Thursday, December 09, 2004
One Foot Out The Door
Just when I think I am in, they force me back out.
It's been awfully tough to get excited about the NBA this season. For most teams, the season is not even twenty games old and already we've seen a whole year's worth of controversy and outrageous incidents. The Shaq-Kobe-Phil-Buss-Kupchak-Payton-Malone love/hate heptagon. I'm still shaken up over that one. The Latrell Sprewell "I got a family to feed" quote. Hilarious, but excruciating. Ron Artest asking for time off to recuperate from promoting his R&B album. 'Nuff said. The Sprewell "Suck my (expletive)" quote. Brilliant. Even after crawling through all this muck like Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption," I still felt there was light at the end of the sewage pipe. Pro basketball, specifically the Lakers with their uptempo new squad, were actually starting to draw me in. And then the Karl Malone tiff happened. I really don't know if I can survive this one. College basketball might be getting a new number one fan.
Kobe and Karl are both right and both wrong. The spirit of Kobe's comments was absolutely correct. The Lakers and their new young players should not be strung along about a possible roster addition that would mean a warm spot on the IR for a guy out there busting his butt right now. But why did Kobe have to say this publicly? Why did he have to refer to his teammates as giving him 110% as opposed to the team? For all Kobe's damage control babble about how he had nothing to do with Shaq and Phil being dispatched, his actions and words since then constantly contradict that. To some degree I would attribute this latest fiasco to Mitch Kupchak not commanding the respect that Jerry West did. You think Kobe would be openly discussing personnel issues if he was still working for Jerry West? No way. West would have total control of this situation and Kobe would never have said a peep. However, it's not Kupchak's fault that Jerry Buss sent a message to Kobe that the Lakers were his team. Kobe has clearly taken the power implied to him with his massive contract and the exodus of his two former obstacles and gone nuts with it. ESPN's Chad Ford described this morning on ESPN Radio how Laker players' agents recently have indicated that many of Kobe's players have already come to despise him. He made vague references to Kobe getting in guys' faces and (get this) threatening to trade them. I guess with a contract as fat as $134 million, he figured he'd better earn his keep as a player and a GM.
Karl Malone is neither the saint nor the martyr he's making himself out to be. Of course, he has every right to be upset if Kobe was indeed rolling out an unwelcome mat. He's done quite a lot for the Lakers in a very short amount of time and has appeared to do a bit more for Bryant personally than any of his longtime teammates were willing to do. For him to be publicly called out by Kobe (of all people) is ridiculous. Regardless of his actions, Karl Malone deserves more respect and consideration than to have this issue splashed into the media, especially since he and Kobe live less than a mile apart. But why did he have to keep his intentions for this season shrouded in such mystery? Why did he have to dangle his Hall-of-Fame persona in front of a team hungry for rebounding and veteran leadership? Take a stand and state your intentions. Ski or flee.
I feel like I'm wedged between a double team here. I've been a Laker fan for all of my twenty-six years, but now my tolerance is being truly tested. The team's brightest young star is also most destructive to its future. If half the stories about Kobe are true, no one is going to want to play with him. Can you imagine the Los Angeles Lakers unable to draw interest from top free agents? And because of the prospect of being teammates with the best player in the game? I don't want to turn my back on my team, but how can I be expected to cheer for this? Couple this dilemma with all the other sicknesses that plague the NBA today and I am considering quitting on the pro game entirely.
People that don't know country music always accuse it of being about women leaving, trucks breaking down, and dogs dying. Rap music, they say, is just about hollas, ballas, and bling bling. Think about the stereotypes people assign to the National Basketball Association. Now tell me that these days they aren't all true.
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It's been awfully tough to get excited about the NBA this season. For most teams, the season is not even twenty games old and already we've seen a whole year's worth of controversy and outrageous incidents. The Shaq-Kobe-Phil-Buss-Kupchak-Payton-Malone love/hate heptagon. I'm still shaken up over that one. The Latrell Sprewell "I got a family to feed" quote. Hilarious, but excruciating. Ron Artest asking for time off to recuperate from promoting his R&B album. 'Nuff said. The Sprewell "Suck my (expletive)" quote. Brilliant. Even after crawling through all this muck like Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption," I still felt there was light at the end of the sewage pipe. Pro basketball, specifically the Lakers with their uptempo new squad, were actually starting to draw me in. And then the Karl Malone tiff happened. I really don't know if I can survive this one. College basketball might be getting a new number one fan.
Kobe and Karl are both right and both wrong. The spirit of Kobe's comments was absolutely correct. The Lakers and their new young players should not be strung along about a possible roster addition that would mean a warm spot on the IR for a guy out there busting his butt right now. But why did Kobe have to say this publicly? Why did he have to refer to his teammates as giving him 110% as opposed to the team? For all Kobe's damage control babble about how he had nothing to do with Shaq and Phil being dispatched, his actions and words since then constantly contradict that. To some degree I would attribute this latest fiasco to Mitch Kupchak not commanding the respect that Jerry West did. You think Kobe would be openly discussing personnel issues if he was still working for Jerry West? No way. West would have total control of this situation and Kobe would never have said a peep. However, it's not Kupchak's fault that Jerry Buss sent a message to Kobe that the Lakers were his team. Kobe has clearly taken the power implied to him with his massive contract and the exodus of his two former obstacles and gone nuts with it. ESPN's Chad Ford described this morning on ESPN Radio how Laker players' agents recently have indicated that many of Kobe's players have already come to despise him. He made vague references to Kobe getting in guys' faces and (get this) threatening to trade them. I guess with a contract as fat as $134 million, he figured he'd better earn his keep as a player and a GM.
Karl Malone is neither the saint nor the martyr he's making himself out to be. Of course, he has every right to be upset if Kobe was indeed rolling out an unwelcome mat. He's done quite a lot for the Lakers in a very short amount of time and has appeared to do a bit more for Bryant personally than any of his longtime teammates were willing to do. For him to be publicly called out by Kobe (of all people) is ridiculous. Regardless of his actions, Karl Malone deserves more respect and consideration than to have this issue splashed into the media, especially since he and Kobe live less than a mile apart. But why did he have to keep his intentions for this season shrouded in such mystery? Why did he have to dangle his Hall-of-Fame persona in front of a team hungry for rebounding and veteran leadership? Take a stand and state your intentions. Ski or flee.
I feel like I'm wedged between a double team here. I've been a Laker fan for all of my twenty-six years, but now my tolerance is being truly tested. The team's brightest young star is also most destructive to its future. If half the stories about Kobe are true, no one is going to want to play with him. Can you imagine the Los Angeles Lakers unable to draw interest from top free agents? And because of the prospect of being teammates with the best player in the game? I don't want to turn my back on my team, but how can I be expected to cheer for this? Couple this dilemma with all the other sicknesses that plague the NBA today and I am considering quitting on the pro game entirely.
People that don't know country music always accuse it of being about women leaving, trucks breaking down, and dogs dying. Rap music, they say, is just about hollas, ballas, and bling bling. Think about the stereotypes people assign to the National Basketball Association. Now tell me that these days they aren't all true.
# posted by j.h.k. @ 1:09 PM 
