Wally Szczerbiak: Shirtless BBall montage

We usually feature models and/or actors in our montages here, but it seems appropriate to feature an very hot, buff (and oh-so-tall athlete) in honor of the NBA finals.

Wally Szczerbiak became something of a supporting-cast co-star on LaBron James's Cleveland Cavaliers, as his new team played a tough semi-final series against the Celtics. The attention must be a welcome change from his brief purgatory on the dreadful Oklahoma City-bound team he was stuck with at the beginning of the season.

But hey, we'd be happy if he was just sitting on a bench, as long as he'd take his shirt off.

The 31-year-old is 6-foot-7-inches and weighs 244 pounds. He was born in Madrid, Spain; played college ball at Miami (OH); and was a first round pick (at #6) by the Timberwolves in 1999.

David Gandy for Dolce & Gabanna

Photographer  Mariano Vivanco proved in his calendar shots for Dolce & Gabanna that model David Gandy richly deserves his first name.

Notice something about Gandy in these shots that we don't see in most model portfolios (including most other shots of Gandy), but that's ever-so-lovingly present in Michaelangelo's statue: Just a hint of a belly.

Clearly, Gandy was able to forego the usual non-diet and was allowed to carbo-load and gorge himself just a bit before this photo-shoot to transform himself the proper form for his oh-so-famous namesake.

Originals for all twelve months and the cover can be found at American Urge. You can also see a Flash slideshow of the shots at D&G's site. It's a 2008 calendar and no longer available at Amazon, but you might find it in a near-remainder bin at a bookstore or fashion outlet. And really... would you be looking at the dates anyway with those pictures above them?

(And we'll admit that we did darken Vivanco's subtle shadows in the leaf area just a bit to make the David shot meet our usual self-imposed just-barely SFW standards.)

Bonus D&G video featuring Gandy and several more D&G models:

Smailey Constantino: See-through

Made in Brazil blog was introduced to Smailey when a friend sent them this snapshot of five Brazilian models at play in Miami. They are: Mateus Verdelho, Smailey Constantino, Rodrigo Calazans, Leandro Lima, and Victor Pecoraro

Amazing at it seems, there was an exact tie this month between Kerry and another model. But as you might guess, it's not just any young model who could pull off such a feat. It's someone with what Made In Brazil blog (which has the original photos) judges to be the "Best Model Name": Smailey Constantino.

And, as you can see, he was helped along not only because he wears near see-through shorts in these pictures (which were used for DNA's voting), but also (and we're guessing here, of course) because of what can be seen through those shorts. Impressive, no?

Smailey is an 18-year-old Brazilian now living in either Los Angeles or Miami (not clear which) but represented ably by Vision Los Angeles. These are his basic stats (missing the one that you'll have to guess for yourself, based on the evidence): Height: 5' 11" (180cm)    Waist: 31" (79cm)    Shoes: 11.5    Hair: Dark Brown    Eyes: Brown    Suit: 40"    Suit Length: R    Inseam: 32"

 But about the name... We think it's almost the Best Model Name (BMN). We'd still hand the BMN award to Kristoffer Ryan [we Kristoffer samples here].

Thierry Pepin by Gregory Vaughan

Thierry Pepin considers himself primarily an actor, but he's achieved considerable success as a model ever since he was discovered by Motreal ad agency Giovanni after starring in an independent Canadian film, Danny In the Sky.

Born in 1981, Pepin is from a small town in rural Quebec, but moved as quickly as he could to Montreal. He moved there when he was sixteen to study fine art and design. 

His modeling career came his way largely by accident, according to a biography on Pepin's website, but he's pursued it with relish since being handed the opportunity. He's modeled for Ralph Lauren, A&F, and many more fashion houses and has posed for some of the world's best-known photographers.

The photos in this montage are by Gregory Vaughan, who presents Pepin with a simple background in both black & white and color. Find the medium-res versions of the images used here on the site of Major Models, Pepin's current agency,