Lakers Rumors & News Recap: Kobe Bryant Brings Out the Claws

Last night, while sitting in Sport and Law class, I was obsessively checking my Twitter feed. Why? Because Kobe Bryant was going off on Smush Parker and Kwame Brown.

The claws were out when Kobe unleashed on former teammates before the exhibition game. It all started with his comment about Nash’s MVP title where he exclaimed:

“I told Steve [Nash], ‘You may have won an MVP, but I was playing with Smush Parker. He played with Barbosa and all those guys. I played with Smush and Kwame [Brown]. My goodness.”

It’s easy to look back and reflect on what was going wrong when everything seems to be going so right. But Kobe managed to attack Lakers ownership, former players, and other gripes with the NBA in his two minutes of speaking. Kobe continued to say things like:

“Smush was the worst. He shouldn’t have been in the NBA but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard so we let him walk on and had Tierre Brown back him up.”

Cold words from a former teammate. And not very sportsman like. I think the Mamba needs a lesson in civility from Gasol.

Some news from the center fans have been anxiously waiting to step out on the court. Many of us have followed the case of Dwight’s back injury, but Howard himself hasn’t come out much to talk about his struggle. The big man spoke today with some interesting perspective on where he’s been in the past eight months recovering from a herniated disk, describing how bad his ailment really was:

“What a lot of people don’t know is that when I hurt my back it affected my nerves to the point where my whole left leg just went dead. Basically, I couldn’t do a calf raise. That was the first order of business, to get my calf raise back.”

It took Howard about two months for him to be able to raise his calf again.

When Lakers fans, including myself, get impatient at players for injuries that may affect the games we want to watch, it’s a good idea to step back and think about how these idols of ours are human too. Although they can jump several feet in the air, spin at high speeds, and appear like superheros, they break just like us. It was great to hear this perspective from Dwight. For more on his injury from the man himself, check out Serena Winters’ article.

The third interview with the Laker rookies came out yesterday, and this one details Robert Sacre’s fight to make the permanent roster. Sacre talk about his first game experience and left LN readers with many pearls of wisdom. Like a quote he has tattooed on his body that reads “water the bamboo.” To find out what this means, and what else Robert has to share, check out my sit-down with him on Monday.

Just for kicks, LN has compiled the top five Lakers vs Blazers games of all time. If #5 details Kobe scoring 65 in 2007, imagine what #1 could be.

Lakers Nations News

Robert Sacre Talks Lakers, Training Camp, and Pre-Season Basketball

How Dwight Howard’s Game Will Transition Over The Next Few Years

Lakers News: Antawn Jamison to Primarily Play Small Forward

Lakers News: Dwight Howard Explains Severity of Back Injury

Dwight Howard Takes No Offense to Kobe Bryant’s Comments

Kobe Dunks Over Antawn Jamison in Lakers Practice

ESPN’s John Hollinger Predicts Lakers Finishing 4th in the West

Kobe Bryant Wants Dwight Howard to Take on His Attitude

NBA News: Deron Williams Told Nets GM: ‘Don’t Wait on Dwight’

Lakers News: Dwight Howard Explains Severity of Back Injury