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The famed All-Star game is when the best NBA players of the year are matched against one another and are divided by conferences, the East vs. the West. Bryant, who played for the Western conference, suffered a nose fracture by a hard foul from the Miami Heat’s star guard Dwayne Wade.

Although Bryant’s nose became bloodied, he stayed in the game to see the Western conference win over the East 152-149.  The baller did not, however, attend the media session after the game was over.

Bryant managed to surpass former NBA great Michael Jordan‘s All-Star game’s highest scoring record of 262 points on a dunk with 4:57 left in the third quarter.  Bryant’s latest All-Star achievement landed him 27 points, which gives him a career score of 271.

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On Tuesday, Bryant reportedly went to see a neurologist and was diagnosed with a concussion.  According to the concussion policy the league implemented this season, a player must be symptom-free for 24 hours and then is forced to complete a series of steps to confirm he is healthy enough for competition, such as working out on a stationary bike, jogging, agility work, and non-contact drills and then have his condition reassessed.  If Bryant has no symptoms after each stage, he will have to confer with a neurologist in charge of the concussion program before he is allowed to get back into a game.

Concussion symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic, can last for days, weeks or longer and cause headaches, confusion, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, and even slurred speech.  Bryant has not addressed the press since the court incident with Wade.  Since Sunday’s run-in, Wade offered an apology to Bryant, although the player and his eastern conference teammates continue to contend that the foul was not intended to harm.  Wade said the following to NBA News:

“I don’t care what I’m portrayed as,” Wade said after Miami’s first practice following the league’s All-Star break. “It’s unfortunate, obviously. I don’t want to ever hurt anybody in this game, especially on a freak play like that. It’s unfortunate. I send my apologies. But it’s not intentional. If it’s something I did intentionally, it’d be a different story.”

Wade has made it publicly known that he sent Bryant an apologetic message and he went on to state:

“When I saw the blood in his nose, I was like, `Obviously, I wasn’t trying to do that, man,”‘ Wade said. “I don’t know if anybody wants me to get down on my knees in front of the world and do it. I don’t have to do that. … I send my apologies to Kobe and I move on from it.”

Meanwhile, Bryant’s team, the Los Angeles Lakers, are scheduled to play the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday evening, so as to whether or not the league’s leading scorer will show up is a complete guessing game.

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Tuesday night, photos of the moment were taken, with many wondering if the Bryants are on their way to reconciling their broken marriage. In the pictures, Vanessa can also be seen cheering her husband’s team on and wearing an appropriate red dress to boot. The photo of the kiss was similar to happier times between the couple, as Vanessa would often greet her husband after games with their two daughters in tow.

Filing for divorce back in December, sources said Vanessa Bryant had caught wind of Kobe being unfaithful over time and reached a breaking point. Even though Kobe signed the divorce papers, sources said that Kobe was desperately hoping to save the couple’s 10-year marriage.

As part of the divorce settlement, Kobe lost the property rights to three Newport Beach homes, although the actual divorce doesn’t finalize until this summer.

Will Vanessa take Kobe back and withdraw the divorce papers? Time will tell.

See the pictures of last night’s love fest at TMZ.

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It was previously reported that Vanessa would be receiving the home that the couple shared and the home her mother resides in, while Kobe would take the newly constructed third estate. Now it is being reported that Vanessa actually gets all three properties.

Since the couple resides in California, Vanessa gets to enjoy the state’s 10-year divorce law, which categorizes any marriage that lasts that long as “lengthy.” Under California state law, having a “lengthy” marriage translates into a spouse being able to maintain their lifestyle after a marital breakup. Consequently, Vanessa will receive approximately half of Kobe’s fortune.

TMZ reports:

Vanessa is walking away with $75 million, which we’re told represents close to half of their total assets, estimated at around $150 million.

Last December, Vanessa cited “irreconcilable differences” when she filed for divorce, but it reportedly came out that the marriage collapsed due to Kobe’s cheating. While it was also reported that Kobe was trying to stop the divorce, Vanessa decided to go through with it.

Read the rest at TMZ.

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Jordan told sports writer Roland Lazenby, who is writing a book about Jordan:

Kobe’s the only one to have done the work, to deserve comparison.

Jordan has won six NBA championships to Kobe’s five and Jordan averaged 30.1 points during his career while Kobe has averaged 25.3. Kobe has averaged 4.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game, while Jordan averaged 5.3 assists and 6.2 rebounds per game. Both players have been named to the NBA All Defensive Team nine times but only Jordan was named Defensive Player Of The Year. Jordan has five NBA MVPs to Kobe’s one and six NBA Finals MVPs to Kobe’s two.

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On Jan. 5th, records show that Kobe officially transferred two properties to Vanessa, with some speculating that one of the estates is the property the couple shared in Newport Coast, Calif. As for the second home, TMZ reports that “it’s the nearby mansion where her  mother has been living.”

Still, Kobe wasn’t the only one to reportedly transfer property. Vanessa is said to have given Kobe an estate that is currently under construction in the Newport Coast area.

Kobe and Vanessa married in Dana Point, Calif. on April 18, 2001. At the time, while Kobe was 22 years old, Vanessa was just 18 years old. Only two short years later, Kobe was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee and eventually settled out of court. Then a few months later, the NBA star had a re-commitment ceremony with his wife. Still, their marriage was said to have continuously suffered from Kobe’s alleged infidelity. Vanessa filed for divorce in late 2011.

Read the rest at TMZ.

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“I gave him the phone number,” Bryant said Thursday night before the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the New York Knicks.

Bryant opened up about the steps he has taken to heal his arthritic joints in a rare pregame interview, crediting the therapy with dramatic improvement in his own troublesome right knee and an injured left ankle in recent months.

When Rodriguez inquired about Bryant’s treatment, Bryant vouched for the German doctor who developed the course of injections of plasma-rich platelets that supposedly stimulate healing in arthritis-affected areas.

Bryant says his knee is now 95 percent healthy after at least three surgeries in the last eight years. He apparently had the same treatment done in October on his ankle, which also isn’t limiting him this season.

“You can’t just try something just to try it,” Bryant said. “It has to make sense. It has to be something that you can back with research and study and things like that.”

And how did Bryant get information about the therapy – called Orthokine – being done in Duesseldorf?

“It’s my job to know these things,” Bryant said with a grin.

