Kanye has busted in on President Obama, swine flu news, and now he’s giving the Keyboard Cat treatment to Kobe Bryant.

The respect I gained for Kanye West when he said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” took a hit Sunday night. Kanye interrupting Taylor Swift is the reverse of what that moron Joe Wilson did during Obama’s speech. Wilson wouldn’t have shouted out at a white president and Kanye wouldn’t have, well.. Kanye’s an asshole. He probably would’ve done that to anybody.

Kobe’s not taking any chances. Seeing Devin Harris get broken off, MJ losing to a CEO, and LeBron getting dunked on has Bryant trying to kill anyone that gets on the court with him..

Even Kobe’s clowning LeBron James and his sneaker sponsor? Nike knows how bad they’ve screwed this up and hopefully they see the light and release the tapes. The real damage has already been done. The dunk can’t be as bad as the negative publicity.

Via The Hoop Doctors:

Kobe practicing ‘The Menacing Mamba’:

Truth be told, with the way Kobe played in the playoffs, does it matter what kind of face he’s making? Some people think the face is contrived. I disagree. It’s new, and it seems like it showed up outta nowhere, but think about when Kobe made the face. It wasn’t after inbounding the ball or sinking a free throw. The scowl followed a dagger, a big play, a big moment in the game. And considering how badly Kobe wanted his fourth ring some sort of “I JUST RIPPED OUT YOUR HEART!!” show of emotion was to be expected.

Kobe Bryant Appears on Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien [The Hoop Doctors]

After the jump the Keyboard Cat gets a hold of Kobe Bryant, Jason Richardson, and David Wesley.

Keyboard Cat Plays Off Kobe Bryant

Keyboard Cat Plays Off Jason Richardson

Keyboard Cat Plays Off David Wesley

None of these videos are funnier than the original which features a man tumbling down an escalator, so get on it YouTubers.. The Keyboard Cat needs to play off Bill Buckner, Chris Webber, Mike Tyson at the end of the Douglas fight, and anything the Los Angeles Clippers have done.

The Lakers will win the game. I mean, they should win the game. There’s no telling which LA team will show up, but with Game 7 at home and Kobe Bryant on their roster the Lakers have to win to avoid being one of the biggest bunch of chokers in NBA history.

** Update: The NBA has reviewed and analyzed the game film and decided to take LeBron’s triple double away. The whole things seems pretty unprecedented but don’t quote me on it. I’ll call it the asterisk rebound. Yahoo’s BDL Blog has video of the rebound up and you can decide for yourself. **

What up everybody, my name is Will R. and I’ll be contributing some sports analysis and thoughts here on YouBeenBlinded.Com. Quick background: I’m a lifelong sports fan with my biggest pleasure being the NBA and I live in Los Angeles. The curveball is that I’m a Clippers fan with very little love for the more popular team across the hall. I’ve written and conducted interviews for rap websites, magazines and newspapers and look forward to being a part of the YouBeenBlinded team.

With that out of the way, I got to get in on the big water cooler discussion of the young season and drop some context to the fervor around some of the recent happenings in the NBA. We all know people tend to overrate things that happen now, the whole ‘what have you done for me lately’ type of thinking where the most recent amazing performance is inevitably called the greatest ever.

This last Super Bowl is a prime example of that and now two of basketball’s biggest stars have started their own hurricane of hype. Anytime the question of Kobe vs. LeBron comes up, there’s bound to be fireworks and both parties have done their best to resolve the argument in the last week. But despite the glamour that comes with a ton of points, Kobe came up on the short end in this particular contest.

You should know the story by now, Kobe went into New York’s famed Madison Square Garden and dropped 61. Yup, he broke Jordan’s “Double Nickel” record – the 13-year visitor’s scoring mark and eclipsed Bernard King’s 1984 60-point performance to claim ownership of the all-time MSG scoring throne. The Internet went crazy and Lakers fans everywhere immediately took it as clear proof that Kobe was a step above everyone else. Then LeBron went out two nights later and came out with a cool 52 point, 10* rebound and 11 assist game at the Garden. It even came with its own nifty nickname, courtesy of The Knicks Blog – the “Nickle Double.”

Think about it, he just got a 50 point triple double*. That hadn’t been done in 34 years and has been accomplished only seven times in NBA history by only five players. Cleary 61 is huge, but it just doesn’t pack the same overall punch.

Before anyone tries to label me a “hater,” let me say that Kobe put on a great show and finishing with 60+ points is a big deal every time anyone does it. I’m just not about to join the hyperbole bandwagon and call it outright better than Jordan’s 55 or even better than LeBron’s game.

