TJ Simers Owns Peter Vecsey

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">SO I go to the New York Post website and I just love the headline "BALLHOG BRYANT," and then a smaller one below that, across the top of Peter Vecsey's Tuesday column, "KOBE LEADS NBA IN SELFISHNESS."

If it means going all the way to New York to find someone who doesn't mind picking on Kobe, I've got no problem with that, and this is the great NBA insider, the former TBS and NBC analyst on the NBA, who is so well-connected and obviously not buying the happy face that everyone is putting on Kobe's game this season.

I wanted to savor every word of the Vecsey column, which began: "February 13, 2007 ? Eddie Jordan could have been accused Sunday of plagiarizing Phil Jackson's words and simply applying them to his own pin-up player except that the Zen Hen had swallowed them."

I've got to remember that one: Zen Hen. It's got a nice ring to it, although plagiarizing seems a little harsh, but then Vecsey is known for being tough on people.

Once into the column, I got to the meat of it, where Vecsey really started to go after Kobe as only he could.

"Exempting Bryant, no Laker apparently understands how to play the game ? when it's on national TV, anyway. Every time they're showcased, and the floodlights are directed at him, I could swear, Kobe makes sure two or three times minimum to lecture someone on the team (usually Smush, his favorite whipping boy, I'm told) as if he's the coach ? almost always on the offensive end."

I'm not surprised someone might quote Vecsey as NBA gospel, so I wasn't surprised that it sounded like something I had already read. As you might imagine, if Kobe is being trashed somewhere, I'm not going to miss it.

I did some research, and sure enough, Alan Elliott, a Lakers fan with a blog who is pushing to get Kobe traded (and you think I've lost it), had written almost the same thing word for word, but two days before Vecsey.

"And every time there is any nationally televised game," Elliott wrote, "Kobe makes a point of making sure that at least three or so times during the game he is seen lecturing someone on the team as if he is a coach ... but usually it is almost always on the offensive end."

I returned to Vecsey's column: "More and more often [Jackson's] targeting the team, player by player, in the press, with one notable exception. More and more he and [Lamar Odom] are speaking out about the team's delinquent defense, noticeably never taking the name of Bryant in vain."

Elliott, meanwhile had written: "... Phil is calling the team out in the press more and more (with one notable exception) ... Phil and Lamar say it after almost every game (without saying who's responsible)."

I could see where this was going ? it's now gotten to the point where great minds think alike when it comes to Kobe's selfish play and his inability to play defense. I wouldn't be surprised to hear an anti-Kobe club is forming ? now that it's become so obvious to everyone they are almost repeating themselves when discussing his faults.

I read some more of Vecsey, who then quoted an unnamed "Laker fanatic" really ripping into Kobe ? surprised the source would be unnamed because it appeared he was quoting Elliott, and directly from Elliott's blog.

Elliott on occasion will use courtside talent agency seats that place him only a few feet away from Jackson, so if not identifying him by name, I would've thought Vecsey would have referred to him "as a well-placed source."

There's no question now the great NBA insider is connected, his reach extending all the way to a fan sitting in the front row on occasion at Lakers games thousands of miles away from New York ? apparently so loaded with NBA know-how, he might as well be writing Vecsey's columns for him.

"I've never seen his blog," Vecsey said, "but we talk, we e-mail and obviously I believe most of what he says."</div>

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