The Yankees might benefit from Bryant’s knowledge. General manager Brian Cashman said Wednesday that Rodriguez is “100 percent,” with “no red flags” going into spring training.

Rodriguez had surgery on his right knee last July and saw his power drop in the second half and postseason. He played in 99 games and hit 16 homers, struggling to produce at his usual prolific levels.

Bryant is far from fully healthy. He’s still playing with a torn ligament in his right wrist, wearing a brace on the joint whenever he isn’t on court.

He’s no longer wearing a wrap on the oft-injured index finger on his right hand, but that’s because the joint is now “bone on bone,” according to Bryant.

And Bryant hasn’t stopped trying new things to heal more quickly and thoroughly. Several Lakers joined him at a cryotherapy clinic in the Sacramento area on Monday, trying out an extreme cold chamber that’s thought to decrease pain and swelling in athletes.

Bryant can’t remember when his friendship with A-Rod started, but they’ve been friendly for years, going out to dinner and talking regularly. He’s grateful he could help the 36-year-old slugger get back in top shape.

“As a Yankee fan? Hell yeah,” Bryant said.

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According to reports, Vanessa hired a private detective who found photos of Kobe cheating during the recent NBA lockout.

PopularCritic reports:

“[Vanessa] estimated that he was averaging at least 10 affairs a year with different women over the course of their marriage and puts his number of conquests at 105.

Vanessa reportedly planned to divorce Kobe four years ago but was allegedly advised by her mother to wait until the 10-year mark to receive half of Kobe’s earnings. With no pre-nup, her payday stands at $75m.

Read More At Popular Critic.

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The NBA sought competitive balance. What it got was schedule imbalance.

One of the many consequences of the lockout, besides hundreds of lost games and hundreds of millions of lost dollars, was the tradition that every team plays in every NBA city at least once per season. That’s not the case this year.

While teams will visit every other team in their own conference, they will only make trips to play nine clubs from the other side of the league instead of the usual 15.

It’s one of many quirks of a 66-game schedule that, in a variety of ways, is not like any other in NBA history.

“In some cases, the team business-type might complain that they didn’t get (to host) the Heat or the Lakers,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said. “While in the background, the coach is doing cartwheels. So it’s kind of an interesting dynamic.”

There’s no shortage of those.

Reigning scoring king Kevin Durant dropped 66 points in New York earlier this year – alas, at Rucker Park, the fabled outdoor court and not Madison Square Garden. He and Oklahoma City won’t be going to play the Knicks this season.

The NBA champion Dallas Mavericks won’t be going to Charlotte, nor will Durant’s Thunder, Bryant’s Lakers or the Spurs, and that will keep ticket dollars from finding Bobcats owner Michael Jordan’s pockets.

Teams won’t be playing the same number of divisional games, so get ready for complaining should tiebreakers come into play when determining playoff seeding. And many small market teams will be miss out on some guaranteed sellouts against some elite clubs that might hurt in the standings but help with the bottom line.

“That’s what happens when you have a lockout,” Durant said.

When Magic coach Stan Van Gundy heard the league was putting together a 66-game slate instead of the usual 82-game run, he figured the breakdown was simple: Play every team in your division four times, then face every other team home and away.

That seemed easy enough.

Instead, it’s complicated.

“I’m not being critical of it,” Van Gundy said. “They’ve got a short period of time to play 66 games and there were a lot of factors they had to consider and I’m sure that they did it the best way that they could.”

True, but there is some zaniness.

Atlanta takes a trip that has the Hawks going north, then south, then north, then west, then east, then west and then home again, all in the span of nine days. Cleveland has a nine-game February homestand. San Antonio goes nearly four weeks without a home game. The Kings close the first half of their schedule with 20 of 28 away from Sacramento, daunting for a team desperate to keep fans engaged while trying to get a new arena. Denver plays nine in a row at home in one stretch, then immediately hits the road for seven straight.

But there’s no Anthony homecoming in Denver.

“Did it bother me? Not really,” said Anthony, now with the Knicks. “I mean, I would love to go back and play there. The reaction I would get, who knows? I might get some boos, I might get some claps, but it’d have been fun.”

Minnesota coach Rick Adelman was thrilled to see his club opens with six of seven at home. And then he looked who those early opponents are – the first four clubs to visit the Timberwolves are Oklahoma City, Miami, Dallas and San Antonio.

“It’s a challenge for us,” Adelman said. “If we come out and we’re ready to go, and we can knock some of these people off, it’s just going to be better for us.”

The Wolves don’t host Atlanta, Milwaukee, New Jersey, Orlando, Toronto and Washington, teams that perhaps don’t inspire the casual fan to run down on game night to check them out, but could be winnable games. They also don’t travel to Boston, Chicago, Miami or New York. From a competitive standpoint, not having to play those teams on the road is great for the Wolves. But from a player experience standpoint, the Wolves don’t sound thrilled.

“I think we don’t go to Miami and Chicago. … That’s a little sad,” eagerly anticipated guard Ricky Rubio said.

With this kind of schedule, youth might be served. Washington is expected to open the year with 10 players on the team age 25 or younger. So on those back-to-back-to-back nights, the Wizards might have a touch more spring in their collective step than some other clubs.

“It reminds me of an AAU season – playing five games in one day,” Wizards guard John Wall said. “It can be tough at times, but I think it can help us.”

In past years, playing four games in five nights would be considered the worst of the schedule grind.

It’s worse this year.

Not only will every team have at least one stretch of playing three games in three nights, but there will also be times when teams play eight games in 11 days. If a key player rolls an ankle, certainly a common issue in the NBA, at a particularly busy time in the schedule, a team could find itself without a key player for maybe 20 percent of the season. And with all those games in such a short span, this much is guaranteed: There will be nights when some teams will know the odds are stacked very, very highly against them, when they’re the weary-legged club against a team that’s had a couple of days off to freshen up.

“There will be nights when you’ll be like, `OK, well, let’s just go try and see what happens,’” Wade said. “It’s not going to be easy. For anyone.”

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Vanessa Bryant signed the papers on Dec. 1. Kobe Bryant signed his response on Dec. 7 and it was filed Friday, according to the documents.

“The Bryants have resolved all issues incident to their divorce privately with the assistance of counsel and a judgment dissolving their marital status will be entered in 2012,” according to a statement from a representative for the couple.

