Simmons continues his attempt to redeem himself

[plasmaPG]

Maybe it's different for me.  I live in California.  I spent 4 years in Santa Barbara, a breeding ground for LA kids looking to get out of LA. 

These are not brought on with the intention of forcing "hey look at what Kobe did" to Laker fans.  It is a retaliatory response to the numerous times over the years I've heard people question how anyone could not like Kobe.  It is for these reasons that I don't like him, yes, him being a Laker helps, but above all else it's my frustration that someone so talented could hurt his team so much.  Laker fans say "yeah, 3 straight titles, he sure did hurt us!" to which I say, "Why not 5 straight?  6? 7?"

Yeah, maybe I didn't need to post it.  But I know a lot of people on here don't like the guy and maybe had an opinion on these passages from Phil's book.

Well, you can always like "nice" guys like Nash who will never win one ring for you.  Come people, you don't personally know Kobe and he has not personally done anything to harm you!  As a Lakers fan, I really don't care what kind of person he is to his friends, his family, etc that is his personal business.  All I care about is what he does on the court for the team.

I really don't understand fans that take a personal stake into a person who they will never meet and that the person does not give a [dang] who you are.  Just take it for what it is, he is a basketball player getting paid to entertain you.  What did Barkley say a while back, "I am not a role model"

Do Boston fans really think that Garnett gives a [dang] about Joe Celtic who pays $200 for the seat? 

[cuckroller]

I am always rather taken aback by these types of postings.  Apparently, we are being called to (and I speak as a Laker fan) to recognise Kobe Bryant's total immoral depravity, galvanize all the Laker fans and march through the streets while rioting, and demand that he go to the gallows!

Is it really so important our approval and understanding of the reasons of all the myriad Kobe Bryant detractors?  

Personally, I have never defended the many mistakes that Kobe Bryant has made in his life, nor his not particularly supportable arrogance.

However, with all this, if somebody ask me if I would be happy to see Kobe Bryant traded to the Boston Celtics, or another team, or immediately retire to placate everybody so apparently consumed in their every day lives by thoughts surrounding Kobe Bryant, then I just don't get it.

I do not feel like prostrating myself for the pleasure of fans of other teams that wish that Kobe Bryant was not a player in this League.  This expectation by others I find smacks of a morbose need of auto-affermation.

I am sure that if Kobe Bryant played for the Boston Celtics, or if he was a total non-impact player never getting off the bench, that we would not constantly have to contemplate this stuff.  If people need to denigrate someone else to justify that they so obviously harbor hate in their hearts toward someone, then that is their problem.  

I'm now headed to dictionary.com to learn what the definitions for depravity, galvanize, prostrating, morbose, auto-affermation, and denigrate are.  

and cuckroller...while I'm there you might want to check out this paper by Princeton professor Daniel Oppenheimer: "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long words Needlessly"   It might shed some light onto the irony of your efforts.

Thanks Blake.  I am sure that you are saying it for my own good.  I will try and dumb it down.  It has been about 30 years since I have spoken English, and I am afraid that I have lost my slanginess (if such a words exists), and that my written speech is stilted and strange.

[Mr October]

Maybe it's different for me.  I live in California.  I spent 4 years in Santa Barbara, a breeding ground for LA kids looking to get out of LA. 

These are not brought on with the intention of forcing "hey look at what Kobe did" to Laker fans.  It is a retaliatory response to the numerous times over the years I've heard people question how anyone could not like Kobe.  It is for these reasons that I don't like him, yes, him being a Laker helps, but above all else it's my frustration that someone so talented could hurt his team so much.  Laker fans say "yeah, 3 straight titles, he sure did hurt us!" to which I say, "Why not 5 straight?  6? 7?"

Yeah, maybe I didn't need to post it.  But I know a lot of people on here don't like the guy and maybe had an opinion on these passages from Phil's book.

Well, you can always like "nice" guys like Nash who will never win one ring for you.  Come people, you don't personally know Kobe and he has not personally done anything to harm you!  As a Lakers fan, I really don't care what kind of person he is to his friends, his family, etc that is his personal business.  All I care about is what he does on the court for the team.

