![]() 26, 2016 – ironically four years to the day that Kobe died in a tragic helicopter crash.įour years ago today was going to be the last time Kobe played against Mavs superstar Dirk Nowitzki. And I remember looking at the Dallas Mavericks’ schedule and seeing that their final game against Kobe and the Los Angeles Lakers was on Jan. I remember when Kobe had already announced that the 2015-’16 season was going to be his last season. He was basketball royalty and a pleasure to interview. In my numerous interactions with Kobe during his 20-year NBA career, he was always gracious, always polite, always thought-provoking. They look at us as if we are an enemy of some sort. After all, these stories are about games and petty egoism, not kids taken from their mother.S ome pro athletes – and they know who they are – despise the media. A lot of athletes might loosen up, laughing at themselves more. Either way, they should expect an ever-shrinking zone of privacy and fewer rewards from spin control. They soon might learn to be more guarded or to accept life as glibly outrageous characters, 21st century Joe Namaths or Muhammad Alis. They've spent too much time in L.A., surrounded by the paparazzi culture and its leading prey. Still, he and O'Neal are the last athletes who can pass themselves off as unsuspecting rubes. ![]() He appeared not to know that he was doing a star turn for amateur videographers. Bryant got some sympathy last year, when he indiscreetly and obscenely ripped teammate Andrew Bynum and Lakers management in a recorded conversation at a shopping-center parking lot. He willingly took the mic at that club, so he can't claim that anyone took advantage of him. So a lot of boundaries have fallen, and O'Neal just hip-checked a big one into oblivion. Their remarks to the mainstream media are barely half-believable - a reason that so many consumers, for better or worse, seek online alternatives. ![]() For all we see of pro athletes, especially the helmet-free NBA players, we don't hear all that much from them that hasn't been processed through some version of the IMG Cuisinart. But you have to wonder how much the freestyle rap resembled trash talk on the court. But when he was comfortable and playful and away from the NBA's officially sanctioned forums, O'Neal reached an entirely different point and did it like a laser. And when O'Neal thinks carefully about it, he might believe that a thaw between the two of them would be the right thing. O'Neal might have been largely sincere when he insisted recently that Bryant should be the MVP this season. Is this a great revelation? No, but it's an antidote to the pretense that he has set aside all ill will toward Bryant. What are the chances that their names occurred to Shaq on the spur of the moment, and not because he routinely places himself above them in the pantheon of NBA centers? O'Neal tried to say later that he was merely joking, but who's going to believe he didn't mean most of what he sang, or that he hasn't said the same things among friends? Ewing and Abdul-Jabbar have been retired for six and 19 years, respectively. It was about his feud with Bryant, and his sense of his own place in NBA history. It wasn't strictly about Shaq's personal life (the divorce and a vasectomy reference notwithstanding). Shaq's little ditty, however, hit a bull's eye. Poor Young actually thought he had to explain himself, and half-apologized for sending the wrong message to fans.īut everyone knew that the photos were great dish, and nothing more. There were a few attempts to whip up theories about these young quarterbacks straying from their football missions, as if they should have been studying their playbooks like monks every second of the offseason. Who knew?Īside from speculation that the women with Smith and Leinart were underage drinkers, there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Wow, men in their early 20s get a little wild and raunchy in their free time. Someone who looks exactly like Alex Smith licking a girl's ear, or possibly just the side of her face. Up until now, most of the celeb-stalking they had to endure didn't qualify as genuine news. Other professional athletes should be livid with Shaq. ![]() It was tasteless celebrity journalism, raw, uncouth and spectacularly candid. He insulted Kobe Bryant's performance in the NBA Finals, half-blamed his ex-teammate for his impending divorce, and took jabs at Patrick Ewing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. At a New York nightclub this week, Shaquille O'Neal delivered profanely narcissistic commentary as freestyle rap. ![]()
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