In the filing, Vanessa Bryant asked for joint legal and physical custody of the couple’s two daughters, Natalia, 8, and Gianna, 5. Kobe Bryant asked for the same in his response. Vanessa Bryant also requested spousal support.

The Bryants “ask that in the interest of our young children and in light of the upcoming holiday season the public respect our privacy during this difficult time,” according to the statement.

Bryant met his future wife in 1999 on a music video shoot when Vanessa Laine was 18 years old. Six months later, she and the then-21-year-old Bryant became engaged. They married on April 18, 2001.

The Bryants have been through trying times together.

Vanessa Bryant appeared at a news conference with her husband when he was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who worked at the exclusive Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Vail, Colo., in 2003. She held his hand and stroked it tenderly as the NBA star admitted he was guilty of adultery – but nothing else. Earlier she had issued her own statement to the media, vowing to stand by her husband.

“I know that my husband has made a mistake – the mistake of adultery,” she said in the statement at the time. “He and I will have to deal with that within our marriage, and we will do so. He is not a criminal.”

A year later, prosecutors dropped the criminal charge against Kobe Bryant because the woman did not want to go ahead with a trial.

Last year, Kobe and Vanessa Bryant settled litigation with a former maid who accused the NBA star’s wife of harassment. The Bryants countersued Maria Jimenez for violating a confidentiality agreement by talking to reporters about the family.

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Yet the Lakers also realize turmoil is as much a part of this club as those famous gold jerseys.

New coach Mike Brown ran his first practice Friday without big men Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom as the Lakers opened training camp under the cloud of a trade shockingly blocked by the NBA.

Odom showed up more than 90 minutes late to the Lakers’ training complex, and then left early after a meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak. Gasol, the four-time All-Star forward also included in the deal, showed up for the workout but didn’t practice before leaving the building early for what the team claimed was medical evaluation on a strained right quadriceps.

From Brown to Kobe Bryant to Metta World Peace, nobody denied the strangeness of the Lakers’ situation – but nobody thought it was a serious setback to their preparations for the shortened season, even with Gasol and Odom missing practice amid reports the New Orleans Hornets still were trying to trade Paul.

“Unfortunately, it’s just the nature of the beast,” Bryant said. “That’s just the business that we’re in. In this situation, the commissioner has the right to void the trade. For the players involved, it’s always tough to hear your name mentioned in trade discussions, but at the end of the day you’ve got to do your job. You can only control so much.”

Kupchak met with the Lakers to brief them on “the awkward moment,” as center Andrew Bynum described it. The Lakers then went into an extremely lengthy practice as Brown attempted to install his defensive philosophy and an offensive system tailored to Bryant and … well, whoever ends up in their starting lineup on Christmas in less than three weeks.

“It’s been interesting, to say the least,” Brown said about his first teaching day in the job he accepted more than six months ago. “Never experienced anything like this, but it’s good to experience new stuff.”

Even though Derek Fisher will lose his job if the Lakers acquire Paul, the players union president thinks the NBA overstepped the intent of its new collective bargaining agreement when David Stern blocked the deal.

“I still disagree with … Commissioner Stern and the owners’ ability to hold up a trade,” said Fisher, who started every game for the past four years at point guard. “In a sense, it flies in the face of all the negotiations we had on the collective bargaining agreement.”

Odom was thought to be headed to New Orleans in the deal for Paul, the Hornets’ superstar point guard, until Stern blocked the deal for what a league spokesman called “basketball reasons.” Gasol was expected to be moved to Houston in a deal that would have reconfigured the Lakers’ roster for their season opener against Chicago.

The Lakers already realized they were in for a major transition after Phil Jackson’s departure cleared the way for Brown’s intensity and defensive focus. The 16-time NBA champions’ threepeat bid ended last spring with a second-round sweep by Dallas.

“It’s always going to be like that with the Lakers,” said Bynum, also the subject of numerous trade rumors surrounding Los Angeles’ desire to land Orlando center Dwight Howard. “Every year I’ve been here, there’s somebody who’s better than me that maybe we’re going to get.”

Los Angeles also signed veteran shooter Jason Kapono, draft picks Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock, and center Chris Daniels on Friday.

Odom was the NBA’s sixth man of the year last season, and the veteran big man has spent all but one season of his 12-year career with Los Angeles’ two NBA teams. He’s also at the nexus of Hollywood’s love affair with the Lakers, given his marriage to Khloe Kardashian and their reality show.

“When a team trades u and it doesn’t go down? Now what?” Odom tweeted Thursday night.

Gasol has played in three NBA finals and won two titles since the Lakers acquired him in early 2008. Although he’s among the NBA’s best big men, some Lakers fans soured on the Spanish national team star for his dismal play down the stretch last season.

If the Lakers empty their enviable frontcourt depth in a deal for Paul, they could face a difficult start to the year when the Bulls visit to start a stretch of five games in seven days. Bynum is suspended for those first five games for his bad behavior in the final game of the Lakers’ playoff loss to Dallas.

Kapono, the former UCLA star from nearby Artesia, joined his sixth NBA team by signing with the Lakers. The two-time 3-Point Shootout winner earned a championship ring with the Miami Heat in 2007, contributing valuable spot-up 3-point shooting.

The Lakers’ perimeter shooting was spotty down the stretch last season, with the club struggling to find a dependable 3-point specialist since trading Sasha Vujacic.

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Who are we talking about?

Quite possibly the second best shooting-guard of all-time after Michael Jordan, the Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Bryant, who is on a quest to win his sixth championship ring and tie his idol Michael Jordan, is currently being pursued by an Italian basketball team to play for them if the NBA season is locked out.

But Bryant’s focus remains on making sure that those who say he’s lost a step, regret it.

Below is a list of the top 10 facts from Kobe Bryant’s wiki that we never knew:

1. Kobe “Beef”

Right before his birth, Kobe Bryant’s parents were at a Philadelphia restaurant named after the high quality beef steak, Kobe, and they decided that would be the name of their son.

2. Only Child?

Some sportswriters and fans thought and still believe that Kobe is a selfish, spoiled brat. It would make you believe that Kobe was showered with affection and was an only child. Wrong? Kobe actually has two sisters — Sharia and Shaya, who are both older than him.

3. 1-on-1 Against His Shadow?

