Throughout the NBA Playoffs, we’ll be picking out some of the best coverage from around the web. Today, we begin with Kobe Bryant and the lip reading heard round the world.
2011 NBA Playoffs: Putting Kobe Bryant’s 100K Fine In Perspective
1. What Does Kobe Bryant’s 100 Grand Fine Really Mean? By now you’ve heard that the NBA fined Kobe Bryant $100,000 on Wednesday for uttering derogatory comments toward a ref during Tuesday night’s Spurs game, but what does that number mean, in NBA terms. To help put it in perspective, you have to look at some of the other major fines from the past few years.
After the jump, The Good Men Project obliges.
Ryan O’Hanlon asks, and then answers:
...objectively, quantitatively, how bad was Kobe’s comment? Based on public fines in the NBA over the last few seasons, I think I figured it out:
- It’s half as bad as conducting improper pre-draft workouts.
- It’s twice as bad as saying you want to leave the NBA and go home.
- It’s just as bad as talking about the collective bargaining agreement.
- It’s twice as bad as saying one of your players used to smoke too much weed.
- It’s just as bad as writing a letter in Comic Sans about a former player.
- It’s twice as bad as lying about smelling like weed and having women in a hotel room during the rookie orientation program.
- It’s one-fifth as bad as snowboarding.
Indeed, there’s plenty more examples offered over at The Good Men Project, and if not just for the perspective, it’s worth it just for the chance to relive some of the best NBA scandals in recent history. Like, seriously: Remember when Michael Beasley thought it was a good idea to smoke weed and sneak girls into his room at the NBA Rookie Symposium?
Now you do!
2. Kobe Bryant Reminds You Why He’s Evil. It has nothing to do with the trumped up controversy, but Wednesday night, just when it looked like the Kings were going to close out their time in Sacramento with one of the most improbably comebacks in franchise history (20 points in the fourth quarter), Kobe did this:
Then the Lakers won in overtime, of course.
3. The 2010-2011 Basketball Season, In Memoriam. The guys at The Basketball Jones continue to be awesome:
4. This Weekend, The 76ers Are America’s Team. Because they’re playing the Heat, of course.
if the Sixers can just win one of the first two games in Miami, 90 percent of the country will do back-flips ... They have much more depth than the Heat, and from top to bottom, Philly’s roster is arguably more athletic. You rarely see that from a severe underdog in a playoff series. Guys like Thaddeus Young and Jrue Holiday aren’t well-known nationally yet, but they are talented young players. Coach Doug Collins has been desperate to get his team a taste of the playoffs, because in a seven-game series, all of your flaws get exposed. Well, that works both ways.
And while I don’t necessarily want the 76ers to upset the Heat, fact is, other than Knicks-Magic, Heat-Sixers is all we’ve got to look forward from the Eastern Conference first round. You shouldn’t rooting for the Sixers because you hate LeBron and the Heat, but because if that series isn’t close, you might actually have to give Bulls-Pacers a chance and hope that Mike Dunleavy can make things interesting.
And, spoiler alert: Mike Dunleavy can never make things interesting.
5. Finally, Put Yourself In This Guy’s Shoes. You’ve spent the entire year in the D-League, except for two weeks when you got to go play with the Toronto Raptors--arguably worse than the D-League, depending how well you can endure Toronto’s winters.
So it’s April now, another D-League season’s winding down and you’re preparing to play in the D-League playoffs when, out of nowhere, your agent calls you to tell you that you just got signed by the back-to-back defending champs, and you’ll be spending the next two months playing on an NBA Title contender in L.A.
Johnson, taking a nap at the time of the call, assumed there must have been some sort of interest from a European team or an opportunity to make some more money after the D-League season, and begrudgingly answered his phone.
Much to Johnson’s surprise, Ames told him the Lakers wanted to sign him for the remainder of the playoffs, and somewhat facetiously asked Johnson if he were interested.
Everyone always says, “basketball is a business” when things go wrong, and that’s okay. As long as you remember that sometimes, “basketball is a business”--the Lakers needed to fill an extra roster spot--can turn out to be really, really awesome.
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