At All-Star Thursday’s Alonzo Mourning/Magic Johnson 8-Ball Challenge, Charles Oakley confessed that he’s hoping to set up a made-for-TV reality toughness competition among 10 pro athletes.

“He said he wants to do a reality show that would feature 10 current and former athletes vying to prove their toughness, with the winner getting a fight with Mike Tyson,” writes J.A. Adande. “Like you wouldn’t watch Oakley do that.”

Who from the League would make the final cut? Rodman would come out of the wood works for this. If Karl Malone appeared in the WWF ring shortly after retirement, what would stop him from getting a shot at Tyson? Bill Laimbeer is far too old and fat, not to say anything of his preoccupation with the WNBA.

But you couldn’t include the toughest player in the League today in Oak’s world. Sam Cassell told us that the enforcer who used to play a vital role on NBA teams when he first started in ‘93 doesn’t exist today.

Without the Xavier McDaniel’s around anymore, you’ve got to think that Kobe is one of the toughest players in the League. Yes he did get jacked by Chris Childs once upon a time, but that was a young Kobe. The older more mature Kobe still isn’t a fighter, but he’s the toughest breed of competitor. He won’t let anything, even if it’s the threat of persistent dislocations get in his way.

Bryant quietly told the media that he wouldn’t be having surgery on the torn ligament in his shooting-hand pinky finger. He also has an “avulsion fracture” in that finger, where a small piece of the bone is pulled off by a tendon.

“I’m going to go all the way with it,” Bryant said. “If it dislocates again, we’ll have to rest it, ice it, do whatever we need to do. But that’s my plan”