Kobe develops new moves in the off-season by playing against his shadow.

4. Pele, Messi, Ronaldo, Maradona, Kobe???

Had the Bryants remained in Europe, Kobe says he would have gone into pro soccer. He rooted for AC Milan while licing in Italy.

5. Just Like Any Kid

Kobe’s favorite video as a kid was “NBA Showmen,” which highlighted some of basketball’s all-time greats.

6.  Celebrity Prom Date

Kobe took R&B star Brandy to his senior prom. He later played the role of a basketball star on her show, “Moesha.”

7. The Godfather!

Speaks fluent Italian, having spent eight childhood years in Italy.

8. Take That Shaq!

In 2006, his daughter Gianna Maria-Onoro was born six minutes before the daughter of Bryant’s former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal.

9. History

At the age of 17, he was the first guard to be drafted directly out of high school.

10. There Must Have Been A Better Name Choice

Surprisingly, Kobe Bryant’s middle name is Bean. More than likely, Bean has to do with his basketball-playing father’s nickname, which was Jellybean.

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“We have reached an economic deal,” Virtus president Claudio Sabatini told a local radio station. “There’s still some things to arrange but at this point I’m very optimistic. I would say it’s 95 percent done.”

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A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday that the sides have settled on a $3 million (?2.2 million) contract for the opening 40 days of the Italian league season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has still not been signed.

Bryant, who spent much of his childhood in Italy, was in the country for sponsor appearances over the past two days but was flying back to the United States for labor talks with the NBA on Friday.

Bryant is expected to get a work visa and return to Italy next week.

“Kobe should be in Bologna by Wednesday or Thursday with his visa in hand for medical visits and then we can deposit the contract with the league,” Sabatini said. “I want to make clear that right now there are still no signatures. We’ve got to write the contract, which will then be read over and over again.”

Virtus had been due to open the season against Roma on Oct. 9, but schedules now need to be redone after Venezia was added as a 17th team.

The deal, which would allow Bryant to return to the Lakers immediately if the lockout ends, should last about 10 games.

Sabatini wants to create a special schedule to accommodate Bryant, by assigning his games to Italy’s biggest arenas.

“This is an important investment and a unique chance for the city of Bologna and all of Italian basketball,” Sabatini said. “I’m hoping everyone wants to collaborate.”

The 33-year-old Bryant has three years and $83.5 million left on his contract with the Lakers.

Between the ages of 6 and 13, Bryant lived in Italy when his father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, played with Rieti, Reggio Calabria, Pistoia and Reggiana from 1984-91. The elder Bryant also once owned a small part of Olimpia Milano. He now coaches the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA.

The younger Bryant still speaks Italian fairly well, and discussed his memories of that period during an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport two days ago.

“Italy is my home. It’s where my dream of playing in the NBA started. This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball,” Bryant told the Italian newspaper. “All things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”

Bryant added that playing in Italy again “would be a dream for me.”

Bryant has been bothered in recent seasons by an arthritic joint in his right knee, which has required several minor operations. He sat out a majority of the Lakers’ practices last season and saw his scoring, shooting percentage and minutes decrease in his 15th NBA season.

Former USC guard Daniel Hackett, a dual citizen who plays for Pesaro in Italy, said he would give Bryant a hostile reception if he faced the former NBA MVP.

“The only way to stop a player that good is with a hard foul and he knows that,” Hackett said. “I’ve got five fouls to commit and they’re going to be the hardest five fouls I’ve ever committed.”

Hackett also criticized speculation that Bologna will ask opposing clubs hosting Bryant’s away games to chip in a portion of ticket sales to help pay Bryant’s salary.

“I really hope Kobe doesn’t lower himself to this level for economic and commercial motives,” Hackett said, according to the Gazzetta. “To me, it would be a big disappointment to see him here under these circumstances, and a loss of respect for a player who is too big to dirty his hands in this league.”

Bologna president Sabatini replied, “Fortunately not all Italian players think like Hackett.”

Turkish club Besiktas and at least one team in China had also expressed interest in Bryant, who has won five NBA championships and been an All-Star 13 times.

Bologna also recently sounded out Manu Ginobili(notes), who played with the club before joining the San Antonio Spurs in 2002. Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari(notes) rejoined his former Italian club Olimpia Milano last week.

The NBA season is scheduled to open Nov. 1 but owners and players have failed to agree on a new labor deal. The two sides are at odds over how to divide the league’s revenue, a salary cap structure and the length of guaranteed contracts.

Last week, NBA officials announced the postponement of training camp and the cancellation of 43 preseason games.

Virtus has won 15 Italian league titles but none since 2001, when it also won the Euroleague for the second time.

Bologna did not qualify for this season’s Euroleague, although the team has big ambitions after signing former Clemson University point guard Terrell McIntyre, who led Siena to four consecutive Italian titles before transferring to Malaga in Spain for last season.

Having mingled with fans in Milan on Wednesday, Bryant also received a warm welcome in Rome on Thursday, where he was brought to the Campidoglio museum to be given a commemorative medal from the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Bologna has been posting fan messages supporting its campaign for Bryant on the club’s website.

“A whole town is holding its breath,” one fan wrote, in English. “But for once this is happening not because of troubles or worries, it’s all about a dream. Thousands of Italian people dream of being able to say one day, ‘I was there, I saw the legendary Black Mamba. … Right here.”’

Another fan, writing in Italian, said he would bring Bryant “to eat tortellini”—one of Bologna’s most famous dishes.

Virtus Bologna has made numerous contract offers to the Los Angeles Lakers star. Bryant discussed the offer with the Gazzetta dello Sport during a sponsor’s appearance in Milan on Wednesday.

“It’s very possible. It would be a dream for me,” Bryant said, according to the Gazzetta. “There’s an opportunity that we’ve been discussing over the last few days. It’s very possible and that’s good news for me.”

Virtus told The Associated Press that the latest talks are centered on a $2.5 million offer for 10 games over 40 days from Oct. 9 to Nov. 16. That would come out to about $1.5 million after taxes.

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The deal would allow Bryant to return to the Lakers immediately if the lockout ends.

The 33-year-old Bryant spent several years in Italy when his father, Joe Bryant, played on five teams from 1984-91. The elder Bryant, who once owned a small part of Olimpia Milano, now coaches the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA.

