Mia Hamm's Soccer Challenge makes people crazy...or something

Wow! This is certainly interesting. Apparently some guy in the stands at the Mia Hamm Celebrity Soccer Challenge yesterday in Washington D.C had a bit of a roid rage incident.

If you are wondering...and we were, the Soccer Challenge was a celebrity soccer game that featured stars like Kobe Bryant and U.S Women's Soccer team player Alex Morgan and of course her hubby Nomar Garciaparra.

Check out...and listen to the video here as Hamm is speaking to the assembled crowd and you hear some blood curdling, death screams.

The camera eventually zooms into to the guy creating the ruckus...and it took several "Event Staff" guys to get him under control.

Yikes!



Here's a story on the actual event from our friends at CSN Washington:

In today's reason to ignore the fans: Joakim Noah says a bad thing ((UPDATED))

This will probably be the "Big Talker" of the Internets today. Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, not known for holding back his thoughts, appears, on video to say some curse words, including a slur that Kobe Bryant got fined for using just a month or two ago.

Noah had just picked up his second foul in Sunday nights game and was headed for an early seat on the bench, he grabs some water and a towel and appears to gesture towards someone behind him and say something along the lines of #$@%! you...faggot.

Now, it's somewhat difficult to tell what the last word was, but you can pretty clearly tell what the 1st two were, the TNT Sports shotgun mic did it's job, too well.



He later said he apologized to the fan directly, though it probably will not help him avoid a substantial fine. Our pals on SportsCenter play the apology and talk about it:



PM UPDATE: From the NBA their ownselves...

Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah has been fined $50,000 for using a derogatory and offensive term from the bench during the first quarter of the Bulls’ 96-85 loss to the Miami Heat last night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Lakers implosion: Did Kobe's wife cause Gasol's heartache?

Pau Gasol and Sylvia Lopez/Courtesy: sports.rightpundits.com

Already the internet-sphere is rampant with rumors as to what caused the Los Angeles Lakers to implode while getting swept by the Dallas Mavericks.

Part of it was age. Part of it was the Mavs may be better and part of it seems to be the apparent discord amongst the Lakers team. A lot of the vitriol and blame seems to be headed to Lakers forward Pau Gasol, who seemed to be in a funk for most of the series. And Gasol himself admitted as such, though he denied it affected his game.

But there's more to it.

The prevailing thought is that the cause of Gasol's lack of effort and enthusiasm during the series was a break up with his long-time girlfriend.

That's been reported already.

What is starting to come out is that the cause of said breakup may have come from teammate Kobe Bryant's wife.

That inference is made in this story from the LA Times RIGHT HERE

It's reinforced in Times columnist Bill Plaschke's story RIGHT HERE

Interesting.

While Kobe has been acknowledged by most of the media as the "Leader" of the Lakers and has never been questioned as their best player, it appears his wife is a bit of a meddler. Karl Malone accused her of doing something similar to him a few years ago.

Now. To say Pau Gasol was the reason the Lakers lost is absurd. Not having him certainly didn't help, but this was a flawed team that kept buying into the Hollywood-ness of being the Lakers. And it's caught up with them.

The one thing the sweep against Dallas should reinforce is the team needs to be rebuilt. Bryant, while still an elite level player, has a ton of mileage on his wheels and its starting to show. Someone made the comment today that Michael Jordan wouldn't have let that happen when he was 32. That's stupid. At that age, Jordan certainly had a lot of mileage, but he didn't become a pro until he was much older.

The prevailing theory is Gasol may not have the ability to deal with the LA limelight. Him reacting the way he did in the series would seemingly back that up.

The bigger question is how the team could cover their discord for so long. Looking back now, this all makes some sense, but what is it that people say...."Your never realizing you're seeing a problem until after it happens" or something like that.

That would apply here.

Here's video of Pau Gasol doing the Hollywood thing on Jimmy Kimmel's show:

Hornets sting Lakers, Bryant injured: NBA Playoffs

This is becoming interesting. Chris Paul and his New Orleans Hornet teammates are giving the defending champion LA Lakers all they can handle, beating LA 93-88 on Sunday and tying their series at 2 games a piece.

The key for the Hornets, CP3. Chris Paul had a triple double, 28 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists and led his team to the win. As for the Lakers, their main man, Kobe Bryant, 17 points. Bryant was seen leaving the game on crutches, but said he'd be ready for game 5.

