He's the new leader in blogged shots on Bryant
TJ Simers
February 15, 2007
SO I go to the New York Post website and I just love the headline "BALLHOG BRYANT," and then a smaller one below that, across the top of Peter Vecsey's Tuesday column, "KOBE LEADS NBA IN SELFISHNESS."
If it means going all the way to New York to find someone who doesn't mind picking on Kobe, I've got no problem with that, and this is the great NBA insider, the former TBS and NBC analyst on the NBA, who is so well-connected and obviously not buying the happy face that everyone is putting on Kobe's game this season.
ADVERTISEMENTI wanted to savor every word of the Vecsey column, which began: "February 13, 2007 — Eddie Jordan could have been accused Sunday of plagiarizing Phil Jackson's words and simply applying them to his own pin-up player except that the Zen Hen had swallowed them."
I've got to remember that one: Zen Hen. It's got a nice ring to it, although plagiarizing seems a little harsh, but then Vecsey is known for being tough on people.
Once into the column, I got to the meat of it, where Vecsey really started to go after Kobe as only he could.
"Exempting Bryant, no Laker apparently understands how to play the game — when it's on national TV, anyway. Every time they're showcased, and the floodlights are directed at him, I could swear, Kobe makes sure two or three times minimum to lecture someone on the team (usually Smush, his favorite whipping boy, I'm told) as if he's the coach — almost always on the offensive end."
I'm not surprised someone might quote Vecsey as NBA gospel, so I wasn't surprised that it sounded like something I had already read. As you might imagine, if Kobe is being trashed somewhere, I'm not going to miss it.
I did some research, and sure enough, Alan Elliott, a Lakers fan with a blog who is pushing to get Kobe traded (and you think I've lost it), had written almost the same thing word for word, but two days before Vecsey.
"And every time there is any nationally televised game," Elliott wrote, "Kobe makes a point of making sure that at least three or so times during the game he is seen lecturing someone on the team as if he is a coach ... but usually it is almost always on the offensive end."
I returned to Vecsey's column: "More and more often [Jackson's] targeting the team, player by player, in the press, with one notable exception. More and more he and [Lamar Odom] are speaking out about the team's delinquent defense, noticeably never taking the name of Bryant in vain."
Elliott, meanwhile had written: "... Phil is calling the team out in the press more and more (with one notable exception) ... Phil and Lamar say it after almost every game (without saying who's responsible)."
I could see where this was going — it's now gotten to the point where great minds think alike when it comes to Kobe's selfish play and his inability to play defense. I wouldn't be surprised to hear an anti-Kobe club is forming — now that it's become so obvious to everyone they are almost repeating themselves when discussing his faults.
I read some more of Vecsey, who then quoted an unnamed "Laker fanatic" really ripping into Kobe — surprised the source would be unnamed because it appeared he was quoting Elliott, and directly from Elliott's blog.
Elliott on occasion will use courtside talent agency seats that place him only a few feet away from Jackson, so if not identifying him by name, I would've thought Vecsey would have referred to him "as a well-placed source."
There's no question now the great NBA insider is connected, his reach extending all the way to a fan sitting in the front row on occasion at Lakers games thousands of miles away from New York — apparently so loaded with NBA know-how, he might as well be writing Vecsey's columns for him.
"I've never seen his blog," Vecsey said, "but we talk, we e-mail and obviously I believe most of what he says."
Elliott said he e-mailed a letter to Vecsey on Sunday night, as well as to Jim and Jeanie Buss, and Mike Bresnahan, The Times' Lakers beat writer — pointing out everything that is wrong with Kobe's play on the court these days. The letter read very much like the fan's blog and Elliott told Vecsey to use whatever he wanted in the newspaper, and obviously Vecsey did.
That got me thinking. That makes Page 2 as NBA-connected as Vecsey on most days, and maybe even more so given the number of fans out there with strange ideas who e-mail telling me what I should write in the paper. I don't listen to them, of course, because these people live among you, and you know what that means.
Vecsey, though, seems to be using them like *********** these days, which makes me wonder just how informed the NBA insider and former TV analyst is when it comes to formulating and delivering such a strident opinion about Kobe Bryant.
I'll tell you this, it just took all the joy out of the Ballhog headline — knowing a fan with a blog was behind it with the ridiculous intention of trying to get Kobe traded.
Why would anyone trade one of the best players, or arguably the best player, in the game? Sure, make him play consistently from start to finish every game, which means scoring and entertaining everyone, or make him stop being so politically correct every time he opens his mouth, but trade him? It's an outrage, if not just downright absurd.
Here I am, and slap me, please — but I find myself now beginning to defend Kobe and my anticipation of watching him play and entertain here for as long as possible. Why would anyone take seriously a silly fan-driven attack under the guise of expert commentary?
Me, defending Kobe Bryant!
