The fissures had started, as they often do in sports, with a lineup shuffle.
After starting the season with a 5-15 record, Lakers coach Byron Scott had seen enough. It was time to bring a change.
Out was starting point guard Jeremy Lin. Per Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding, Lin did not take it well, saying: “This is one of the toughest situations I've been in ever since I started playing the game of basketball.”
And for the first time since the 2005-06 season, Carlos Boozer was demoted. Ouch.
Per Baxter Holmes for ESPN LA, Boozer responded to questions about Scott’s reasoning by saying: “I have a different opinion. I’ll keep it to myself.”
Very little gets kept to oneself once a team’s harmony is breached, especially in L.A.’s mega media market, where the most innocent comments are chum in the water.
Sour grapes about lineup changes combined with losses until something curious happened. Kobe Bryant—who was on a collision course with passing Michael Jordan for No. 3 on the all-time scoring list—put all that aside for a moment.
He was simply fed up with losing.
During a Dec. 11 practice at the Lakers’ El Segundo facility, Bryant—who often sits out scrimmages to preserve his old and battered body—decided to suit up and set a few things straight.
What resulted was some classic Mamba trash-talking and expletives, which the vast majority of sports fans on planet Earth probably did not miss.
Bryant’s “Charmin” refrain even brought the venerable tissue paper manufacturer roaring back into the public conscious via social media.
Scott later pa...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
