MyTenSense.com

Kobe Bryant led the L.A. Lakers to their first NBA title without Shaquille O’Neal this past summer, and the Lakers are favored to ruin Shaq and LeBron’s holiday when the Cleveland Cavaliers visit Staples Center on Christmas Day. Tip off is at 5 p.m. on ABC.
With just a couple weeks into the NBA season, the Lakers hold a league-best 23-4 record with Bryant, the NBA Finals MVP, averaging 29.3 points — second to Denver Nugget forward Carmelo Anthony’s league-best 30.3 points per game.

All eyes are going to be on the matchup between Kobe and LeBron James, the NBA MVP last season.
LeBron is averaging 28.8 points, third-best in the league, for the Cavs, who the Orlando Magic beat in the Eastern Conference Finals last summer to play the Lakers for the NBA championship.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

Kobe Bryant can opt out of the final year of his contract this summer and go help LeBron James and his former Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal to win Cleveland’s first NBA title.
But it’s very unlikely. Kobe is coming off an NBA Finals MVP performance and wouldn’t stoop to being a supporting player for league MVP King James. Plus, Kobe enjoys running the Lake Show too much.


However, two years ago, it was a different story.
Kobe hoped to be traded over to the L.A. Clippers or the Chicago Bulls in May 2007 because he was unhappy with the direction the Lakers were headed after a first-round playoff exit for the second consecutive season. Three years earlier, the Lakers’ front office traded Shaq to Miami and he went on to win his first NBA championship without Kobe.

Kobe felt duped after signing a new contract with the understanding that L.A.’s management would bring in marquee players to immediately put the Lakers back in contention for an NBA title, their first since Kobe and Shaq paired up for a three-peat from 2000-2002.
But when Kobe found out that the Lakers were actually rebuilding, he went to the national airwaves and expressed his desire to be traded on two national radio shows unless former GM Jerry West returned and the roster was upgraded to put the team in title contention.
It’s a good thing for Kobe the Lakers ignored his trade demands. The Lakers finally assembled a championship roster to win the franchise’s 15th NBA title this past season. And with the NBA Finals’ MVP trophy in his possession, Kobe is finally content to stay in L.A., where he was all smiles riding atop a tour bus with his wife, two daughters and teammates in a parade through downtown to celebrate the Lakers’ NBA title.


Actually, when Kobe was asking to be traded two years ago to avoid the team’s rebuilding, he remained optimistic that L.A. would come through with roster upgrades and he expressed a desire to stay in L.A. while voicing his desire to leave to win a championship.
And now that he’s led the Lakers to a coveted NBA championship and his team is likely to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals for a third consecutive year, it appears that Kobe will finish his career in L.A., unless the team becomes disloyal when his talent wanes and trades him after all.

By Teneshia LaFaye

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

In spite of winning his fourth NBA title with the Lakers on Sunday, Kobe Bryant still needs two more to equal Michael Jordan’s six with the Chicago Bulls.
But Kobe is just like Mike in buying power. Bryant, Jordan and Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen are tied for No. 2 behind the world’s No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods on Forbes’ list of the world’s Best Paid Male Athletes. See the list here

Woods, who was on hand in Orlando’s Amway Arena to watch Bryant win his fourth NBA championship, earned $110 million last year. Bryant, Jordan and Raikkonen each made $45 million.

Bryant, who grew up in Philadelphia rooting for Jordan and the Bills, has a chance to match his idol on the court if the Lakers manage to three-peat as they did from 2000-2002.

The Lakers’ championship run also is contigent upon their front office bringing back record-setting coach Phil Jackson, who has six titles with Jordan and four with Kobe, and Bryant’s supporting cast of Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

