Last month Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 by the NBA after he was caught by a TNT camera using a gay slur during a game.

Of charging Bryant 100 large, NBA commissioner David Stern told Mike Greenberg of ESPN radio, “I’m very happy with where we sit.”

Last night the NBA playoffs turned out to be, once again, must-fee TV.

This time it was Joakim Noah who uttered a gay slur - the same used by Bryant a month earlier - also seen by a TNT audience.

Stern wasn’t shy about enlightening Bryant to the plight of gay rights with a gigantic fine and a scolding “teachable moment” diatribe on ESPN radio, but what of the lower-profile Noah?

Watch. And learn.

Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.

On Monday night, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Twitter account sent out an innocuous Tweet announcing a new deal for his recent hoops documentary to be streamed on Netflix. Three minutes before Jabbar’s Tweet, a virtually identical Tweet was sent out by Abdul-Jabbar’s manager Deborah Morales, who also directed the movie.

(Lakers: We Would’ve Bumped The Logo For Kareem Had We Known)

What followed those promo Tweets the next two days appeared to be a masterfully choreographed public relations campaign to drum up interest in the newly-announced online distribution deal for Abdul-Jabbar’s recent film project.

On May 17, a day after the initial pair of Tweets, Abdul-Jabbar manager Morales posted a press release announcing the Netflix deal on her public relations website. (Though the release was dated May 18.)

On the morning of May 18, Morales Tweeted a link along with what seemed like a rhetorical question (at least at the time): “KAJs Statue at Staples.. do you think he deserves it?”

WUT?

Three months earlier, Scott Howard-Cooper wrote the following on NBA.com:

Bryant is expected to get a statue after retirement as well, according to one person familiar with the thinking of Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Elgin Baylor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are also likely to be put in the special category, at a later date. But being fitted for the ultimate of Lakers honors outside the home court doesn’t really matter.

Thanks to the link by already-noted statue aficionado Morales, we soon found out that apparently it does matter. At least to Abdul-Jabbar.

Morales’ link went to a just-published piece by Steve Greenberg of SportingNews.com that detailed Abdul-Jabbar’s dissatisfaction with not having a statue outside Staples Center. The piece by Greenberg included this passage:

In a subsequent statement passed along by his business manager, Abdul-Jabbar said: “I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success. I guess being the lynchpin for five world championships is not considered significant enough in terms of being part of Laker history.”

(Misspelling all the more unfortunate considering it was “passed along” to Greenberg by Abdul-Jabbar publicist/movie director/business manager Morales.)

Six hours later, this Tweet was seen on Abdul-Jabbar’s Twitter account:

Rumor has it that I will be getting a statue. A caveat for all my fans-don’t hold your breath. Lakers don’t care about me. #KAJ33

With Abdul-Jabbar’s (sky)hook now sufficiently baited, the inevitable media feeding frenzy soon followed.

During some of his interviews the past 48 hours, Abdul-Jabbar revealed that the heart of his apparent discontent with the Lakers was not getting a playoff share after the last several postseason runs enjoyed by the club.

What Abdul-Jabbar failed to mention in that complaint was it was the players who did not vote him a share, not club management.

The same club management that awarded Abdul-Jabbar a playoff bonus anyway, along with a hefty seven-figure salary despite the fact that the NBA legend the past few seasons has been a “coach” with the club in name only.  (He was initially hired to tutor Andrew Bynum, but Bynum has since moved on from the relationship.)

It goes without saying, despite Deborah Morales’ Twitter account, that Abdul-Jabbar deserves to be immortalized in some manner by the Lakers in the future.

But if you asked Abdul-Jabbar what he preferred the Lakers cared more for, giving him a statue fifteen years ago or gifting him millions the past several years, with Abdul-Jabbar’s notoriously tenuous financial condition I’m not so sure how brave he’d be about slaying the Lakers these days.

Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.

In the past few weeks, the main media has erroneously reported a supposed rift between Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant that allegedly began when Bryant’s wife Vanessa broke up Gasol’s relationship with girlfriend Silvia Lopez Castro.

That rumor, thanks to comments by Gasol as early as last Saturday, has now been completely debunked. Gasol has since confirmed he is still with Castro and nothing has changed in their relationship.

While that break between Gasol and Bryant never existed, now ex-Lakers Coach Phil Jackson confirmed yesterday a disconnect between himself and a key member of the Lakers basketball operation and ownership.

Wednesday, as Jackson conducted his final press conference as Lakers coach, he was asked by FOX Sports Radio reporter David Vassegh:

“Do feel you have a stronger sense of attachment (to the Lakers) other than Jeanie (Buss, Jackson girlfriend and daughter of Lakers owner Jerry Buss) than you did with the Bulls?” 

Jackson reply:

“There are people in the organization, yes, that I have an attachment to. You know I haven’t spoken to (Lakers Exec. VP, Player Personnel and son of owner Jerry) Jimmy Buss this year.

“Jerry I see occasionally and we confer. (Lakers General Manager) Mitch (Kupchak) and I have our chances to be together and we have a good relationship. Those are people in that department that I have a relationship with.

