TMZ Sports - Page 50

Kobe Bryant's maid wants to make one thing clear: It's her lawsuit and she can talk about the details if she wants to.

Maria Jimenez just filed papers in Orange County Superior Court, citing California's anti-SLAPP statute which says Maria has the right to run her mouth, despite a confidentiality agreement she signed with the Bryants back when she first took the job.

The Bryants filed papers last month saying the opposite -- that Maria could sue but couldn't blab to the press.

Maria is suing the Bryants because she claims Kobe's wife was abusive -- including a nasty incident involving dog poop.

Mark Spitz's mankini is in a bunch -- and it's all because the Olympic swimmer claims he and his legendary porn 'stache were taken advantage of by a medical company.

Spitz just filed a lawsuit in L.A., claiming he had a deal to appear in commercials for a company called MedCo -- but the deal was supposed to end in December '08. Spitz claims the spots are still running on the air right now.

Spitz is suing for "licensing fees that should have been paid, plus a percentage interest of the gross sales of Medco's products since the use of Spitz' [sic] name and image."

Tito Ortiz is on the receiving end of a serious legal attack -- one that started after the UFC legend bashed "Rampage" Jackson's former trainer to the media.

The guy filing the lawsuit is Juanito Ibarra -- a fighting expert who claims he's trained more than 15 world champs and several Olympic Gold Medal winners. Ibarra's pissed over an interview Tito gave to a website back in 2008, in which the fighter ripped Ibarra as a "thief" who had financially "taken advantage of Rampage."

In the lawsuit, filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, Ibarra claims Tito's statements are all false and "highly offensive" -- and things got worse when scores of sports websites began publishing follow-up stories, repeating Tito's comments.

Ibarra is suing Tito and all the blogs and publications that ran Tito's interview for defamation, invasion of privacy and emotional distress.

According to reports, the police had to forcibly remove the 24-year-old from his perch and drag him to the hospital for a cat scan. Rogers says he was never charged with a crime for the incident.

Jereme did learn one valuable lesson from his tripped out experience: "Mushrooms don't give you powers" -- so don't try to use The Force on the cops.

Gibson was booed hardcore after he replaced the line "our flag was still there" with "our Lakers were still there," and when we asked about his version last night, dude turned deathly serious and extremely apologetic.

One of the best defensive players in the NFL was accused of taking part in a high-priced scam involving some pretty sick luxury automobiles ... but fear not Eagles fans -- Asante Samuel is officially in the clear.

TMZ has learned a judge removed Samuel's name from a NY lawsuit, after it was decided he has no connection to the men accused of duping some sap into investing into a car customizing business.

Samuel's attorney, Hillel L. Presser, told us, "Asante never had knowledge of any of these people -- knew nothing about the matter or his name being used until the suit was filed."

Last night, the basketball player partook in one of L.A.'s most sacred traditions: Devouring a few of those greasy, regrettable and incredibly delicious bacon wrapped hot dogs after a night of clubbing.

One of them is about to be manhandled by Dwight Howard.

There's only one thing NBA superstar Dwyane Wade hates more than losing -- people who lie about being German royalty.

Wade has fired off a lawsuit against a guy who goes by the name Baron Richard von Houtman -- a guy who allegedly told Wade's basketball coach that Wade had used cocaine and steroids. Now he's suing Baron for slander and libel.

But Wade says it should be obvious that the guy is full of it -- because "The Baron" is not really a Baron. Here's an actual line from the Dwyane's lawsuit:

"Despite the abolition of the monarchies at the beginning of the 20th century, and notwithstanding that the defendant did not begin using the alias "von Houtman" until sometime around 1995, the makeover of the defendants identity was not complete until 1998."

"Given the lack of any historical record ... it is the defendants own grandiose vision of himself that motivated the use of the title or, perhaps, an intention to falsely communicate to others a sense of prestige."

Wade definitely considers this whole thing personal -- he and von Houtman are former business partners who are involved in a lawsuit over a failed restaurant venture.

One of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history is playing defense for a change -- after three TV producers accused Michael Irvin of stealing their idea for a football-based reality show.

Ironically, the show is about giving unknown athletes a shot at playing for the Dallas Cowboys -- but in the lawsuit, filed last week in Dallas, Irvin is accused of screwing three unknown producers out of their chance to make it in Hollywood.

In the suit, the men claim they approached Irvin with the idea for a show in 2007 -- but after they allegedly presented Irvin with storyboards and even a poster for the show, the Hall of Famer ran off with the idea and cut the guys out of credit, cash and even changed the name of the show to "4th and Long."

Gotta give him some love though -- at least the guy helped out a good cause ... the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Plaxico Burress just got out of four traffic tickets on a technicality -- but the officer who gave him the tickets claims the NFL star is technically full of crap.

TMZ spoke with a rep for the Broward County Police who spoke with the officer who gave Plax the tickets (still following?) -- who told us the cop specifically remembers giving Plaxico the information she was required by law to give him -- which spells out how to pay or contest fines.

Plax claims he never got that information and there is no record to prove otherwise -- so the 4 tickets were thrown out.

The cop explained that the info comes in a flyer, and that she always puts the flyers in with the tickets -- and specifically remembers doing so for Plaxico. The cop even said she saw Plax toss it all onto the backseat of his car.

The cop also said she didn't know who Plaxico was when she pulled him over, but recalls the traffic stop for other reasons: in particular, she remembers how recklessly Plax was operating the car and how poor his attitude was when he was pulled over.

...no, not for the gun charges.

This one just went down in Florida -- the plagued wide receiver just had those 4 tickets he racked up in one day dismissed ... all because the cop who nailed him was a little too careless with his paperwork.

Plaxico Burress' lawyer, Bradford Cohen, tells us the tickets cops gave him in Broward County on March 1 -- for speeding (60 in a 45), improper display of tags, improper lane change and improper window tinting -- were dismissed because they weren't properly filled out by the cop.

Whoops.

We're told the tickets did not include info on how Plax could pay or contest the fines -- which is a violation of state law.

As for the gun charges, Burress is due back in court in New York on June 15 -- but don't expect the same outcome.