Monday, June 18

In The Middle of Kobe Bryant's Life and Death

In one of the greatest achievements of my young life as a tadpole; I am proud to say that I have single-handedly turned Robert Horry, one of the world's most hated man three weeks ago, into the world's most beloved man overnight with much appreciation to all the basketball junkies and gods. In an attempt to overcome my past hurdle, I have decided to take upon yet a more supreme individual wreaking of hatred and despair: drama-personified that is Kobe Bryant.

For once, he will not be undermined; for the fact is inevitable to catch up on everyone that every little thing Kobe Bryant has done on the basketball court has been nothing short of amazing. True enough, Bryant is the most beloved basketball player of the regular season; however, come off-season with Bryant and the Lakers facing one loss to elimination, everyone braces themselves for one of the rockiest moments of their lives as Laker-fans or Laker-watchers alike. From the most beloved player in the regular season, to a living and breathing lawn-mower once the final buzzer signaling Laker-post-season disappointment lights up. This year's off-season in particular has been extremely busy for Kobe Bryant as it seems that he has reached the extremely swollen satiation point for patience and composure that a superstar like Kobe Bryant tries to maintain after seeing his extremely-underachieving team trip on a rock and hit its face on the concrete year after year. As if the season has not been turbulent enough for him, Kobe Bryant's past seems to be catching up to him and will definitely add more tension to the string-thick patience of Bryant. The world only hopes that he will not spontaneously com bust in little tiny bits of what could have been the most unstoppable scorer in the history of the game.

It all started when as expected, the final buzzer signaling another disappointing post-season for Kobe Bryant went off, and the Lakers walked off the court getting ready for one big indoor hurricane. Kobe Bryant was calm and collected for the moment, stating that changes need to be made; a traditional phrase by Kobe Bryant in the summer of every year, a tradition that means nothing to the Lakers front-office, just a repetitive habit committed by any normal person like drinking directly from the milk box or a woman forgetting to put the toilet seat up after urinating. Kobe Bryant's words fell on deaf ears once more; this year however, was finally going to be different. Bryant's rapidly diminishing patience finally found its perfect complement, the catalyst to make him go over the edge and burst in outrage: the knowledge of the rebuilding plan. Kobe Bryant stormed through the media and blasted the Lakers front-office. Giving in to his rage and losing the ability to think prompted him to demand a trade; and after a few given days to re-capture his lost composure, he withdrew his demand and once again requested for changes to be done. Trade rumors and prospects circulated for some time around the Laker-team that was desperate to give in to the request of its leading man. No one not named "Kobe" was safe. After a few days, the issue had died down and became forgotten once more. A tradition, a repetitive habit, forgotten by the Lakers front-office. Everything was quiet and serene once more, until this week.

Three major controversies arose, too much even for any Hollywood-buff to stomach if one were to try and keep up with Kobe Bryant. Once more, Kobe Bryant has revealed that he indeed has interests to be moved. He laid quiet for a few weeks, but the desire and the anger was still present, living quietly beneath his heart. What prompted him to finally come out once more? It can not be said for sure, but these two other issues have risen side-by-side with Kobe Bryant on his palladium. On his left side, Patrick Graber, the ex-bodyguard of Kobe Bryant, has announced a few days ago of an up-coming book telling all about Kobe Bryant and his past rape case. The small hints of organized crime suddenly seeped its way out, as frame-jobs and assassination suddenly came into context with Kobe Bryant's name along with his possibly-revived long-lost identity as a 'rapist'. What this holds for Bryant's legal future is still in limbo, but one thing is for sure and that is it is not going to be any pretty. On his right side, is the infamous 'Kobe Video'. The video has yet to be released to public, but the most popular teaser of all lies in Kobe's words regarding teammate Andrew Bynum: "F**king ship his ass out!" Harsh words by a team leader about his teenage teammate that will definitely, in all certainty, cause backstage chaos in the locker rooms.