“Italy is my home. It’s where my dream of playing in the NBA started. This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball,” Kobe Bryant said, according to the Gazzetta. “All things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”

Turkish club Besiktas and at least one team in China have expressed interest in Bryant, a winner of five NBA championships and 13-time All-Star. However, he seems most interested in the Virtus offer.

“It’s a huge honor for me to return to Italy. It’s home for me,” Bryant said in fairly fluent Italian in a video posted on the Gazzetta website. “It’s always been a dream for me to play in Italy. We’ve got to wait and see what happens.”

Virtus also recently reached out to Manu Ginobili, who played with Bologna before joining the San Antonio Spurs in 2002. Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari rejoined his former Italian club Olimpia Milano last week.

The NBA season usually begins in late October, but owners and players have failed to agree on a new labor deal. The two sides are at odds over how to divide the league’s revenue, a salary cap structure and the length of guaranteed contracts.

Last week, NBA officials announced the postponement of training camp and the cancellation of 43 preseason games.

Virtus has won 15 Italian league titles but none since 2001, when it also won the Euroleague for the second time.

Bologna opens the Italian league against Roma on Oct. 9. It did not qualify for this season’s Euroleague, although the team has big ambitions after signing former Clemson point guard Terrell McIntyre, who led Siena to four consecutive Italian titles before transferring to Malaga in Spain last season.

Basketball star Kobe Bryant has been accused of injuring a man at a San Diego church when he grabbed his wrist and snatched his phone.

The man, who has yet to be identified, says the NBA star snatched his phone at St. Therese of Carmel church when he thought he snapped photos of him and his family.

The star eventually returned the phone once he saw no pictures were taken.

Read more at CBSLocal

RELATED:

Gay rights group criticizes Kobe Bryant for homophobic slur

FIBA agrees that players are free to sign anywhere but do so at their own risk of injury.

Secretary general Patrick Baumann says in a statement Friday that FIBA supports “any player wishing to play the game, wherever and whenever. We do so while obviously taking the interests, rights and obligations of all parties into account.”

Playing overseas has emerged as an option for NBA players during a work stoppage that threatens to last months. Nets All-Star Deron Williams has a deal with Turkish club Besiktas — which is also courting Kobe Bryant — and others say they will consider playing.

1. Tiger Woods, $75 Million
2. Kobe Bryant, $53 Million
3. LeBron James, $48 Million
4. Roger Federer, $47 Million
5. Phil Mickelson, $46.5 Million
6. David Beckham, $40 Million
7. Cristiano Ronaldo, $38 Million
8. Alex Rodriguez, $35 Million
9. Michael Schumacher, $34 Million
10. Lionel Messi, $32.3 Million

Read The Whole Story At Yahoo Sports

In the wake of the Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah’s gay slur incidents, many are saying that the NBA has officially become the most homophobic sports league in the country.

The backlash began a few weeks ago when Kobe Bryant used a slur against a referee. GLAAD (Gays & Lesbians Alliance Against Defamation) went right after him and the NBA responded by saying they were against such talk. Shortly thereafter, Joakim Noah mentioned the same slur to a fan at a game in Miami. The organization believes that no one has really learned anything and much still needs to be done.

According to a poll done on Bleacher Report, 65 percent of people say that the NBA does not have a problem with homophobia, while 35 percent feel it does. Not a landslide victory there, but the question still remains. If there is homophobia, what will it take to get it fixed?

Check out the article below from Bleacher Report.

Read more at Bleacher Report

RELATED:

Joakim Noah fined $50k for anti-gay slur

LOS ANGELES – Gay rights group Human Rights Campaign blasted Lakers star Kobe Bryant after he was seen on camera mouthing “f***in f***ot” at NBA referee Bennie Adams after a call he disagreed with.

RELATED: NBA fines Kobe $100k for calling referee derogatory homophobic slur

Human Rights Campaign told TMZ:

“Hopefully Mr. Bryant will recognize that as a person with such fame and influence, the use of such language not only offends millions of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] people around the world, but also perpetuates a culture of discrimination and hate that all of us, most notably Mr. Bryant, should be working to eradicate.”

TNT announcer Steve Kerr picked up on Bryant’s outburst and said: “You might wanna take the cameras off of him right now, for the children watching from home.

A Lakers representative briefly commented on the matter.

“We haven’t seen the video, so it would be inappropriate for us to comment on it,” a Lakers spokesperson told ESPNLosAngeles.com on Wednesday.

Read The Whole Story

You can catch Kobe’s foul-mouth at the 0:30 mark.

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Kobe Gets Star On Walk Of Fame [Video]

Phil Jackson Says Kobe Bryant “Screwed Up Game By Going One On One”

Los Angeles — After five NBA titles, many would ask what else Kobe Bryant needs to feel special. How about a star on the Walk of Fame?

RELATED: 25 reasons we love Michael Jordan

The Laker player became the first athlete ever to receive this honor at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

“I feel like I’ve grown up in this city, and we’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but here we are—five championships, plenty of more to go, and I just feel extremely honored to be able to do this,” Bryant said during the ceremony.

Watch:
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RELATED:

An open letter to Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant says Michael Jackson made him the player he is today

Miami — After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the Los Angeles Lakers by 55 points LeBron James left a Twitter message that seemed to be directed at the Cavaliers and their fans.

Crazy. Karma is a b****.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!

After a slow start, the Miami Heat have the best record in the Eastern Conference of the NBA, and have won 9 straight games, while the Cavaaliers.

The Cavaliers only scored 57 points in that game while Kobe Bryant only needed 13 points to propel the Lakers to a 112-57 points victory over the Lakers.

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LeBron Dominates In Cleveland Return

Lebron James Descends From Hero to Bad Cowboy

LOS ANGELES- Los Angeles Laker guard, Kobe Bryant has been having a subtle war of words with his coach, Phil Jackson. After losing a game on Monday to the Memphis Grizzlies, Jackson said:

“Kobe had to screw up the game and start energizing the team by going one-on-one. That takes the rest of the guys out and as a consequence, that didn’t bring us back in.”

