The Laker Soap Opera continues...

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

I was gonna ask that also...i remember Jim Rome dogging on him once because someone questioned Kobe's "street cred"...as in, he's never had any...

Kobe thought he had street cred when he played at the Rucker for one summer.

Oh, you mean the time he destroyed any and all competition??

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Why the fuck is this news? Why the fuck is this bullshit being reported? It's a bunch of bullshit gossip that has nothing to do with anything. Oooh big bad Karl Malone (fuck him by the way) flirted with Kobe Bryant's wife! Kobe (fuck him too) is such an adult because he tried not to say anything in public (why the hell would he? I don't give a fuck about what his wife says to someone else's wife)! Vanessa (fuck her too) is such a virtuous woman who was betrayed by her great friends Karl (fuck him) and whatever the hell his wife's first name is Malone. Put the motherfucking ball in the goddamn hoop and shut the fuck up about your personal drama. If I have to see Kobe be interviewed about some bullshit with his teammates again next season I'm done watching the NBA because clearly their game is SO boring and SO starved for news that this kind of garbage gets reported. He said she said...He said she said....He said she said...He said she said...He said she said...SHUT THE FUCK UP!! I don't want to hear about who's fucking who, who's married to who, who bought what for who's wife, who hangs out with who off the court or any other dumb shit. Big grown ass kids....

[Guest Vitamin X]

^^^

 

The man speaks the truth. There's entirely WAY too much emphasis on athletes' personal lives (I have to deal with it double being a Lakers fan and Packers fan with Brett Favre dealing with all his personal tragedies and all) and not enough on just playing the damn game.

[Guest Failed Mascot]

There's entirely WAY too much emphasis on athletes' personal lives (I have to deal with it double being a Lakers fan and Packers fan)

That's a rough situation you're dealing with.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

For the record, I would have no problem with my girlfriend sleeping with Karl Malone.

[alfdogg 0]

[Guest Vitamin X]

I never knew Mega Man was like that.

[Dangerous A 0]

Why the fuck is this news? Why the fuck is this bullshit being reported? It's a bunch of bullshit gossip that has nothing to do with anything. Oooh big bad Karl Malone (fuck him by the way) flirted with Kobe Bryant's wife! Kobe (fuck him too) is such an adult because he tried not to say anything in public (why the hell would he? I don't give a fuck about what his wife says to someone else's wife)! Vanessa (fuck her too) is such a virtuous woman who was betrayed by her great friends Karl (fuck him) and whatever the hell his wife's first name is Malone. Put the motherfucking ball in the goddamn hoop and shut the fuck up about your personal drama. If I have to see Kobe be interviewed about some bullshit with his teammates again next season I'm done watching the NBA because clearly their game is SO boring and SO starved for news that this kind of garbage gets reported. He said she said...He said she said....He said she said...He said she said...He said she said...SHUT THE FUCK UP!! I don't want to hear about who's fucking who, who's married to who, who bought what for who's wife, who hangs out with who off the court or any other dumb shit. Big grown ass kids....

The blame for this goes to Kobe. Karl wanted to keep this in-house and away from the press. Bryant's people are the ones who went public with it. That's the source of this whole thing.

 

 

BTW, here is an excellent take on this situation...

 

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writ...ex.html?cnn=yes

 

 

Misplaced anger

Bryant's outrage over Malone's alleged come-on hypocritical

 

 

You're thinking this must be one of those wild Internet rumors, a myth born in some cyberspace chat room. You know that Kobe Bryant seems to lead a bizarre, Playmakers-meets-Desperate Housewives sort of life, but surely this story can't be true. The whole thing sounds like one of those fabricated headlines from a supermarket tabloid. "KOBE: THE MAILMAN MADE A PASS AT MY WIFE."

 

But it's true -- not necessarily the allegations, but the fact that Kobe made them. He says that Karl Malone made several suggestive comments to Vanessa Bryant at a Lakers game on Nov. 23 at the Staples Center. While Bryant was hitting jumpers against the Milwaukee Bucks, Malone was in the stands, supposedly hitting on Kobe's wife. Malone has not yet commented publicly on the accusations.

 

Let's get the obligatory point out of the way: Making inappropriate comments to another man's wife obviously is unacceptable behavior. Don't try this at home, kids. If Malone, who is married, did what the Bryants say he did, he should be ashamed. But the story here isn't Malone -- it is, as always, Kobe. How exactly does a man who admitted to committing what became one of the most public acts of adultery in recent memory manage to work up a sense of outrage over a few out-of-line comments?

 

The Bryants say Malone supposedly suggested that Vanessa come over and give him a hug, and said he was "hunting little Mexican girls." (Vanessa Bryant is of Mexican ancestry.) Inappropriate? Sure. Bad taste? Absolutely. But it's doubtful that any of the alleged comments were as traumatic to Vanessa Bryant as these two little words: Eagle, Colorado. "What's wrong with you? How could you?" Kobe reportedly said to Malone. It's not hard to imagine Vanessa saying those very words to Kobe about a year ago.