Sports “experts” are quick to say that Kobe Bryant can’t be as great as Michael Jordan after failing to make the game-winning shot and turning the ball over at the end of the Lakers’ Game 3 NBA Finals loss to Orlando on Tuesday.
The “experts” say that Jordan would have made one of those two 3-point attempts that Bryant made in the closing seconds, and Jordan certainly wouldn’t have turned the ball over.
But these so-called “experts” forget that Jordan actually turned the ball over and passed up the game-winning shot in the final minute of Game 1 of the Chicago Bull’s 94-91 loss to Orlando in the second round of the 1994-95 playoffs, which happens to be the last time the Magic made it to the NBA Finals before this year’s appearance against Bryant and the Lakers.
In that particular ’95 Bulls-Magic playoff matchup, Chicago was leading 91-90 in the final 40 seconds. Jordan brought the ball up the court and Orlando’s Nick Anderson ran up behind him and tapped the ball out of Jordan’s hand. Penny Hardaway quickly gathered the ball and dribbled across the court to the Magic’s basket and dished to Horace Grant, who slammed the ball to put the Orlando up 92-91. The Bulls got the ball back and Jordan passed up a 3-point attempt and instead overthrew Scottie Pippen on the baseline. So the Magic won the game and went on to win the series in six games, but eventually got swept by the Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals.

See for yourself:

At least Bryant didn’t pass up taking the game-winning shot in Tuesday’s loss to the Magic. He made two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds and just couldn’t get the shots to fall.
During the postgame conference, Bryant blamed himself for the Lakers’ loss because he said he’s “used to coming through in those situations.”
But Bryant shouldn’t hang his head because even Jordan didn’t always come through, and Kobe still has a chance to pull out the NBA Finals best-of-seven series because the Lakers lead the Magic 3-1 and need just one more win for their 15th NBA title after regrouping Thursday for a 99-91 OT victory in Orlando.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

LeBron James didn’t come through to deliver a No. 23 vs. No. 24 matchup in the NBA Finals, but Kobe Bryant continues to do his part and has the Lakers up 2-0 on the Orlando Magic, the team that outplayed and dethroned James and the Cleveland Cavs to win the Eastern Conference.
Bryant scored 29 points and made a fade-away jumper over Hedo Turkoglu for the Lakers’ go-ahead lead in a 101-96 overtime victory on Sunday to follow up on his 40-point Jordan-esque performance in a 25-point rout of the Magic in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Highlights from NBA Finals Game 2:

The best-of-seven championship series moves from Disney Land to Disney World when L.A. travels to Orlando for Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary.
If Bryant delivers the Lakers’ 15th NBA title, he would likely be the NBA Finals MVP, which coupled with his fourth NBA championship ring, carries a lot more weight than James’ regular-season NBA MVP trophy. It also would be Bryant’s first NBA title without the help of Shaquille O’Neal.

Here’s Nike’s puppet commercial of Kobe holding his three rings over LeBron’s head:

Former Lakers general manager Jerry West may want to retract his earlier claim that LeBron is greater than Kobe when it’s Bryant who is leading his team on the game’s biggest stage for the second year in a row and a chance at another ring while James waits ‘til next season to try again for his first ring.

Here’s video of Kobe’s and LeBron’s opinion of each other:

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

The Orlando Magic are making their first NBA Finals appearance since the year before their original Man of Steel Shaquille O’Neal left to win three NBA championships with the Lakers.
Shaq, now with the Phoenix Suns, never sold his house in Orlando, and he has said he wants to own the Magic someday.
But, the Magic’s former No. 1 draft pick also has allegiance to the Lakers, who Orlando visits Thursday to tip off the best-of-seven NBA Finals. Despite his public feud with Kobe Bryant, Shaq said earlier this year that he wants to retire his No. 34 in L.A.’s Staples Center, where he earned three NBA Finals MVP awards during the Lakers’ NBA championship triple-peat from 2000-2002.
So is Shaq pulling for the Magic to win their first NBA title or former ally and nemesis Bryant to win his fourth with the Lakers?
Well, Shaq, who already has four rings for winning another NBA title with Miami in 2006, wrote on his twitter page Wednesday afternoon:
“That’s right. I am saying it today and today only. I want Kobe Bryant to get number 4. Spread da word.”
This was in response to someone asking Shaq if he meant he was pulling for the Lakers when he wrote “I’m a go wit the lake show” on Twitter on Sunday night, a day after the Magic defeated LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavs in Game 6 for Orlando’s first Eastern Conference title since Shaq, Penny, Nick, Dennis and Brian won the title for the city in 1995.
Could Shaq be pulling for L.A. because the Magic’s new Superman and 2004 No. 1 draft pick Dwight Howard has replaced him as Orlando’s biggest star aside from Mickey Mouse?
Or it could be because it would be cheaper for Shaq to buy a Magic team that’s never won an NBA championship than one who has won the big one?
Regardless of the reason, Shaq has put it on the record that he is pulling for the Lakers to beat the Magic.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