Kobe Bryant had his own words for Phil Jackson, mocking his “Zen” style of coaching:

“We’ve had days off and blown teams out, so I’m not buying any of that Zen (bulls—),”

RELATED STORIES

NBA All-Star Game 2011: Kobe Bryant Tops Early Voting

Kobe Bryant Says Michael Jackson Made Him The Basketball Player He Is

Los Angeles — In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Kobe Bryant credited Michael Jackson with giving him the discipline and work ethic that has allowed him to become the world championship basketball player he is today:

“It sounds weird, I guess, but it’s true: I was really mentored by the preparation of Michael Jackson,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports.

“We would always talk about how he prepared to make his music, how he prepared for concerts,” Bryant said. “He would teach me what he did: How to make a ‘Thriller’ album, a ‘Bad’ album, all the details that went into it. It was all the validation that I needed – to know that I had to focus on my craft and never waver. Because what he did – and how he did it – was psychotic. He helped me get to a level where I was able to win three titles playing with Shaq because of my preparation, my study. And it’s only all grown.

“That’s the mentality that I have – it’s not an athletic one. It’s not from [Michael] Jordan. It’s not from other athletes.

“It’s from Michael Jackson.”

Read The Whole Story

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Why Kobe Will Never Surpass Jordan

Michael Jordan Says He Could’ve Scored 100 Points In Today’s NBA

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Five better career moves for Flavor Flav [from TheUrbanDaily.com]

T.I. blames his dentist for drug addiction [from TheUrbanDaily.com]

The Dream pays Christina Milian $4 mil to keep her mouth shut [from HelloBeautiful.com]

2010 American Music Awards Photos [from HelloBeautiful.com]

Here is an excerpt:

But despite the NBA’s official disapproval, the use of pot hasn’t seemed to decrease. In 2001, one of the toughest players in hoops history, power forward Charles Oakley, claimed that 50 to 60 percent of players smoked weed. A Rocky Mountain News survey released in 2005 reported that NBA players estimated on average that one out of three of their colleagues—roughly 30 percent—smoked pot. In 2008, Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavericks caused a stir when he admitted on ESPN Radio that he smokes marijuana during the off-season and that “everybody in the media world and in the sports world knows that NBA players do smoke marijuana.” Asked how many, Howard offered the rather high figure of 70 percent, while his Mavericks teammate, Jason Terry, thought that only 5 percent of players got high—a wildly unrealistic claim.

As for the argument that only fringe players use pot and not the superstars, what about the aforementioned LeBron James, who has acknowledged that he smoked pot during his high-school years? Aside from Kobe Bryant, you don’t get much bigger than King James.

Read The Whole Story

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Michael Beasley Used “Too Much Pot” Says Wolves President

NBA All-Star Accused Of Being “Major Marijuana Supplier”

If you were to walk into a room filled with the 2010 Los Angeles Lakers or the 2009 New York Yankees and started calling them “losers” and “bums” and “chumps”, they’d probably look at you curiously, smirk a little bit and maybe even laugh out loud.

You could probably continue to insult them too—so long as you didn’t launch into any personal or family-based attacks—so amused would they be by you and so certain would they also be that you were some isolated nut that was also totally harmless.

Meanwhile, if you tried the same stunt with the 2010 New Jersey Nets, you’d likely end up beaten to a bloody pulp and rushed out of the room barely breathing.

Why is this, you think?

Click here to view photos:

Athletes Behaving Badly

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Well, for the same reason there are no really good slurs against White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Most of the world is so convinced that a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant is the thing to be that if you were to try to insult one, your attempt would be viewed as more of an indication of your own psychological distance from reality and not that anything was wrong with the people you were attacking.

Why do you think that those nutty Nubian Islamic Hebrews are allowed to stand on street corners and read excerpts from the bible that they always seem to interpret as slurs against Europeans?

Why do you think that for so many years, the Nation of Islam was allowed to say so many shocking things against white people while simultaneously being (on the surface at least) protected by the police?

Why do Black comics poke such silly fun at white audience members?

Because the white people that they’re supposed to be attacking see anybody that verbally attacks white people as sufferers of sour grapes.

They almost feel sorry for their verbal attackers and as a magnanimous exercise, allow the attacks to continue if only to show the world that despite their own obvious greatness, they’re good sports as well.

RELATED: Glenn Beck Compares Tiger Woods To O.J. Simpson

Now think about how Blacks react whenever other races insult us, most specifically, whenever other races use the “N-Word”.

Do we react like the Lakers, the Yankees or the Nets?

Tiger,

Dude, it was clear that you weren’t a player when you gave your side chicks your main cell number. Then you admitted to cheating. Why on earth did you do that? There are hit songs about never admitting to cheating! Now, even if your woman does want to stay, you’ve got to get rid of her.

If she did stay, the lesser of two evils would be that you’d lose respect for her. You’d wonder how she could know everything that she knows and still stick around. I mean, she ain’t Hillary Clinton. She ain’t running for president of Sweden in 4 years. So what’s her logic? Invariably, you’d start cheating on her again. She’s already shown that she won’t leave.

Of course, the more likely reason that she’d stay would be to light you up. Hope you didn’t have any enemies, dawg. I’ve read how you and Phil Mickelson ain’t exactly simpatico. You better hope he’s not the kind of guy that cheats on his wife. Otherwise, get used to picturing him and your wife in weird and compromising positions.

And forget about your enemies; what about your friends? I hope you don’t trust Michael Jordan farther than you can throw him! Your wife would be an upgrade over the kind of stuff I’ve seen Jordan trotting around with lately. And Barkley! Lord, please tell me that you don’t trust Charles Barkley!

Kobe Bryant’s about as simple-minded as you are and also about as talented. Don’t you remember how after Kobe got caught going backdoor commando in Colorado, his wife broke up the old Lakers by flirting with Karl Malone? You think she’s stopped flirting?

Your wife would be getting it in, my man, and here’s the worst part about that: she’d be totally justified!

And dude, the thing is; it wasn’t as if you were smart enough to have a fetish for Black girls or be secretly gay—two instances against which your wife would have been helpless. But you went after the same exact woman as your wife, again and again and again. And I’m not the biggest fan of the looks of one Ms. Elin Nordegren, but she is way hotter than all of your side-chicks. She’s gotta be furious.

The bottom line is, you should never ever ever ever cheat. But if you do and you don’t even have the decency to lie, you’ve gotta be the one to leave.

