A view from the sports couch (Mon., Oct. 27)

The Los Angeles Lakers are feuding. With new superstars Karl Malone and Gary Payton on the roster, the Lakers are the odds-on favorite to win the NBA title. But the pissing match between current Laker stars Shaq O’Neal and Kobe Bryant is reaching a new level.
Both Shaq and Kobe have been fighting in the background over the past few seasons over whose team it is: Shaq’s or Kobe’s. Both players have enormous egos and both believe they are the leaders of the team. Um, I thought this was the Lakers, not the Shaqs or the Kobes.
And besides that, doesn’t Kobe have bigger fish to fry — his life. He’s being accused of rape and is about to begin trial on Nov. 4. Why is he worrying about whose team it is? Shouldn’t Kobe be working on his defense, trying to figure out a way to save his livelihood and his freedom? Or am I just being obtuse?
Kobe really shouldn’t be playing right now, if this trial was important to him. But apparently, either he knows that his millions will bring a not guilty verdict or he’s really innocent or that he doesn’t care either way and would rather piss and moan with Shaq about whose team the Lakers are.
Kobe should step aside, get this trial out of the way — guilty or innocent — and deal with the consequences. The more he’s on the basketball court, the more of a distraction he becomes to him and his teammates. And he diminishes the importance he places on the accusations he’s being tried for.
And that’s a crime.


Boston Red Sox’s Grady Little was let go today as manager when his contract extension isn’t picked up by the organization. Little is being berated for not taking star pitcher Pedro Martinez out in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series with the hated New York Yankees.
Which reminds me of a joke: What does Grady Little and Don Zimmer have in common? Neither one can take out Pedro...


Tampa Bay defensive lineman Warren Sapp told ESPN that the NFL is filled with “slave masters” while talking about the league fining him $25,000 for various incidents, including running through the opposition’s stretching exercises on the field and bumping an official during the pre-game ceremonies.
Sapp is a little mad because he doesn’t believe that the league allows players like himself to market themselves, bringing in the slave master remark OK. You have your face on a video game (NFL 2K4), your face all over ads for the league, interviewed by several sports magazines as the face of the Buccaneers and is one of the most recognizable players in the league.
Isn’t that enough? How much more exposure do you want? Ask Donovon McNabb about exposure? After Rush Limbaugh called him (and the liberal white media) out on ESPN, he hasn’t exactly responded . . .

But Sapp does have a point, but dude, did you have to call the NFL “slave masters?” Honestly, using race and slavery to prove your point doesn’t work. If you have to sign over your marketing rights to the NFL and make just $5,000 before the season starts, then talk about that.
Bringing slavery into the argument opens a can of worms that doesn’t belong. If your union doesn’t protect your rights and interests, get a new one. Don’t use slavery and images of a time when blacks had no rights and whites exploited them to prove your point. That’s cheap. That’s lazy.
Too many people are on edge when slavery/race comes into play these days to make it a pivotal point in an argument where millionaires are taking advantage of millionaires. That’s not right.