Either way, this series is quickly becoming a lot of fun, we'll see who can pull it out.

Your game highlights from SI.com:

Kobe Says Some Bad Words... Fined 6 Figures...

((HT: NBA on TNT/youtube))

Let's just say that the Mamba was not happy that he got a techincal foul in last night's game against the Spurs..

He sat down, and if you're a lip reader, you can figure it out...


UPDATE: Kobe was fined $100,000 and apologized hoping he didn't offend anyone...

Here's Kobe discussing with Mason and Ireland...
((HT: ESPN/ESPN 710 Los Angeles))

Kobe's New Endorsement... Turkish Air...???

((HT: MyFoxLA))

Yup...

The thought is that this opens up the idea that The Black mamba can hold basketball camps there with this act of attaching one's name to a country's national airline...

We think...

FOSG Liz Habib has the breakdown...

Kobe Bryant's Turkish Airlines Gig Takes Flight: MyFoxLA.com

Kobe Bryant meets Robert Rodriguez courtesy of Nike

Yeah, we know. It's a commercial pitch. It's "Selling Out to the Man". Sure, we get it.

But we are also big fans of Robert Rodriguez. He's a one of a kind movie director who has a pretty unique view on just about everything.

With that in mind, he was commissioned to make a "Mini-Film" with Kobe Bryant to use as a pitch for Bryant's new Nike shoes. And yeah, it's pretty cool. If you've got Danny Trejo, Bruce Willis and Kanye West co-starring in a Robert Rodriguez production, it has to be cool.

Check out "The Black Mamba":

Kobe Bryant wins NBA All-Star MVP in his house

Can't say it--Kobe and LeBron/Courtesy: wally skalij-LATimes

And like every other major sports all-star game, nobody played defense.

NBA's All-Star weekend finished last night with their night to show off. Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers led the West all-stars to a 148-143 win over the favored East squad last night on his home court at the Staples Center.

Bryant scored 37 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, bascially dominating a game which featured the Miami Heat "Big 3" and 4 out of 5 starters for the Boston Celtics on the East squad.

Read more from the LA Times, RIGHT HERE

Quite honestly, this was a good weekend for the NBA. The game, did well for them. It showcased their best players and the youngsters also had a role in the weeks success.

Perhaps the biggest talk of the week was the Dunk Contest, and for the league and the weekend, that is a good thing. The contest had gotten incredibly stale and uninteresting over the past several years and this years group brought unheard of excitement to it.

As for Bryant, while not forgetting his legal issues of a couple years ago, he's matured into the player and person that he had hoped to become. He's still the most dangerous player in the league when he goes all out and it showed on Sunday. Sure, there are question marks around his team, but do you think anyone wants a part of them...or Bryant in the Playoffs. Bryant doesn't seem to duck and cower over being asked tough questions, but he does a pretty good job of keeping it in perspective.

Your game highlights are here...




And here is Bryant talking about his day. Thanks CBSSports:

BREAKING NEWS: Lakers Repeat As NBA Champs

Sasha Vujacic's two free throws with 11.7 seconds left in regulation gave the Los Angeles Lakers an 83-79 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

The Lakers, winning the series four games to three, give Phil Jackson his 11th title as a head coach...

The 25-year-old Slovenian guard gave the Lakers a 25-for-37 night from the line... it is the 16th World Championship for the team.

More when we know more...

Catch local coverage ((and, probably, some crimes happening on live television)) here...

CBS2/KCAL9
KABC-TV/ABC7
Fox11-KTTV

In the meantime, enjoy a chance meeting between Kevin Garnett and some guy named Nicholson who, for some reason, always ends up at Laker games...
((HT: NBA/ABC))

Lakers Take Game One Over Celtics

((HT: NBA.com/ABC))

Here's your abbreviated look at Game 1...
The HQ has no idea who's voicing the highlights, it's not FOSG Beau Estes...

That much we do know... unless he's channeling Robert Downey, Jr.'s character in "Tropic Thunder..."

In The Garden Of Good And Evil... Kobe Gets 61...

Ho hum... it's another night of showing up Spike Lee and all of his friends...
Without Andrew Bynum for the next three to four months, the best basketball player on this or any other planet goes for 61 against the New York Knicks...

None of us here at OSG HQ are really surprised...
Here's your postgame...
((HT: MSG/NBA))