Your friend,

RK

Here’s why racism makes no sense: if left unchecked, it can obscure self-interest. For example, we all stand aghast at those mad citizens that suddenly pray for American sorrow just because a Black man is president. Similarly, I’d have been crazy to be pulling for LeBron or D Wade or Kevin Durant in last night’s NBA all-star game just because they’re Black like me. I had a more specific self-interest to look out for. We had a Knick in this year’s all-star game!

David Lee, in his 5^th year out of the University of Florida, is currently averaging 20ppg to go along with 11.4rpg. Lee has improved his scoring average every season since being drafted and he is the one New York Knick that is deservedly excluded from any trade talks.

Of course, I had to apply a little bit of self-administered racial back-patting just so that I could cheer more easily for my pale hero. I had to remind myself that it was the much maligned Isiah Thomas that brought our great, white David Lee to New York. Thomas’ taking Lee with the 30^th and final pick of the first round in the 2005 NBA draft secured the guy for us. David Lee is the first Knick to make an all-star team since we had both Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell on the East’s squad in 2001.

David Lee is the best player on the New York Knicks—and I’m a fan of Nate Robinson. We’d have been a playoff contender this year if those idiots D’Antoni and Walsh had taken Brandon Jennings with the 8^th pick instead of Jordan Hill. Brandon Jennings, taken by the Milwaukee Bucks with this year’s 10^th overall selection, should win the Rookie of the Year award (if Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans doesn’t). Jordan Hill barely gets off the bench.

Yes, I am a Knicks fan and the minute you finish laughing realize this: next year, we might get LeBron James. In the meantime, we still have David Lee.

Notes from around the game: Why did Usher perform? Who came up with the Bloods vs. Crips version of the uniforms with the Western all-stars wearing red and the Eastern all-stars wearing blue? Doesn’t one team normally wear white? Expect Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban to be fined for saying that this year’s all-star game will make last week’s Super Bowl “look like a Bar Mitzvah.” I’m sure they’re something racist about the way that Black men are being used in those Old Spice commercials and I intend to find out what it is as soon as I can stop laughing. By sitting out with a (wink! wink!) injury, Kobe was trying to be as cool as Kanye at last year’s BET Awards. You ain’t hurt, punk! I saw Gabrielle Union in the crowd! She was with some other chick, I think Carmelo Anthony’s fiancé Lala Vazquez. Shakira was ok. Why did Alicia Keys sing a retooled Empire State of Mind II in Dallas? Makes me wanna wear a Barack Obama T-shirt to a gathering of Tea Party Patriots. The Eastern Conference won the game 141-139. Dwyane Wade was named MVP.

Obama invited the team and Lamar Odom’s wife for a little meet and greet. See the photos below:

Start Gallery

OPINION: If Kobe Ain’t Better Than Jordan, He’s The Closest One

LA Lakers Win 15th NBA Title

From the minute that he called himself a ‘Cablinasian’, I knew there was something wrong with that dude. Not only is ‘Cablinasian’ a made up word and nuttier than if he had called himself, say, a ‘Martian’ (something I’ve actually heard of), it’s also misleading and even by his own definition, well, wrong.

The word itself is supposed to represent Tiger Woods in all of his diverse ethnicity. The ‘ca’ part is for his Caucasian side, the ‘bl’ for his Blackness, the ‘in’ for the American Indian in him and the ‘asian’ represents his Asian heritage. The problem is that with a Black father and a Thai mother, I can’t find a Caucasian or an Indian anywhere! Tiger, however, not only found the Caucasian in himself, but he put that part at the forefront of his identity.

The first thing you see when you look at the man on paper is the ‘ca’. The first (and possibly the only) thing you see when you look at the man in the flesh is the ‘bl’. And Bl people have had a pretty contentious relationship with the guy ever since he unfurled his own genotype.

And it’s too bad that Tiger’s a Cablinasian because if he’d been Black, he would have almost instinctively known what to do next, or he could have at least drawn inspiration and guidance from two of today’s greatest Black leaders: Kobe Bryant and R Kelly.

You see, instead of sitting around wasting money at a spa that’s supposed to be curing him of his ‘sex addiction’ (dig: when alcoholics get cured, they can never drink again; when drug addicts get cured, they can never do drugs again; what happens when sex addicts get cured?), Tiger could have followed the path of our great leaders and gone out and did what it was that made us love him (a stretch, I know) in the first place.

That’s right; after R Kelly’s sex scandal, he released The Chocolate Factory, one of the greatest R&B albums in recent history. After Kobe Bryant’s sex scandal, he played 6 straight seasons of MVP-caliber basketball, culminating in his Lakers winning last season’s NBA Championship. Tiger Woods just had a sex scandal that will probably end up costing him $300 million in payments to his soon-to-be ex-wife. Somebody better turn Black soon.

But maybe Tiger doesn’t need to be completely ‘Black’. Maybe he can get by with just being ‘Blaucinasian’.

Whatever the case, he needs to go out and win some golf tournaments. And then afterwards, he should serve the fried chicken.

During the first decade of the new millennium, people had a lot of trouble keeping it in their pants, in their bras, and off of videotape. Cheaters, abusers, and other lewd activity-perpetrators ran rampant. Without further ado, here are the top 10 sex scandals of 2000 – 2009.

1. Tiger Woods & Jamie Jungers, 2. Tiger Woods & Rachel Uchitel, 3. Tiger Woods & Jaimee Grubbs, 4. Tiger Woods & Kalika Moquin, 5. Tiger Woods & Mindy Lawton, 6. Tiger Woods & Cori Rist, 7. Tiger Woods & Holly Sampson, 8. Tiger Woods & Joslyn James, 9. Tiger Woods & Loredana Jolie, 10. Tiger Woods & Julie Postle

Honorable Mentions: Tiger Woods & Theresa Rogers, Tiger Woods & Unidentified cocktail waitress, Tiger Woods & Unidentified British TV presenter, Tiger Woods & Unidentified “sex-addicted cougar”

… Just kidding! Here’s the real list:

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10 – Paris Hilton Sex Tape

In 2004 (back when leaked sex tapes were still a surprise) Paris Hilton’s ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon released footage of the pair having intimate relations. Hilton sued Salomon for making the tape public, but eventually settled out of court. The video, entitled “1 Night in Paris,” went on to claim the title of most rented release of 2005 and catapulted Paris Hilton’s already undeserved fame to even greater heights.