This has got to be the most exciting NBA playoffs in more than a decade.
But the action isn’t restricted to the court. Apparently, the sideline has its own sideshow, and I don’t just mean celebrity sightings of Jack Nicholson, Justin Timberlake, Will Ferrell, Denzel Washington, Terri Hatcher, Tom Cruise and Mrs. Terminator Maria Shriver.
The players’ mates and moms are creating excitement.
The girlfriend of Denver forward Carmelo Anthony was ejected from Game 4 of the Nuggets’ semifinal game at Dallas early this month after punching a fan in the face. Former MTV veejay Alani “LaLa” Vazquez, who has been engaged to Anthony since January 2005, recently said she “was defending herself” and child because the “fans were out of control”. She revealed that beer-guzzling Mavericks fans were shouting obscenities and racial slurs in reference to her 2-year-old out-of-wedlock son with Anthony. She sent their son, Kiyan Carmelo, home before getting into the brawl. Ironically, she is helping teach etiquette to rowdy, raunchy reality TV women on VH-1’s Charm School with Ricki Lake.
And in Game 4 of a Boston-Cleveland semifinal last season, LeBron James’ mom jumped out of her seat under the basket and into the face of Paul Pierce after a hard foul on her son. Pierce’s teammate Kevin Garnett held back Gloria James, and LeBron told his mom to “sit your (butt) down.”
With James’ and Anthony’s teams in the playoffs, you may see more sideline action. Maybe Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, who has been said to have a nasty attitude and lays in wait to smooch her husband during and after the game, will spar with Nuggets fan when the Lakers venture to Denver for Games 3 and 4 of the Western Conference Finals. In Game 2, Kobe’s wife and Carmelo’s fiancée locked arms and strolled behind Bryant as he walked to the locker room with the Lakers’ 55-54 halftime lead.
James, Bryant and Anthony are the Top 3 scorers remaining in the NBA playoffs. But while you’re enjoying their electrifying moves, make sure to keep a third eye on the sidelines.
The NBA has a sideline policy that suspends players for a game without pay or a fine up to $35,000 if they aren’t near their team’s bench during an altercation. The league probably should make a rule for disruptive family members.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

Former Lakers general manager Jerry West injected himself into the debate of who is better: current NBA MVP LeBron James or last year’s MVP Kobe Bryant.
And West surprisingly switched sides and went with James, the former No. 1 overall pick out of a Cleveland high school. West brought Bryant to Los Angeles in 1996 after trading Vlade Divac to Charlotte for the Philadelphia high school standout.
West is credited for assembling the Lakers’ four NBA championship teams in the 1980s and the franchise’s three consecutive NBA champions from 2000-2002. The 70-year-old former All-NBA guard and former Lakers coach said that James can be “the greatest player ever to play the game”, even greater than Michael Jordan.
“LeBron James will do the same type of things because he’s getting better,” said West, now GM of the Memphis Grizzles. “He’s a much more effective shooter. When he’s making his shots from the outside, you can’t play him. He’s just too big, too strong, too quick. And he has incredible body control.”
But whoa, whoa, whoa.
Better than Jordan, who has won six NBA championships? And Bryant, who has three league championship rings?
Now, LeBron is a better team player than Kobe, and the 24-year-old Cleveland forward has better career averages in points, rebounds, assists and steals, but King James can’t be crowned until he’s won a NBA championship like the 30-year-old Bryant, who won three NBA titles a couple months before his 24th birthday.
First, LeBron has to lead the Cavs past Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals that begins tonight. The Magic won the regular season series 2-1 and “beat the hell” out of Cleveland, according to James’ teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in Orlando’s 116-87 home romp for the Cavs’ worst loss this season. But Cleveland, which posted the NBA’s best record this season, swept its first two playoff opponents to bring an 8-0 postseason record into the conference finals against Orlando, and James deserves most of the credit. He is averaging a playoff-best 32.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.
Bryant has averaged 28.4 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists in 13 playoff games, including a 40-point effort Tuesday to help the Lakers to a 105-103 come-from-behind victory against Denver to open the Western Conference Finals.
Kobe and LeBron can settle the debate on the court if they deliver a Lakers-Cavs NBA Finals.
And if it comes down to the game-winning shot, who would West rather have the ball?
“If I had to have somebody make a last-second shot, it would be Kobe Bryant,” West said. “But…….. I do think LeBron has surpassed Kobe as a player.”
James has to get the Cavs past the Magic for a chance to close the case.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