I really don't understand fans that take a personal stake into a person who they will never meet and that the person does not give a [dang] who you are.  Just take it for what it is, he is a basketball player getting paid to entertain you.  What did Barkley say a while back, "I am not a role model"

Do Boston fans really think that Garnett gives a [dang] about Joe Celtic who pays $200 for the seat? 

They don't have to be nice guys. If they are jerks I just want them to be strong in their convictions - like Barkley. He doesn't pretend to be anything else. Kobe is always playing a "nice guy" role badly.

If you want to play the athlete-as-only-entertainment-card, what about Mike Vick? Would you cheer for him? Or to go even more extreme, if an athlete killed a dozen children, would you still cheer for him in a game? Hey he didn't kill your or my children?

My point is that as a fan, you want to be able to admire, or relate, to an althlete/artist/etc. You want some kind of connection. We're not just here to cheer for soulless robots on the court.

[bbc3341]

If BS is on here, I'm sure he would be one of the more frequent posters.

Bob or Jeff, could you disregard your morals and tell us who the top 3 posters are from the LA area?

Thanks,
B

Well, though I stand accused of being him or his publisher, I'm not Simmons. I'm a transplant from Massachusetts living and posting form Southern Utah about 90 minutes from Las Vegas... I just happen to be a fan of his.

[plasmaPG]

They don't have to be nice guys. If they are jerks I just want them to be strong in their convictions - like Barkley. He doesn't pretend to be anything else. Kobe is always playing a "nice guy" role badly.

If you want to play the athlete-as-only-entertainment-card, what about Mike Vick? Would you cheer for him? Or to go even more extreme, if an athlete killed a dozen children, would you still cheer for him in a game? Hey he didn't kill your or my children?

My point is that as a fan, you want to be able to admire, or relate, to an althlete/artist/etc. You want some kind of connection. We're not just here to cheer for soulless robots on the court.

No, I wouldn't root for Vick because he is actually guilty.  Kobe was never convicted of any crime and we will never know what happen in the hotel room.  I don't believe he comes off as a saint, I see him as an incredibility, competitive and gifted basketball player.

[RebusRankin]

Kudos to BS for the article.

[ma11l]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080605


I was actually planning on reading this book in the days leading up to the series, however there has just been so much going on and I couldn't find the time.  The quotes are hilarious, these two genuinely hated each other.  The media is glorifying Kobe (the turnaround has been good and can be completed with another ring), but let's not forget that this man was THE WORST TEAMMATE IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS for a few years. 

Leave it to the old sarcastic Sports Guy to bring this up on the day of the Finals.  Also he sucked up to us angry Boston fans by picking the Celts in 7.  I'm still not as big a fan as I used to be, but this article helps.

The worst teammate in the history of sports???  Are you serious?  THAT IS THE DUMBEST COMMENT IN THE HISTORY OF BLOGS.  I know we all use terms like "this is the best soup I have ever had" and things like that, but come on.  Do a little research.  Try searching for Michael Jordan quotes about his teammates.  Much, much worse than anything Kobe ever said.  Seriously, look it up.  I bet you would be shocked.  Even Phil Jackson has gone on record to say that Michael was a horrible teammate.  Actually I will do the work for you.  And yes I ripped this off from someone else's post.

Jordan quotes:

"I hate being out there with those garbagemen. They don't get you the ball."

"They've got no idea what it's all about. The white guys, they work hard, but they don't have the talent. And the rest of them? Who knows what to expect? They're not good for much of anything."

"I know what's gonna happen. We'll wait until the last minute and then they'll say something like they couldn't get a deal done because of the cap or somebody pulled out at the last minute. It happens here all the time. I don't know why I'm surprised every year."

