Tonight, the NBA began its 2003-04 season... with grade-A, 100 score by Whine Magazine, vintage whining from the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
On ESPN, Bryant — after head coach Phil "Guru" Jackson told the team to shut up to the press about this — called O'Neal "childlike," "unprofessional," "selfish," "fat" and "jealous." He also took the 7-foot-2 bohemeth to task for overplaying his sore toe and coming into training camp overweight and out of shape.
Ah man... Please, do yourself a favor and shup the hell up. You're dragging other people into this...
Like NBA Commissioner David Stern: “My thought is to say ‘Kids, cut it out.’ It’s a guy thing. You say this, I say that. You say that, I say this and here we go,” commissioner Stern told AP reporters in San Antonio. “Someone has to stop it, because at bottom it distracts us from our league and the teams.”
See... You're making other people say stupid shit, too. This is from a commissioner whose league has been overrun by teen-age basketball players who have little to no fundamental skills on the court, have driven down the quality of play and has turned the image of the league into the quinnesential "Me, me, me league."
Why are you doing this? Are you trying to distract everyone from your problems? Is this a cry for help? A cry for attention?
Kobe, you need to put your house in order. You have a career in front of you if you are able to successfully defend yourself from a rape charge that could send you to prison for life; away from your beautiful wife, your beautiful little girl, your beautiful life that some of us would die for.
You don't need this. We don't need this. And most definitely, your teammates don't need this.