 

The fact that Bryant has hurt his wife doesn't mean he shouldn't try to protect her from further pain, of course. But it's hard to understand why he would make such a private matter public. It's just another example of the odd choices Bryant has been making since that fateful night in Eagle. From divulging a dirty little secret about Shaquille O'Neal supposedly paying women to keep quiet about his trysts with them, to reshaping the Lakers' roster into Kobe and a bunch of guys, to this latest flare-up with Malone, Bryant has shown a troubling tendency to make the spectacularly wrong decision.

 

Lakers owner Jerry Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak have to be wondering if they made the wrong decision themselves in choosing Bryant in his power struggle with O'Neal and former coach Phil Jackson. As supremely talented as Kobe may be, he's also one of those players who is always surrounded by drama, usually of his own making. It's hard to believe that almost everyone thought Bryant was on the verge of his fourth NBA title last June, because he has never seemed as far from another title as he does right now, as a lone superstar trying to carry his team into the playoffs while he fights these juicy little battles in his personal life. It's difficult to see Kobe living this soap opera life forever without it affecting his performance or distracting his teammates.

 

We may never know exactly what Malone said to Vanessa Bryant. Kobe's and Vanessa's version of events may be totally accurate, although the comments they attribute to Malone are certainly open to different interpretations. But one thing that's clear is that a new controversy seems to spring up around Kobe on a regular basis, and the pattern shows no signs of letting up. The once-mighty Lakers will continue to rise and fall on the performance of their bizarre prince, hoping that they will be able to survive the next Kobe crisis. With Kobe, the next one is never far away.

 

 

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button topic every Monday on SI.com.

[cabbageboy 0]

This reminds me of the Chris Rock routine on infidelity, where he says something along the lines of "When you cheat on your wife, she basically has a Get Some Dick For Free card. And she can cash it in at any time."

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Slow news week?

[Golgo 13 0]

<--------------------------

<---------------------------------

 

We can share, though.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

This reminds me of the Chris Rock routine on infidelity, where he says something along the lines of "When you cheat on your wife, she basically has a Get Some Dick For Free card. And she can cash it in at any time."

And that's precisely the point, and exactly the answer to the SI article's question.

[nogoodnick 0]

Apparently Ray Allen's got beef with Kobe too.

Allen Primed for Kobe Showdown

 

And excerpt from the story:

At one point in the second half, Allen stripped Kobe and went in to shoot a layup. Kobe caught up to him and spike-blocked his shot, knocking Allen to the floor with the force of the play, then stood over Allen and glared. No matter that Rashard Lewis had gathered up the loose ball and was dunking it at the time, Kobe was making a point.

 

Allen did not speak that night, but the next night, in Portland, he was asked about Kobe. He said plenty.

 

"He feels like he needs to show the league and the people in this country that he is better without Shaq, that he can win without Shaq," Allen said. "That he can still average 30 points and he can still carry the load on this team.

 

The point production is not so much what people will look at because (Tracy) McGrady did it in Orlando and Allen (Iverson) did it in Philly. But can you win championships? I think that is special. Can he make everybody better?

 

"He has the talent. But is his attitude going to sometimes allow him to take the backseat and let Lamar Odom shine and let Caron Butler have his nights and bring those big guys (Chris Mihm and Slava Medvedenko) along?"

 

Allen predicted that the Lakers would not be nearly as successful with their current roster and that that would eventually make Bryant frustrated.

 

"If Kobe doesn't see that he needs two and a half good players on this team to be a legitimate playoff contender and maybe win a championship, in about a year or two he will be calling out to (Lakers owner) Jerry Buss that we need some help in here, or trade me. We'll all be saying we told you so when he says that."

 

Allen also took exception to Bryant's trash-talking.

 

"I think he talks because he feels like he has to talk," Allen said. "He's out there playing, and if he does something good he feels like he needs to pat himself on the back. Because to me it seems like he is isolated out there. As much as it's five-on-five, I don't see much camaraderie going on out there with his teammates."

[Guest Vitamin X]

"He has the talent. But is his attitude going to sometimes allow him to take the backseat and let Lamar Odom shine and let Caron Butler have his nights and bring those big guys (Chris Mihm and Slava Medvedenko) along?"

 

Thing is, it seems like he has. Kobe hasn't been the only leading scorer in every game this season, Butler, Mihm, Odom, and hell even Jermaine "Who?" Jones have all had higher point totals in game than Bryant. And involving Medvedenko in the offense is just bad news.

 

"If Kobe doesn't see that he needs two and a half good players on this team to be a legitimate playoff contender and maybe win a championship, in about a year or two he will be calling out to (Lakers owner) Jerry Buss that we need some help in here, or trade me. We'll all be saying we told you so when he says that."

 

If this does indeed happen, I'll be more than happy to jump on the "Fuck Kobe" bandwagon. I love watching Kobe play, and he's my favorite player in the NBA, but I'm a Lakers fan first and foremost and he can go fuck himself if he does indeed do that. I was even slightly ticked off he so much as entertained the idea of going to the Clippers, which now looking back, would have been quite something since the Clippers are doing so well this year. Imagine if they had Bryant.

[Damaramu 0]

I'm just trying to picture Karl Malone in cowboy boots now.....and how the fuck did she notice those immediately?

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

A 6'10 big black guy walking with a cowboy hat on? You'll quickly notice the boots.

[The Czech Republic 0]

And involving Medvedenko in the offense is just bad news.

More like "involving Medvedenko in the Los Angeles Lakers is just bad news," if you ask me.