“Don’t he know I’m Ron Artest?”

Update: Kobe was given a slap on the wrist flagrant 1 for elbowing Ron Artest. He will not miss any game time. Derek Fisher is suspended for game three.

If you haven’t seen the craziness that went down in game 2 make sure you watch that video.But let’s talk about what will or will not happen. Let’s start with the Golden child of the league.

Kobe is the sneakiest dirty player in the league.  He got away with elbowing Shane Battier in game 1 (Artest addresses this in the next video), and he elbowed Artest in the th’oat and managed to get Artest thrown out.  Dwight Howard elbowed someone and he got a one-game suspension. Do you think Bryant will get the same treatment? Probably not!  Kobe is the money maker of the league and they cannot even fathom a night of Laker basketball without him.  AT MOST Kobe MIGHT get a fine for about $15,000.  This guy can do whatever he wants and get away with it look at how much he walks, carries and fouls.

His teammate Derek Fisher wins the prize for the Old School Move of the Night. He brought Scola back to the days where concussions were simply a part of playoff basketball. Now, if you judge what he did by today’s NBA standards then the officials did the correct thing by ejecting him from the game but he SHOULD NOT face anymore punishment.

If I were in charge of this, I would give D-Fish a slap on the back, tell him “good move” and keep it rolling.  But NBA players these days are bigger punks than Chris Brown.

And now for my favorite part of the show… my main man Ron Artest.

Let me preface this with the a little lesson as to where the “91″ comes from in Landis91.

That being said… Artest reminds me of Dennis Rodman. This is the most psychological player in the game today. He knows how to get under people’s skin, and don’t let Kobay fool you, he would like nothing more than to haul off and give it to Ron-Ron.

Sadly, I feel that, much like The Worm, Artest has dug his own grave and now he is laying in it. He got judo-chopped in the neck and did not retaliate. What he did was go back to the Golden Child and show him that when Artest looks in the mirror he sees pride, he sees power, he sees a bad ass mutha that don’t take no crap of nobody! The refs thought Artest was trying to start trouble so they T’ed him up.

His second tech was the worst part, though. Every Kobe lover that watched the whole thing should agree with me. After being split up, Artest reenacted Kobe elbowing him, his hand just HAPPEND to be around his neck and it looked like he pretended to threaten to slit Bryant’s throat. Now, come on people… Artest is a head case, but he isn’t THAT stupid. Paul Pierce throwing up Blood signs thinks it would be stupid to threaten someone’s life on the court. The referee didn’t see it that way and they sent Artest to the showers. Lucky for us, he wasn’t done giving the media gems.

All that is left to say is this…
The self proclaimed Kobe Stopper Hater in me cannot WAIT for game 3 to roll around because it will be a fun time in Houston.

My solution to all of this would be to get ex basketball players to officiate the game.  It’s obvious that these old guys don’t understand the passion that comes along with the game.  And they must really not understand that the levels get turned up about 300 notches when it’s in the post season.

A little jabber-jawing is healthy for the game and it brings the best out of every player.  Kobe SHOULD NOT have gotten T’ed up for telling Shane Battier that he can’t guard him.  It’s the truth. What’s so bad about saying that?  If anything, it should motivate Mr. Hotdog Neck to step his defense up and stop trying to face-guard 24 on a jump shot.  OBVIOUSLY Kobe doesn’t have to see the rim when he’s shooting.  Try blocking the ball instead of his eyes.

Kobe wasn’t afraid of Artest when they were nose to nose.  If the officials didn’t break that up, things would have been OFF THE HOOK for the rest of the game.  Kobe would have carved up the Rockets like the side of Artest’s head, and 96 would have continued to talk crap while the number next to “LAL” would continue to soar.  That’s the kind of basketball I love. When two sides put all of their anger, passion and strength into a game it ensures that the best man wins.

Unfortunately, the league doesn’t want the best side to win.  They want a Kobe/LeBron final.

Have Fun.
13.