He spoke about playing like {insert expletive here} and how he was going to hammer some thoughts into his teammates' heads.
This is vintage Kobe: When things go wrong, blame everyone else. While Kobe and his teammates looked upset after the loss, there were no signs of anger during it.
Kobe's bout of trash talk seemed more about being arrogant than trying to be intimidating.
Where was the Kobe who elbowed Artest in the throat? The Kobe who verbally abused Shane Battier? Kobe was showing the same type of passiveness that he belittled his team for having.
Instead of taking the respect he deserves from LeBron James and his Miami Heat, he seemed to be asking for it.
Please? If you don't mind?
It wasn't just Kobe, either. The Lakers' so called "enforcer," Ron Artest, seemed to be somewhere else. The closest he came to making his presence felt was hugging James and trying to fly into the Heat bench. This wasn't the Artest who mixed it up with Paul Pierce during last year's finals.
These Lakers seemed oblivious to the fact that they were on national television getting manhandled.
Now, I'm not saying take a cheap shot on LeBron James...
But...take a cheap shot on LeBron James.
The Miami stars are three players who haven't yet shown they can deal with physical play from the opposition. The proof? When the "Big Three" were on separate teams, they got handled pretty efficiently by the Boston Celtics.
I shudder at the thought of saying this to Laker fans, but you can stand to learn a thing or two from the hated Celtics franchise.
The Lakers need to start showing there's some fight in them. The Lakers have to protect their rim and home floor. If Derek Fisher needs to run through Chris Bosh and/or Dwyane Wade to d...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