"He can't do anything with the ball. Don't give it to him." - Michael yelling at Paxson who passed the ball to Perdue

"You ever hear of a guy, six-eleven maybe and two hundred sixty pounds, a guy big and fat like that and he can't get but two rebounds, if that many, running all over the [dang] court and he gets two rebounds? Big guy like that and he gets one rebound. Can't even stick his [expletive] into people and get more than that...Big, fat, fat guy. One rebound in three games. Power forward. Maybe they should call it powerless forward." - Michael ripping Stacey King a new one

"He was scared in there and panicking. He just lost it when Stockton scored." - Michael on B.J. Armstrong's mental fragility

I'll let them stand up and take responsibility for themselves."

"We have to do some things. We need to make some changes."

"...I call them 'the Looney Tunes.' Physically, they were the best. Mentally, they weren't even close."

"He's scared. He's got no heart...Nobody told me that. If I had spoken up, he wouldn't have been here."

"I know I can recognize what to do, but I'm not sure they can."

"It's a hell of a lot easier to make Earl Monroe look good than it is Brad Sellers."

"I hope there's a jumpshot in there." - Michael to Stacey King who was walking into the locker room with a box

"They don't need a ticket to watch you sitting on the bench. They can go to your house for that." - Michael to Charles Davis who was sorting through his tickets for his family and friends

"Give me the [expletive] ball." - Michael to Doug Collins who drew up a play for Dave Corzine

"I hate when I have to read that in the papers the next day, that I couldn't do something. It wasn't my fault."

"You're an idiot. You've screwed up every play we ever ran. You're too stupid to even remember the plays. We ought to get rid of you." - Michael to Horace Grant

"If you [pass the ball to Bill Cartwright], you'll never get the ball from me."

"We're not winning because of talent. We're just beating bad teams."

"Headache tonight, Scottie?" - Michael asks Scottie, while showing him his 2-for-16 line

"It's probably a twelve-day. He needs two days to wake up." - Michael on a ten-day contract teammate

"Five more years and I'm out of here. I'm marking these days on a calendar, like I'm in jail. I'm tired of being used by this organization, by the league, by the writers, by everyone."

"They're not interested in winning. They just want to sell tickets, which they can do because of me. They won't make any deals to make us better. And this Kukoc thing. I hate that. They're spending all their time chasing this guy."

"If I were a general manager, we'd be a better team."

"Will Vanderbilt. He doesn't deserve to be named after a Big Ten school." - Michael on Will Perdue

"I want to prove the critics wrong...I want to see some serious moves from management, which I really haven't seen that much of yet, and I want to see more serious attitudes from my teammates this year when it comes to the playoffs. In the past, it's been more or less a joking thing, sort of a 'Well, we're here, so let's have a good time.'"

"I'm sure everything will be fine if we win, but if we start losing, I'm shooting."

"I know what I would do if I were coach. I'd determine our strengths and weaknesses and utilize them. And it's pretty clear what our strength is."

"Your boy doesn't want to play. I'm tired of bailing his [Swearing is not permitted at **********. You must edit this post prior to submitting.] out." - Michael yelling at Jim Cleamons about Dennis Hopson

"I don't know about trading a 24 year-old guy for a 34 year-old guy." - Michael questioning the Oakley trade

"He's causing me too many turnovers." - Michael on Cartwright's inability to catch

"Why the hell don't you ever set a pick like that in a game?" - Michael yelling at Perdue after also hitting Perdue upside his head (led to the institution of the private curtain for practices)


Kobe asked to be traded because Laker management had not fulfilled their end of the bargain to go out and make a trade to bring in another superstar.  He did not call out anyone in particular.  As far as the parking lot video of Kobe, he did not know he was being filmed (allegedly) and only said he thought they should trade Bynum for Jason Kidd.  I don't think that sounds unreasonable.  I wonder what we would hear if we filmed your private discussions.

A.) Yes, it was hyperbole.  Would you feel better if I said he was just a really, really, really bad teammate?  I think there's enough quotes in that book to account as sufficient "research".

B.) Why does every Kobe discussion lead to comparisons to MJ?  He's not MJ, never has been, never will be.  Just stop comparing the two please.