The only things certain in the past were death, taxes, and coke. On this very moment, Kobe Bryant campaigns to catapult his championship-desires into that wagon. What these things lead to for Kobe Bryant in the future is unknown, but the turmoil is just getting warmed up. Once the Lakers' front-office once again suddenly disappears in the middle of any course of action, and both the lethal-injection and the guillotine to Kobe Bryant's popularity as a player and role-model are finally released; blood will spill.

Sunday, June 17

Throw Down: Reel #2

10 days and counting until the greatest, on the positive note, thing to happen for the Portland Trailblazers in over a decade, and Kevin Pritchard says that he still doesn't know; and the world probably has its share of cheers and tips for Blazer's General Manager. The fact of the matter is, Kevin Pritchard has already made up his mind. They say patience is a virtue; but in truth, silence is the greatest virtue of all if ever a single soul even considers it as one. In the LeBron James lottery, there wasn't a single Cavalier front-office personnel that actually announced a month beforehand that it was a hundred percent LeBron James all the way. They just smiled with devilish grins as they held the #1 draft pick in their hands, knowing that they had indeed won the lottery of the decade. They tried to be subtle by throwing the words "we'll see," every too often, but the world knew it was James right then and there with no regards to the emergence of Carmelo Anthony in the NCAA tournament. The situation presents itself once again this year, but to a new black, red, and white team; and although the world isn't so sure this time as to who the Blazers will draft, it is evident that Kevin Pritchard was assured of himself one-month beforehand.

Throw Down: Reel #2

Who's #1? The dude "still doesn't know", we'll have to wait until draft day for that [OregonLive]

What a waste of a good year, for Sharapova; not the case for Jelena Jankovic! [Yahoo! Sports]

99.9% of the world's population must remember one of these classic video games [100% Injury Rate]

Drag racing charity-even goes horribly wrong, with at least 7 casualties [PR-Inside]

An F.U. to sports-commentator and 'analyst', Doug Collins [The Sports Hernia]

Jeff Burton and Tony Strewart serves as fatherly examples, happy Father's Day [The Black Flag]

Hamilton Predators sell 7,200 season tickets; that many people still watch hockey? [Blind Sight is 20/20]

Shamrock v. Baroni conference call quotes. It's either hilarious or offending; bring back Ken Shamrock! [East Side Boxing]

Chris Cooley has to cover himself up before men start dressing like that [AOL Journals]

Like Schumacher's era, Tiger Woods' is in a dire strait right now. [Yahoo! Sports]

Show credits.

Greg Oden: Hormones of a Monkey

I know it. You know it. The nation knows it. The whole world damn well knows it.

Greg Oden recently came from an Indiana Fever game when the Fever girls went up against Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury, and lost, sadly; but as luck seems faint for all basketball fanatics, Greg Oden bounces in and rewards avid-readers with a blog post that may send Gilbert Arenas a run for his money as Greg Oden may be the new force in the NBA Blogging world once he steps his gigantic feet into the league next season. To save everyone from the agony of reading the articulatory skills of a high school basketball phenomenon who had a sure short in the world's most professional (and high-paying) league ever since he was in his 5-feet-wide diapers, here are all the highlights from his recent blog post:

"The game was exciting but it got 10 x's better when Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi got very aggressive with each other. I got really into the game then. Those two are very good."

"I got the chance to meet the Seattle Storm and couple of the Fever girls a couple of nights ago. They were all cool as heck, it was my pleasure to be in the same room and just converse with those ladies"

"Ron Artest was also there with his wife and i got to say hi to him, he is a nice guy."

Really Greg, the world loves you. It's no shocker that Greg Oden loves the ladies and he's not shy of screaming it out to the rest of the world, but the whole bit about Ron Artest is kind of a bit off. Oh fine, maybe he really is a nice guy, once his estrogen levels stabilizes and everyone forgets of the term 'domestic violence' and completely accepts the culture related to it. Aside from single-handedly sabotaging a championship-contending franchise a decade in the making; well, I guess Ron Artest is a nice guy, I think. Putting that aside, Greg Oden is a barrel of laughs. Expect more of this once he finally lives in the fast-lane this coming NBA season, heads up everybody. Like I said, Greg Oden has the hormones of a monkey.

If anyone decides to bear with Greg Oden, his short yet official blog post may be seen here.