There’s a lot more involved in labeling someone the greatest at MSG than just their final point totals and right now is the perfect time to make those distinctions clear. Just like with any performance, judging a basketball player’s feats against others requires looking at how it was done, the degree of difficulty and the final outcome of each game. When you do that in comparing Kobe and LeBron’s MSG exploits, one game stands out as much more complete and impressive than the other.

How it was done:

Kobe’s big game came at the expense of some class (he kept shooting and shooting during what was essentially garbage time with a double digit 4th quarter lead) and it was clear from the minute Phil Jackson put him back in the game that Kobe was intent on breaking the scoring record at any cost. He had an awesome game out of necessity during the first three quarters in a close game, but his 15 points in the final period weren’t vital towards his team’s win and the outcome was never in any real danger. It was almost seven minutes of pure, unadulterated stat-padding.

LeBron clearly entered the game knowing the expectations and he gets a slap on his wrist for chasing down that last second rebound to secure the triple double but his night wasn’t anywhere near as blatant a chase for personal notoriety as Kobe’s last 12 minutes. He kept his teammates involved, played tough defense and made sure to secure rebounds and deny the Knicks any extra possessions off the offensive glass.

Degree of difficulty:

This one is pretty cut and dry. While scoring 61 in the NBA is not easy by any means, it isn’t that much harder than putting up 52. Make a few more free throws and have a couple of shots roll the right way and you have the extra nine points, but there’s a tremendous difference between grabbing 10* rebounds, dishing out 11 assists to account for at least another 25 + points for your team and dropping a paltry zero rebounds and only three helpers.

Final outcome:

Both LeBron and Kobe lead their teams to wins so they get equal credit for that. Put the player’s names aside for a second and just look at the final numbers.

Line 1: 61 points, 0 rebounds and 3 assists in 37 minutes. 31 shots, 20 free throws and a 9-point win.

Line 2: 52 points, 10* rebounds and 11 assists in 44 minutes. 33 shots, 19 free throws and a 5-point win.

Some will argue that Kobe was better because he scored more with less shot attempts and less minutes played, but that angle loses steam when you realize that Kobe’s shot total almost equaled his minutes. Shooting almost once a minute isn’t exactly the best way to keep your team in a great flow and doesn’t dispel the whole selfish image tag.

When you combine the fact that LeBron took only two more shots in seven more minutes with his superior assist, defense and rebound totals it becomes evident that his game was better all around. The conversation of who is the better overall player may not stop with those two historic nights in New York, but the best in the building argument just took a king-sized lean toward the other number 23.

- Will

Kobe deserves an award for the humanitarian work he’s trying to do, but if he really cares about his fellow ballers, why didn’t he introduce his shoes or insurance before these cats got embarrassed:

This is my favorite aggin got crossed highlight of all-time. One, I was watching the game live when Randolph Childress broke Jeff McInnis off, and two, Childress does the “Come here” finger motion and then sticks the shot. Coldest. Shit. Ever.

Kobe Kommercial via NESW Sports

There’s been a lot of talk about how well Team USA conducted themselves while in Beijing. This basketball team respected its opponents unlike the failed squads from 2002, ‘04, and ‘06. Glen Saville of the Australian basketball team is telling a different story.

From the Illawarra Mercury:

“Without a shadow of a doubt, Kobe carried himself way above every other person on that team,” he said.

“I’d heard and read stuff about him in the past, but he was a class act all the way through, even going back to when we played them at the pre-Olympic tournament in Shanghai.

“Most of the other guys on that team just acted like prima donnas. They just carried on like pork chops,” he added.

There’s truth mixed with sour grapes in Glen Saville’s statements. He’s bitter because the loser always is, but Team USA is an arrogant, trash talking bunch. This is the second time that a member of the Australian basketball team has complained about Team USA, and Jose Calderon thinks Spain should have won the gold medal game. The United States is back on top in basketball and it has the world pissed off.

Team Usa cruised to a 92-69 victory over Greece in their third preliminary game in the Beijing Olympics. Dwyane Wade’s ball saving alley-oop to Kobe Bryant was the play of the game, which you can see above if YouTube hasn’t pulled the video yet.

The Greeks were supposed to represent Team USA’s first challenge in Beijing. They were for the first quarter, but the American defense and Chris Bosh pushed Team USA to a 19 point halftime lead. The U.S. shot 35 percent from 3-pt. range (7-20) for the game and continued to miss open three point looks. The poor shooting from distance and the occasional lapse in team play were the only negatives for Coach K’s crew. Next up for the Redeem Team are the racist picture posing ballers from Spain.

Team USA,
Greece,
highlights