9 – Bill O’Reilly Sued For Sexual Harassment

A former producer of his show sued Bill O’Reilly for sexual harassment in 2004, alleging that he spoke to her about sexual fantasies, masturbation, and vibrators while sometimes seeming to pleasure himself. O’Reilly countersued for extortion, and the case was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!

8 – Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Caught Exchanging Explicit Text Messages With Staffer

Sexting: Not just for tweens anymore. In early 2008 the Detroit Free Press revealed the existence of more than 14,000 text messages between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff Christine Beatty. Kilpatrick and Beatty, both married to other people at the time, used their city-issued phones to communicate in graphic detail about about their affair. This, combined with Kilpatrick’s many legal troubles, led him to step down as mayor. For his other crimes – including obstruction of justice and assaulting a police officer – he faces 120 days in prison and 5 years of probation. Not sexy.

RELATED: Kwame Kilpatrick’s Scandalous Text Messages Revealed

7 – Nipplegate

During the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVIII in February of 2004, Justin Timberlake sang “I’m gonna have ya naked by the end of this song” during his duet with Janet Jackson. Apparently he meant it, because when he ripped off part of her bodice, Janet’s breast was revealed to the world (except for a strategically covered nipple). Nipplegate gave us the term “wardrobe malfunction,” and MTV, which co-produced the show alongside CBS, was banned from ever producing a halftime show again. To top it all off, CBS was fined a record $550,000 for indecency by the FCC.

6 – Mark Sanford “Hikes The Appalachian Trail”

The South Carolina governor had not been seen in public for some time in mid-2009 when his staff told media outlets Sanford was “hiking on the Appalachian Trail.” Apparently by “hiking” they meant “visiting his ‘soul mate’ Argentinian mistress.” An honest mistake, we’re sure.  Sanford’s infidelity was ultimately exposed, leading him to apologize during a rambling, teary-eyed press conference. Flying in the face the political wives’ “stand by your man” code of honor, Jenny Sanford has since filed for divorce.

5 – Tiger Woods Cheats On His Wife … A Lot

A late-night car accident over Thanksgiving weekend 2009 drew intense media scrutiny, leading to the revelation that Tiger had cheated on wife Elin with 14 different women (and counting). With all that’s been written about the golfer lately, there isn’t a whole lot left to say to Tiger except … C’mon son!

RELATED: ROUND-UP: Mistresses Tattle On Tiger With Technology

4 – Larry Craig “Has A Wide Stance” In Airport Bathroom

Craig was arrested in 2007 for lewd conduct when he sought sex from a male undercover officer in a Minneapolis airport bathroom using well-known solicitation signals. Craig insisted upon his innocence, stating that he merely had a “wide stance” and that he had been picking up a piece of paper from the floor. This was of course the same Larry Craig who in 1989 pushed for more severe punishment of Representative Barney Frank for his involvement in a gay prostitution scandal.

3 – R. Kelly Charged With Child Pornography

R. Kelly has been roiled by several sex scandals. In 1995, he reportedly married the then 15-year-old Aaliyah, for whom he was a songwriter. The marriage was ultimately annulled, but that wasn’t the last we heard of Kelly’s alleged affinity for the Miley Cyrus set. In 2002, he was indicted on several counts of child pornography after a video was released of a man – purported to be him – having sex with an underage girl. His case finally went to trial in 2008, with the jury ruling Kelly not guilty on all 14 counts. The ill-advisedly self-described “Pied Piper of R&B” has since gone on to make more hit music, apparently forgiven by all his fans.

RELATED: Tavis Smiley Draws “Child Rape” Criticism For Publishing R. Kelly’s Book

2 – Kobe Bryant Accused Of Rape

In the summer of 2003 NBA superstar Kobe Bryant was arrested for the rape of a 19-year old hotel employee in Colorado. Bryant admitted to an adulterous sexual encounter with his accuser, but denied the assault allegation. The case was dropped after the accuser declined to testify in the trial, and a civil suit was settled out of court. Kobe lost several endorsement deals, but was able purchase his wife’s forgiveness with a $4 million diamond ring. Basketball fans are also back on his side thanks to his role in leading the Lakers to an NBA Championship in 2009.

1 – Priests In Catholic Church Sexually Abuse Young Boys

In 2001, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a study that found that four percent of all priests who served in the U.S. from 1950 to 2002 faced some sort of sexual misconduct accusation. The Church was criticized when it emerged that some bishops had known about abuse allegations and failed to report them to police, instead merely reassigning accused priests. There are obviously about a million things wrong with this entire situation, but the sheer number of people affected and the church’s supposed position as a moral beacon combine to make this the biggest and most shocking sex scandal of the decade.

Check out more of NewsOne’s Best & Worst of 2009 and the Decade HERE.

I felt like I was re-watching the scene in Roots where Kunte Kinte is forced to accept that his new name will be “Toby” upon hearing that Michael Vick had actually thanked NFL commissioner Pete Goodell for reinstating him into the NFL after a 6 game suspension due to a dog fighting conviction.

As you might have read, I didn’t think Vick should have done a day in jail or spent a penny in fines because the dogs he fought were, after all, his dogs. Feel free to disagree, but for my money, the only contrary argument I’ll even entertain must come from a complete vegan (that includes fish) who opposes pet ownership on the grounds that all God’s creatures are born free.

We all know, however, this won’t be the case. The most vocal of Vick’s critics will surely be the guy pulling out of the McDonald’s parking lot with a McChicken for wifey, a Double Quarterpounder for himself and Spot chained up in the rain to a spike in the yard.

This guy’ll go to one of Vick’s games, order a bratwurst and curse Vick as an animal killer through a mouth full of dead meat.

Meanwhile, this guy-

has been accused of pulling a “Kobe” on a woman in a hotel room.

Two-time NFL champion and Super Bowl 43 MVP, Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger allegedly raped a female hotel employee in Lake Tahoe, Nevada who was, in her words, “lured” into his room to fix his television set.

Roethlisberger’s alleged parting quote upon completing the deed was “If anyone asks you, you fixed my television. Now go!”

Roethlisberger hasn’t been suspended by the NFL nor should we expect him to be. He’s facing “allegations” and that’s the key word. These “allegations” are also coming from a woman-and as anyone knows, in America, if you’ve got enough money and your last name isn’t Tyson, you can do anything you want to women, including; make them fight.

Maybe that’s where Vick went wrong. He picked the wrong combatants.