If you’ve watched the Lakers in the playoffs, you’ve noticed a kissing bandit that confronts L.A.’s star guard Kobe Bryant as he makes his way through the tunnel to the team locker room at halftime and after the game.
The culprit is his wife, Vanessa. She kissed him during and after the Lakers’ 105-103 victory against Denver Tuesday night to open the Western Conference Finals. Bryant’s wife has made a halftime and postgame ritual of planting a smooch on his lips for years.
In 2000, the former Vanessa Laine kissed her husband-to-be in the Lakers’ locker room after L.A. beat Indianapolis in Game 6 to win the first of the Lakers’ three consecutive NBA championships. Last summer, she kissed her husband of seven years at midcourt in the midst of a hoard of photographers following the USA’s gold medal victory over Spain in at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Sometimes, she gets daddy’s girls, 5-year-old Natalia and 2-year-old Gianna, involved in the action, and they greeted their dad on the court in Laker gold dresses moments after he wrapped up his fourth NBA title on June 14.


Bryant got engaged to Vanessa during the Lakers’ 1999-2000 NBA championship season. They met during a music video shoot while Bryant was in the building to record his first music album, which was never released. At the time, Vanessa was a senior at a California high school, and Bryant was a 21-year-old rising star for the Lakers after jumping from high school to the NBA three years earlier. They married in April 2001, a couple months before L.A. won its second consecutive championship. Bryant’s parents, two sisters, agent and Lakers teammates skipped the wedding because his parents didn’t approve of him getting married so young and to someone who is not black.
Bryant’s marriage experienced a rough patch, like most relationships, when Bryant was charged with sexual assault on an employee at a Colorado resort in the summer of 2003. Bryant admitted to consensual intercourse, and thus adultery, but the charges were dropped after the employee refused to testify and Bryant settled a civil suit with the alleged victim. His wife stuck by him throughout the one-year media circus, including Bryant’s tearful press conference to offer a public apology for his actions.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Kobe bought his wife an 8-carat purple diamond ring worth $4 million to show remorse. And judging by all of the midgame and postgame kisses, Vanessa Bryant has forgiven her husband.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye

If you’re an NBA fan, you’ve had the debate with your friends.
Who is the best player in the league? LeBron, Kobe or D-Wade?
My answer is King James, and the populous thinks so too because the Cleveland forward received 109 of 121 first-place votes to be crowned the NBA’s Most Valuable Player earlier this week.
Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade already have an MVP trophy. Bryant was the league MVP last season, and Wade, the league’s scoring leader this season, was MVP of the 2006 NBA Finals.
Bryant and Wade, who finished second and third in this year’s MVP voting, have another piece of hardware that James lacks – an NBA championship ring. Bryant won his three championship rings on the shoulders of three-time NBA Finals MVP Shaquille O’Neal before the big man left the Lakers to help Wade win Miami’s only NBA championship in 2006.
But LeBron James can distinguish himself by being the catalyst to Cleveland’s first NBA title. So far, the Cavs have cruised through the playoffs with a first-round series sweep of Detroit and a 2-0 Eastern Conference semifinals start over Atlanta. In the process, James has averaged 32 points – more than Wade’s regular-season leading 30 points per game, and he’s averaging 11 rebounds, 6.6 assists and two steals. The NBA Finals could match up James’ team versus Bryant’s Lakers, which Cleveland beat out by one game for the league’s best record this season and the most wins in Cavs’ franchise history.
Wade is out of the picture right now after Miami was eliminated by Atlanta in the first round of the NBA playoffs. In dominating performances against the Hawks and Pistons, James has posted better postseason numbers than Wade and Bryant, and he also has better career averages in points, rebounds and assists.
So if LeBron leads his team to an NBA championship this postseason, it’ll be hard to argue he’s not the best in the league.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye