Shag and Kobe Interviews

[foghorn]

Two interesting interviews with Kobe and Bryant on ESPN the past day or so. The one with Shaq was really bizarre and goofy. He comes across as stupid, arrogant, and weird all at the same time. Kobe talked to his own private buttkissing journalist Jim Gray and declared he had nothing to do with Shaq or Jackson leaving LA. Yeah, right. Anyway, both players reminded me why I'm slowly losing my interest in pro basketball. The sad thing is, these two jerks have hogged all the limelight from the Pistons' Championship. That team had just pulled off one of the most dominant performances ever -- but there's been been very little followup, in light of the LA fiasco. I feel sorry for the average LA fan (sort of) but not for those pain-in-the-a$$ movie stars who get way too much camera time during the games. I wonder if they'll show up next year when the Lakers stink. And without Shaq, they truly will reek.

[4him]

I have little to no interest in basketball (particularly the NBA), but to lessen the pain for Foghorn in his solo conversations, I will respond to these topics.

Despite my lack of interest in the NBA, I find the LA puzzle interesting as I am watching Sports Center and ESPNews. My first instinct was to go away from what the media was saying and think that Shaq was more responsible for the break up. Let's not kid ourselves, he is equally as arrogant as Kobe. Of course, all the pieces point towards Kobe: he is still there, Shaq is gone, Phil--who calmed the storm in LA so that Kobe would share the ball--is gone. Personally, I think that losing Phil hurts more than losing Shaq. Phil is easily one of the greatest coaches in NBA history and seems to have some sort of special powers with players. Whereas, Miami is in the East, for starters, and they still have some building to do around Shaq if they want to contend with the West.

After watching the ESPN interviews, I began to think that Kobe had more control of the situation than I had originally suspected. Shaq, although he was beating around the bush, was ultimately blaming Kobe. And certainly in his press conference in Miami, he hinted toward some disgruntlement with Kobe. It's also a good possibility that Kobe's possible move to the Clippers was just a move to make it look like he wasn't responsible.

In conclusion: Kobe is dumb for wanting Shaq and Phil gone. The Lakers are dumb for doing it (although giving up Kobe who has the most future in front of him wouldn't be smart either). And lastly, Shaq is just plain dumb as you can see by his interview.



OK...so maybe I pay more attention to basketball than I admit to. But when there is no baseball, soccer, or poker on...suffering through basketball-filled-ESPN is my last resort.