From the “Any publicity is good publicity” files, Kobe Bryant‘s 2010 — marked by his fifth NBA championship and second Finals MVP — took a passenger’s seat to the year of LeBron James, who became the game’s primary headliner thanks to his combination of success (league MVP) and controversy (“The Decision”).

To kick off 2011, Kobe is back in the controversy business. In the L.A. Lakers’ first game of the new year, the two-time defending champs were routed at home by the Memphis Grizzlies. After the loss, in which Kobe (28 pts, 2 asts) took 22 field goals while no teammate took more than nine, coach Phil Jackson put his superstar on blast: Read More »

If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t get the invite to LeBron‘s 26th birthday party last Thursday night either. You know, the private dinner at STK in Miami followed by a late-night party at Coco Deville next door. But I know what you’re thinking: What kind of cake did ‘Bron, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union, Spike Lee and Drake, amongst others, get to chow down on… Read More »

Despite all the “young talent” in Sacramento, the Kings are headed back to the Lottery this June. So what do you do as a franchise when you’re sitting at 7-24 a third of the way through the season? You start to plan for the future. And apparently part of that plan may involve moving Omri Casspi to either Chicago or New York. Read More »

You can’t handle The Truth…

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The last time the Grizzlies played the Lakers at the Staples Center, Rudy Gay quietly tortured Ron Artest while the rest of his team was dominated in every phase of the game. Last night, Rudy dropped buckets on Ron-Ron again, but his teammates backed him up while handing L.A. an embarrassing 19-point blowout loss where the home team got booed … After missing his last game with a stomach flu, Gay (27 pts, 3 stls) was making the Lakers sick on Sunday. He gave ‘em the full repertoire of inside, mid-range and outside shots, then punctuated it in the fourth quarter with transition dunks that hurt the rim. Read More »

Winning really does fix everything. Similar to how the early-season needling of LeBron and Chris Bosh has been all but muted since the Miami Heat started cracking off W’s like Popeye’s makes biscuits, we’re also hearing nowhere near as much noise about Pat Riley coming in to save Erik Spoelstra from himself on the Miami bench. Last night’s Heat/Warriors game was another vote of confidence for Spoelstra, who watched his team sleep-walk through the first half, then got them to strap up defensively and pull off a comeback win in the second half … Read More »

Considering the game was played on New Year’s Eve, Celtics/Hornets was the right matchup scheduled in the wrong city. We’re pretty sure every player involved would rather have spent the night partying in New Orleans instead of Boston — or on a plane headed to another road city … The injury-depleted Celtics rolled out a starting five of Nate Robinson, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Big Baby and Shaq, with Jermaine O’Neal as the sixth man and Luke Harangody getting significant minutes off the bench. They hung in there with the healthy Hornets and were actually leading by seven midway through the fourth quarter before Marco Belinelli sparked an 11-2 run to give N.O. the lead. Read More »