Bryant Accuses Malone of Hitting on Wife
Why does this story upset me? :roll:The Kobe Bryant-Karl Malone feud has turned personal, with Bryant accusing Malone of making a pass at his wife at a game.
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Bryant Accuses Malone of Hitting on Wife
Why does this story upset me? :roll:The Kobe Bryant-Karl Malone feud has turned personal, with Bryant accusing Malone of making a pass at his wife at a game.
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You're just absorbing some of the "Oh sweet lord, not this garbage again!" sentiment from the world at large, I think.
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Sports Illustrated calls it a soap opera.
Shouldn’t this Kobe chap be concerned about his wife and her feelings? Wasn’t Kobe just involved in a very sticky situation about his indiscretions?Bryant said he called Malone and told him, "Stay away from my wife. What's wrong with you? How could you?"
I guess I just don't feel Kobe's pain. :roll:
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That was essentially my feeling.Originally Posted by Ut
Order of Kilopi
Vanessa will end up with more bling-bling =D>
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I have been talking with my inner self, and yes, we would like one! :P
Not if it means living the Kobe soap, though!
Established Member
Yes, shouldn't he be making passes to his teammates instead of to their wives? That's against the rules, I believe... 8-[
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I dunno, making a pass at his team mates could get him into a lot of hot water.
Apart from it being a US soap (we Brits have Becks & Co. to put up with) why do overpaid sports 'stars' think their personal egos are any bigger than the blown up ball of gas they play with? It's just part of the 'entertainment industry' and the old adage, "Bad news is good news for the box office".
So what? Who cares? Will this damned cloud clear for the Geminids tonight?
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:wink:I dunno, making a pass at his team mates could get him into a lot of hot water.
Established Member
IIRC, wasn't Kobe one of the first to be drafted straight out of high school rather than waiting until he grew up a bit in college? I think he's making a pretty strong case for banning the practice. He's making it obvious that success/riches/pampering at such an early age is a dicey proposition. Granted there are "child" stars and the like, but the difference there is that they were managed from an early age. Kobe basically went from middle income normalcy (albeit a high school "star") to multi-millionaire at the age of 18. Obviously a tricky transition, and one he hasn't handled well.
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<rant>I'm all for letting anyone become pro straight out of high school. For every one of them that does, some other less athletically talented person is getting a scholarship. If there is anyone who doesn't need a scholarship to college, it is a BB player who can earn in one game enough money to pay for all 4 years of college. I would love to see all scholarships banned. Let the NBA finance their own minor league like baseball does instead of getting it for free from the colleges. Knowing that won't happen, my other suggestion is to hold the athletic scholarships to the same standards as the academic scholarships. Require 3.0 or 3.5 or whatever. That would replace all these ill-prepared "students" with true student-athletes. The NBA would still get the cream of the crop, but not at the expense of the academics.
</rant>
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Doubt that will ever happen. Afterall, it won't just be the NBA you're up against, but the NFL. That's a LOT of lobbying power. To say nothing of the kinds of money that Division I teams bring into the colleges. The NCAA does maintain an academic requirement for college players, which does go a long way towards maturing most of the players in the NBA. Keep in mind, these kinds of incidents in basketball are amazingly rare compared to the number of potential persons who could get into them.
The problem I see isn't that these guys suddenly start making scads of money in the NBA, its that they have no concept of how to handle it. Look at the current NCAA rules. College athletes are practically forced to take vows of poverty. One player almost being disqualified from moving on to the pros because his mother bought him an expensive SUV or someone buying them a suit completely torpedoing their career opportunities. They go from having nothing, to having the world at their fingertips with the word "no" suddenly vanishing from their vocabularies.
Then you wonder why these guys crash and burn from drugs, partying, and end up being fleeced by agents and teams and ending up in one room apartments in their 40's barely able to move from the physical aftereffects of steroids. Its foolish that they make these choices, but the real crime is more that they aren't shown better ways of conducting themselves.
Established Member
With only 3.6 apg, Malone obviously thought he needed to make a few extra passes to bump up his career average.
I agree that there are dangers with players coming straight out of high school, but if they have the talent and can be well-enough mentored to keep their feet on the ground (off the court, at least!), then let them go. It's not all doom and gloom - look at KG, for example. Straight out of High School, he is a credit both to the game and to himself.
He had the talent to play in his rookie year, he has since developed into the best player on the planet. What would have been gained by him going to college? Let's face it - he is not going to have to rely on that missed degree to feed his family when his career comes to a close!
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The juice:
"...Bryant's agent, Rob Pelinka, related more alleged contents Sunday of a cellphone conversation during the Nov. 23 game. Malone was courtside at Staples Center for that game, invited on behalf of the Lakers, and Vanessa
Bryant was across the court, a few rows behind the Laker bench. Vanessa Bryant was on her cellphone with Kaye Malone, who did not attend the game and was at home in Newport Beach. Vanessa Bryant told Kaye Malone that Karl Malone's son, Karl Jr., looked bored during the game. Kaye Malone said to give Karl Malone a call on his cellphone and invite Karl
Jr. to sit with the Bryant family.
Karl Malone responded improperly when Vanessa Bryant called him, Pelinka said.
According to Pelinka, Malone said at that point, " 'No, why don't you come sit by me and give me a big hug that would be on the front cover of every magazine in the country?' Vanessa said, 'What?' "
According to Pelinka, Malone also said he was "hunting for a young Mexican girl" in response to a question from Vanessa Bryant as to why he was wearing a cowboy hat. Vanessa Bryant is a Latina.
Kobe Bryant said he had strong words for Malone during a cellphone conversation from his car after the game..."
LA Times (free registration required for access)
NOW do you feel the pain?
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Bryant's outrage over Malone's alleged come-on hypocritical - Sports IllustratedNOW do you feel the pain?
I feel her pain.The Bryants say Malone supposedly suggested that Vanessa come over and give him a hug, and said he was "hunting little Mexican girls." (Vanessa Bryant is of Mexican ancestry.) Inappropriate? Sure. Bad taste? Absolutely. But it's doubtful that any of the alleged comments were as traumatic to Vanessa Bryant as these two little words: Eagle, Colorado. "What's wrong with you? How could you?" Kobe reportedly said to Malone. It's not hard to imagine Vanessa saying those very words to Kobe about a year ago.
The fact that Bryant has hurt his wife doesn't mean he shouldn't try to protect her from further pain, of course. But it's hard to understand why he would make such a private matter public. It's just another example of the odd choices Bryant has been making since that fateful night in Eagle. From divulging a dirty little secret about Shaquille O'Neal supposedly paying women to keep quiet about his trysts with them, to reshaping the Lakers' roster into Kobe and a bunch of guys, to this latest flare-up with Malone, Bryant has shown a troubling tendency to make the spectacularly wrong decision.
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