Bryant to crash hard when summer's over
If the Warriors see the Los Angeles Lakers as a threat to their postseason plans - and there's no reason to believe otherwise - they have to be loving Kobe Bryant's presence on the U.S. national team, currently steamrolling through the competition at the FIBA Americas tournament in Las Vegas.
Once this thing is over, Kobe Bryant returns to his worst nightmare: playing on a team that did nothing to appease his summertime malaise. While the Warriors assemble another dangerous, exciting product (this is assuming Don Nelson ends his absurd holdout), the Los Angeles Lakers will be stuck with a moody superstar who wants out.
This is Kobe's season, right now, against the Venezuelas and Brazils of the world. He's playing with Jason Kidd, a career-long dream. He's flying down the court with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, and even with all that talent surrounding him, he's still the man. Those on the scene say Kobe Bryant's dominance has been evident from the first day of U.S. training camp. He's the best shooter, the best defender, even the hardest worker. He's living a dream.
Imagine Kobe Bryant's disgust when he returns to the Los Angeles Lakers and sees Andrew Bynum resuming his tedious struggle toward respectability. No Kidd, no Kevin Garnett, no Jermaine O'Neal, just the same sorry cast of characters. Back in February, when the Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to trade for Kidd, general manager Mitch Kupchak balked because he wouldn't give up Andrew Bynum. It's entirely possible that Andrew Bynum, still just 19, will blossom into an elite center. He certainly has the body and the tools. It's just that "projects" usually don't work out so well in the NBA. If you can play in that league, chances are you proved it within weeks, not years.
In what became a widely circulated home video, Kobe Bryant tore into the Los Angeles Lakers, especially Andrew Bynum and Kupchak, when he was "interviewed" by a couple of strangers in a parking lot. It was true-feelings time for Kobe Bryant, all you needed to know. He's trying to soften the issue now, which is smart, for the U.S. team doesn't need any Laker-related distractions. But when ESPN's Rachel Nichols asked Kobe Bryant about his wildly contradictory remarks about demanding a trade, he said people had "misinterpreted" all that.
Not really. They understood it perfectly. Without a new superstar on the scene, Kobe Bryant will want out, badly, to the point where he might not even show up to the Los Angeles Lakers' fall camp. He'd better enjoy the Americas tournament while he can.
Where no light shines
None of the Michael Vick speculation will gain clarity until we see what kind of man emerges from his incarceration/NFL suspension, quite possibly banishing him for three seasons. Just a couple of troubling thoughts: (1) Far too many athletes have rallied to Vick's defense, suggesting that a life in dogfighting is no big deal and that many more NFL players are involved; (2) When you consider the high-stakes gambling angle, you might be able to understand someone taking the plunge into that dark, sinister world. People will bet on anything, and if they're thrilled by an association with violence and crime, this is a prime-time venue. But in the name of God, who kills the animals if they don't measure up? Who delights in especially cruel methods of execution? If that was part of Vick's involvement, they should send him up for 15 years ... Petty as it sounds, the Tiki Barber-Eli Manning feud has its benefits. Manning wasn't much of a leader last year, and Barber - choosing halftime of a Giants exhibition game on NBC - brought it to light. Teammates have rallied to Manning's defense, which can only help matters with a new season at hand. And somebody needed to bust Barber for making a midseason, public display of his intention to retire last year. He didn't lose heart - Manning was dead wrong on that count - but he created a distraction that was particularly damaging on that fractured team ... It was remarkable to see the Venezuelan hitters shut down by Curacao at the Little League World Series (that's the beauty of a curveball), but did you catch the form on some of those kids? Some of the tightest, quickest, most wicked swings you'll see at any age. Looked like a lineup full of Carlos Beltrans.
It's going to be a rough first week of the U.S. Open tennis tournament for Nikolay Davydenko, the Russian player suspected of throwing an Aug. 2 match against the obscure Martin Vassallo Arguello. Davydenko has danced around the issue in recent interviews, never issuing a strict denial, and the New York press isn't likely to be kind. There was far too much Internet betting on Davydenko to lose that match, even after he won the first set (he eventually retired in the third with an injury), and Davydenko, rightly or wrongly, is going to be grilled about a possible association with the Russian mob ... The Open marks the perfect venue for the Williams sisters to complete a remarkable year. Serena won the Australian and Venus won Wimbledon; they could wind up with three of the four Slams despite missing enormous chunks of the year with injuries ... People still question Serena's fitness, including Martina Navratilova, who said after Wimbledon, "I don't see the muscle tone in her quads I saw 4-5 years ago, and that may have contributed (to her disabling calf injury against Daniela Hantuchova). If the quads aren't there, the calves have to pick up the slack, and she's paying the price. She's a bit lead-footed. Once she gets the legs back, she's going to be very tough on everybody else." ... I love Serena's response to all this. In defiance of the critics, she has worked hard and lost a significant amount of weight. "I'm definitely in better shape than I get credit for," she says. "It's just because I have large bosoms and a big ass. I think if I were to not eat for two years, I still wouldn't be a size two, because I'm all woman, baby. I have hips, curves, butt and boobs, and that's just the way I'm built. I'm bootylicious."
[More at http://sfgate.com] |
