You look back at those, and you get an opportunity to look back at them, and it’s really, really tough to swallow.” — Bruins coach Claude Julien, on the refereeing and if comments by Lightning coach Guy Boucher before the game had any influence

STAT OF THE DAY: 12 — Batters the Red Sox sent to the plate — accounting for seven runs on nine hits — in the first inning of Wednesday’s 14-2 victory over the Indians

‘NET RESULTS: Soccer star David Beckham corrals a fan who ran on the field.

TRIVIA ANSWER: Dennis Johnson

SOOTHING SOUNDS: Levon Helm of The Band turns 71 Thursday.

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