Sports Beat

Twenty-one years after Marvin Gaye's soulful performance of The Star-Spangled Banner at the NBA All-Star Game, Gaye's daughter, Nona, will perform the funkified version Saturday night at the Staples Center. Nona, 29, who also models and acts (Ali, The Matrix: Reloaded), will sing a duet with her late father. (A digitally-enhanced video of his performance will appear on a monitor next to her.) Nona's six-year-old son, Nolan, will be by her side, bringing three generations of Gayes together. "Nolan is my rock," says Nona. "If I start to tear up, he'll be there to help me hold it together."

? Conan O'Brien took to the ice in late January, taping skits for the four Late Night shows being broadcast from Canada this week. In one segment he dropped the gloves and traded blows with Maple Leafs mono-browed goon Tie Domi—and the results were unintentionally realistic. "When we were done, mere was blood trickling down my face from above my left eye," O'Brien I said. "It turned out to be just a scratch, but it looked really cool for four days. And I could tell people I got into a dustup with Tie Domi." Domi's assessment of O'Brien's skills: "He's a tall, lanky guy. I just told him he needs to eat a few more potatoes and put on some beef."

?Turns out Kurt Russell, who stars as U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in Miracle, actually can inspire young hockey players to succeed. His son Wyatt, a 17-year-old goalie for the Richmond Sockeyes, was the only unanimous selection to the Pacific International Junior Hockey League all-star team. In 31 games he has four shutouts and a 2.65 goals-against average. "I wish I Herb would have gotten a chance to see him play," Kurt told The Denver Post. "A couple of NHL teams have talked to me about Wyatt, and they think he has real talent and real potential, and they're starting to talk about next year's draft. More important, colleges are starting to come around and see Wyatt play and are getting serious about him."

?The night before Russell's performance hit the big screen, Brooks was honored with a bronze statue in downtown St. Paul. The piece, which captures Brooks with his arms raised in triumph, stands on the site of me old St. Paul Civic Center, where the 1980 Olympic team often practiced. Our only complaint: The bronzed Brooks isn't wearing plaid pants....

FX has green-lighted eight episodes of NASCAR: Drivers Unscripted, a reality show that will follow drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick as they prepare for a race. Filming begins this week in Daytona, and the one-hour show will premiere in May....

Nuggets rookie Carmelo Anthony has officially made it: He's got his own candy bar. The Melo bar features chocolate and—what else?—caramel. Anthony is donating all profits to charity....

Former pro wrestler and ex-Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura has a new gig: He'll be a fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His class, he says, will focus on "third-party politics and how awful the media truly are."