James Pallotta traveled to the Vatican on Wednesday in his role as president of the Italian soccer club A.S. Roma, which will take on rival side Lazio in the Coppa Italia final this weekend. Delegations from the two clubs visited St. Peter's Square during Pope Francis' daily general audience as part of a peace initiative, presenting "Papa Francesco" with jerseys from each side, while Serie A President Maurizio Beretta gave the soccer-loving Argentine Pope a football and a small replica of the Italian Cup.

But the Boston-born businessman is also part of the ownership group that runs the Boston Celtics, so Pallotta brought along a home-white Celtics jersey — with "THE POPE" on the back above the No. 1 — to present, as well. How did the Pope respond?

It's up ... (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

... and it's good! (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

OK, cool. He smiled. He digs it!

FOX Sports was worried he might not, because it just had his generic title rather than his specific name. But it looks like you got all worried for nothing, FOX Sports. No "epic fail" at the Vatican here. Whew! (Nobody should've worried, anyway. As "The State" taught us many years ago, the Pope-a, he's a so nice-a.)

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, not exactly shook after Game 1 (Getty Images)

Much of the noise emanating from the Miami Heat’s Game 1 win over the Indiana Pacers had to do with Pacer coach Frank Vogel’s curious removal of perhaps the best defender on the court, for either team, for two crucial defensive possessions in overtime.

That noise is the correct noise. It’s true that the Miami Heat space the floor expertly, and that LeBron James is just as adept at dishing to an open (ish) Ray Allen or Chris Bosh as he is at covering 24 feet in 2.2 seconds, but that’s not the point. The point is for Chris Bosh or Ray Allen to take the shot. Fabulous options, both, but far better options for the Pacers in that instance than LeBron James and an uncontested lay-up. Hibbert guarded Chris Bosh expertly on the possessions that preceded that embarrassing run for Vogel, and while the center’s presence can’t be counted on to call off a Heat score as a certainty or cinch, it certainly would have given Miami a far tougher look than it had.

The ending of Game 1 probably left quite a number of Indiana Pacers fans feeling like they'd been on the business end of a low blow. Well, at least they had a couple of frontcourt stars to share the pain — namely, center Roy Hibbert (thanks to Miami Heat forward Shane Battier):

... and power forward David West (thanks to Heat guard Norris Cole):

Credit Heat coach Erik Spoelstra for recognizing a play that worked early in the game, then circling back to it later. That's some smart coaching, sports fans.

Now, for the moment of truth. Which "midsection" shot was worse — Battier's Tiger Knee on Hibbert or Cole's "Nature Boy" homage on West? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and please avoid giving out any shots to the midsection on your way there. Thanks in advance.

Videos via sky2847 and OUOutreach.

You can understand the logic behind Frank Vogel subbing Roy Hibbert out twice in the final 11 seconds of Game 1. He wanted a faster, nimbler group of Indiana Pacers to be able to switch the multiple screens that could (and did) come on late Miami Heat possessions and for his team to be able to "force a challenged jump shot." He knew Heat coach Erik Spoelstra would run actions designed to make the plodding 7-foot-2 Hibbert move, chase a smaller and quicker Heat player around, and increase the likelihood of a coverage breakdown creating open look for a good shooter somewhere. If Paul George again makes a pivotal misstep and overplays LeBron James off the inbounds pass, the MVP probably gets to the rim anyway. If Hibbert's drawn away by Chris Bosh, he might not be close enough to contest James' go-ahead or game-winning drives anyway. Even if he was, James might still have drawn the foul or finished anyway. There are arguments to be made; you can understand the logic.

And then someone puts together a side-by-side like this, and all logic goes out the window:

Pretty big difference. (Image via @WhereIsHibbert)

Tony Pulis with the Olympic torch in May 2012. (Getty)

Tony Pulis' second spell as Stoke City manager has come to an end following a disappointing season in which the club finished 13th in the Premier League. After his initial three years with Stoke between 2002 and 2005, Pulis returned in the summer of 2006. He won promotion to the Premier League and eventually led Stoke to their first ever FA Cup final in 2011 and a spot in the Europa League. The baseball cap and tracksuit wearing 55-year-old, who physically fought one of his own players in 2009, ultimately didn't reach the heights expected of him with the money he was able to spend. So now he's gone.

But on his way out the door, he took a cue from Roberto Mancini's full-page ad in the Manchester Evening News saying goodbye to Man City supporters last weekend and penned a farewell letter to Stoke fans that ran in a local paper.

From The Sentinel:

I'D like to start by thanking every single one of you who have made the last decade so special for me at Stoke City.

I am grateful for this

If only the Indiana Pacers employed a lengthy, defensive-minded center that could patrol the paint down the stretch of close games.

Wait, what?

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel shockingly decided to remove all-world defender Roy Hibbert from his lineup in his team’s two most crucial possessions of the season on Wednesday night, and the Miami Heat took advantage while winning Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Two different times, down the stretch of overtime, Heat MVP LeBron James slashed to the rim for easy lay-ins, as Hibbert could only look on from the bench while Vogel went with reserve wing Sam Young to “counter” Miami’s small lineup.

After Pacer All-Star Paul George tied the game following James’ first slash with three clutch free throws to hand the Pacers a one-point lead, LeBron James responded with the spin move and game-winning lay-up over … Sam Young.

Carmelo Anthony's shoulder hurts. (Jim Davis/The Boston Globe/Getty Images)

A magnetic resonance imaging scan of Carmelo Anthony's ailing left shoulder revealed a partially torn labrum that could require offseason surgery that would shelve the New York Knicks' All-Star forward for months, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

Knicks fans looking for an explanation for Anthony's decline in shooting percentages from regular season (44.9 percent from the floor, 37.9 percent from 3-point range) to postseason (40.6 and 29.8, respectively) might point toward the bum shoulder, which Isola reports has caused "chronic pain" for the league's leading scorer ever since he initially injured it late in the third quarter of the Knicks' April 14 win over the Indiana Pacers:

Anthony re-aggravated the injury early in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Knicks' opening-round series against the Boston Celtics, when Celtics center Kevin Garnett grabbed Anthony's left arm on a screen:

This might be the easiest penalty call of all time. A player in green gathers a rebound off the post with his back to the goal. A player in red then clumsily falls into him from behind, sending them both to ground. With the player in green sitting over the ball, red gets up and starts kicking him. Two of his teammates then join in and suddenly they're kicking the guy like he robbed someone's grandmother.

The penalty was awarded, but it appears no one was booked for the attack. Probably because the referee didn't want them to gang up on him next.

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.

Video via Bola Nas Costas