Kobe is just mad that he now has to lay in the bed he made and it hurts. Of course, being the infallible egomaniac that he is, in his mind, it's Dwight 's fault. Lakers basketball is dead for a while. Note to Kobe: if you really wanted to be Jordan, you would have retired after your last Championship while you were on top. You are now going to spend the last 3 years of your career on a noncompetitive garbage team.
Is it just me or does anyone else see Kobe possibly turning into an OJ after he retires. Something about this dude just strikes me as Freakin ' nuts!
Wondering how they were able to call a foul on Kobe after reviewing the tape. Are refs allowed to award fouls that were not called during play after reviewing tape? I have never seen that happen before, and I doubt the NBA wants to make this a habit.
One of the things I learned in High School Basketball from one of the best coaches of the game (R. Courtney, took Willowridge to State Champs, turned TSU around, etc.), was that when a big man has the ball up high, you don't try to slap it away, you wait until he brings it down and poke it out when he's not looking. I only played freshman and JV ball, not varsity, but I'm sure I would have fouls called on me so many times had he not told me this. I got lots of steals after that. Mind you, Kobe is a taller than average player and is fast, but when Dwight had the ball up high Kobe didn't have any business trying to slap it away. He probably DOES get the ball from weaker centers if he tries this, so he might be used to doing this. Don't know why a foul wasn't called much more earlier than when the elbows were thrown. Mind you, it is automatically a TECHNICAL FOUL when elbows are thrown to intimidate, "create space", or taunt an opponent, even if no contact is made. It is in the rules. Lastly, I'm afraid it's a bit of the refs fault for not stepping in a lot earlier to stop TWO SUPERSTARS from physically engaging like that. The game was WAY OUT OF HAND... there's no reason for even Kobe to be trying to STEAL the ball. Kobe shouldn't have been hacking Dwight. Dwight shouldn't have thrown the elbows. I would prefer for Dwight to be smarter than that. Does anyone have any video of Kobe's post-game interviews? I'd like to see the swollen lips. LOLs... Kobe sure loves to show his frustration when he's losing. What a sore loser that guy is.
I dont really see anything wrong with either player in this sequence. I thought it was good actually - the league needs to stop being so soft on some of these things. What Kobe did was try to piss off Dwight and all - something that he should do problem was that it was way too late in the game when the game was already decided. Secondly I thought Dwight did the right thing to protect his area by the first clear. The second clear may have not been necessary, but Kobe did not back off. A player should be able to claim his space. The refs if they called the first foul on Kobe none of the rest would have happened. I do believe that the league should rescind the Flagrant-1 though on Dwight. He was just trying to clear space Kobe kept sticking his face and hands in and put himself at risk. The best part of the entire sequence was Dwight went up and knocked down the two free throws while Kobe missed one of his.
I have a scar and had a loose tooth for a while from doing this. I got away with doing it for plenty of games but caught a nasty elbow. I still do it to this day but I'm well aware of what could happen
I think that's why they gave Kobe the foul afterwards. Initially it was not called a foul on Kobe despite the fact he was clearly trying to antagonize Dwight. If you want to steal the ball from someone like that, your not going to do it by sticking your grill in another guys face. The whole thing could have been avoided had the refs -you know, done their job. It was a poorly reffed game to say the least.
refs sholda blown the whistle after Kobe's first slap. What the hell else is Dwight supposed to do in that situation if Kobes going all EHonda on him and refs aint doing anything?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Kobe shouts at Rockets bench: "You a b**** ass n***a." We'll assume it was aimed at Dwight and not Kevin McHale. <a href="http://t.co/zzIZzAyoZe">http://t.co/zzIZzAyoZe</a></p>— SportsGrid (@SportsGrid) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsGrid/status/527464623851986944">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It's a different personality type. Nuts in a different way. I think the better word is ENTITLED. Kobe thinks he's entitled, and always has. From his Italian upbringing. To his incredible talent. To getting his way on draft night. To forcing his way to alpha dog status. OBVIOUSLY, killing someone (if OJ did it), and committing other crimes is a big issue, but short of that, the ENTITLED personality is the WORST. Because it's not necessary, even if one has every right to be. If you follow tech news, its the difference between Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanik (Uber founder/CEO, by all accounts a complete dick and entitled personality, though in his case based of the fact that he did struggle for a little so feels like now that he's hit the jackpot he's entitled to be a dick). Kobe vs. Lebron/Duncan/Hakeem. Entitled vs. Humbled. All of which does, to a degree, take you back to July 2003, Colorado. While I think indeed and kind of criminal activity was likely non-existent, the possibility isn't ruled out 100% and regardless, the whole adulterous affair speaks very poorly to Kobe's overall sense of entitlement. ANYWAY.... this incident is no big deal. Kobe being a instigator. Dwight protecting his space.
For grins, I just put "Kobe Dwight" in Google. First hit... ESPN, and this is how they choose to headline it: Elbow causes Kobe, Dwight tussle ESPN - 4 hours ago Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard got into a fourth-quarter skirmish after one of Howard's... I don't even need to read to know where that's headed. That was such a minor incident. Shouldn't even be a headline. I was just laughing yesterday when Reggie Miller was like "good, good the security guys are coming onto the court. I've seen too many of these incidents escalate. Get them off of the court." Yikes - two guys got heated in a sports game! Evacuate Katy.
Man Kobe would hate playing with me cause I swing them elbows like a boss if you try and get close to me... lol thats how you create space when your handles suck
