Some Hate for the Los Angeles L-bows' Tactics

The Los Angeles Lakers need to be made an example of right now. Not to take away from Kobe's amazing ability, but the Lakers have been getting away with playing dirty for a long time in the playoffs. From Kwame Brown standing over an opponent like he just won the heavyweight title a few years ago to the dirty, cheap elbows being thrown in games one and two of the Lakers-Rockets series in this year's playoffs, the Lakers are indeed showing that they have no class even though Kobe Bryant seems to think like he is the only person in the NBA who has any. No one is buying it, Kobe, except for all of the yellow Kool-Aid drinkers out there.

There have always been a number of reasons to dislike the Lakers in my opinion: the media and the NBA's own referees have always doted on them, Kobe Bryant is arrogant, their fans are typically (but not always) obnoxiously cocky, Kobe Bryant is a narcissist, they are symbolic of that ever-prevalent "people from southern California are better than everyone else" myth, they are historically, to the chagrin of fans of other Western Conference teams, very good, and Kobe Bryant is full of himself. It is safe to say, after watching the first two games of the Lakers-Rockets series, that the Los Angeles Lakers are a dirty team as well.

Take Laker forward Sasha Vujacic's splitting open the head of Shane Battier in game one for example. Vujacic tipped a loose ball to Kobe Bryant and made sure to follow through and smack Battier right in the eye. Vujacic had already made contact with the ball before he decided to follow through. Battier, whose face was splattered with blood after being cut open, started protesting to the referees, bewildered that no foul had been called. Ron Artest, who is definitely loco, got in Kobe Bryant's face in the fourth quarter of game two because Kobe threw an elbow in the vicinity of Artest's neck while they were jockeying for position under the hoop. Artest's explanation for his actions was that he tried to talk to the referees about Kobe throwing the elbows and decided that he would talk to the culprit himself since the refs wouldn't do anything about it.

Crazy or not, Artest is not the only one in recent years to accuse Kobe of being dirty and express frustration toward the refs' looking the other way. Raja Bell took matters into his own hands, basically DDTing Kobe after a few frustrating games. Kobe got up, dusted himself off, and did his patented arrogant finger wagging. Then, in a post game press conference, he spoke in the most condescending manner regarding Raja Bell.

Derek Fisher, whom I thought to be a class act, decided to play dirty in game two as well and was assessed a flagrant 2 for intentionally trying to run through a Luis Scola screen.

There are some big problems with the way the NBA doesn't crack down on the Lakers. Kobe Bryant, after the game yesterday, said, "It's basketball!" Wrong! It is Phil Jackson, "get my players to take some sneaky cheapshots in order to get into the heads of the opposing team" basketball. That has always been Jackson's M.O. Sadly, it is not respectable. Kobe gets to play however he wants, and the NBA and its referees are eating out of his hand. They are afraid to hold Kobe Bryant accountable because he might point his majestic finger in their faces or wag it in disapproval.


Equally annoying to me is the way that the yellow Kool-Aid drinkers stand by everything that the Lakers do. They can do no wrong. It is funny to them the Battier got his face busted open. It is funny that Derek Fisher leveled Luis Scola ON PURPOSE. People who appreciate the game of basketball should view the game objectively when it comes to foul play. As a bandwagon Bulls fan in high school, I really started disliking them when they added Dennis Rodman to their roster. As a Broncos fan, I loathed Bill Romonowski. When are the Laker fans going to stop applauding stupidity and poor sportsmanship. I wouldn't feel happy about my team winning after conducting themselves in such a vicious manner.