“As far as management, if you want to call it that, there’s really not a relationship with that.”

Jackson couldn’t have slighted Jim Buss any more in his comments than he did with that remark.

Longtime Lakers owner Jerry Buss has made clear on numerous occasions that Jim Buss will formally take over the basketball operation of the team when he relinquishes all control of the franchise. (Jeanie will continue to run the business operation.)

While Mitch Kupchak technically runs the Lakers basketball operation, eventually he will report solely to Jim Buss, though from Jerry’s comments last August, it sounds as if that is already the case.

During a press conference on August 17, 2010, Jerry Buss said of his role with the team’s basketball operation:

“I still talk to my son Jimmy at least twice a day. Some of those phone calls are as long as an hour. The large portion of the content of those phone calls is basketball. What we should do, what we’re doing. 

“In terms of (Lakers basketball) decisions, 80% of it goes with Jim and I throw in my two cents worth here and there.”

That Jim Buss did not speak to Jackson this season is very telling when it comes to the coach’s relationship to the future, formal overseer of the Lakers basketball fortunes.

If you’re wondering why Jackson is leaving L.A., there’s your ‘Exhibit A.’

Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.

January 14, 1964 is the most important day in NBA history.

(Video below courtesy Mike Trudell at Lakers.com)

That day the best players in the game, including Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, barricaded themselves in Boston Garden locker rooms before the NBA’s 14th annual All-Star Game - refusing to play.

Before the season NBA players had demanded to commissioner Walter Kennedy that NBA owners recognize their newly-created players union. As part of that recognition, the owners were to set up a pension plan for the players, who also attempted to direct the league to require each team to staff a medical trainer while also cutting down on unreasonable travel and game schedules.

Kennedy and the owners completely ignored the demands, only to have the players refuse to play in the NBA’s first-ever nationally-televised all-star game a few months later.

And I do mean refuse. They were serious.

So what happened? Let Jerry West tell you: Read more…

Two days before its official unveiling as part of NBA All-Star weekend festivities, Tom Hoffarth of the L.A. DAILY NEWS snapped a shot of the new Jerry West statue gracing Chick Hearn Court at Staples Center:

West joins a bronze pantheon of L.A. greats outside Staples that include Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Chick Hearn and Oscar de la Hoya.

Hoffarth snapped the spoilerific photo with his cellphone during the few short moments it was visible as workers quickly affixed the 14-foot-tall frozen logo atop a one-and-a-half ton granite pedestal.

Longtime Los Angeles journalist Hoffarth’s reaction to the West statue: Read more…

Yesterday Joe Flint of the LOS ANGELES TIMES and this morning John Ourand of SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY reported the Lakers have agreed to a 20-year local broadcast rights agreement with Time Warner Cable for an eye-popping $3 billion.

(Jim Buss (ctr) helps run Lakers basketball ops with Mitch Kupchak (l))

Though Flint also reported that Time Warner officials “dismisssed” the $3 billion figure, I’ve been told by multiple sources with knowledge of the negotiations today that that number is accurate, with one source noting to me that the reported $3 billion number “may actually be conservative.”

So as of the 2012-13 season all Lakers game in Los Angeles, except for national telecasts, will air on cable. Currently, the games here in L.A. are broadcast on over-the-air station KCAL 9 (CBS) and cable channel Fox Sports West.

As the English and Spanish cable channels TWC will air the games on don’t yet exist, TWC still has to convince Direct TV, Dish Network and the Cox and Charter cable television operations to pick up those new sports channels at what Ourand reported Time Warner Cable Exec VP/Chief Programming Officer Melinda Witmer calling a “reasonable” financial basis:

“We are seeking to work with all of the distributors to find a reasonable basis to get full distribution of the network. We want the Lakers to be available to everyone regardless of who their provider is.”

Flint reports that in order for TWC to pay that enormous broadcast rights fee, it will have to charge a rate significantly higher than what Fox Sports West currently charges satellite and cable companies to broadcast Lakers games in Los Angeles:

Consumers may feel some pain as a result of the deal. Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) are generally some of the most expensive programming for distributors. Typically, RSNs cost between north of $2.50 per month, per subscriber. Given the high cost of the Lakers, Time Warner Cable will likely be looking for north of $3.50.

You can expect Cox, Charter, Dish and DTV to publicly balk at such a fee hike, but TWC apparently has a plan that it hopes will make them more amenable. From Flint:

Time Warner Cable, which has about 2 million subscribers in Southern California, isn’t looking to stop with the Lakers. In an interview, Melinda Witmer, executive vice president and chief programming officer of Time Warner Cable, said the company would be “looking at all available sports in the marketplace.”

Next on their list could be the Dodgers. The team’s current pact with Fox’s Prime Ticket channel expires in 2013.

In other words, if TWC were to have the Lakers and  Dodgers for its new sports channels, it’d essentially have a gun to the head of Cox, Charter, Dish and DTV. Though it is important to note that Fox Sports West has a favorable contractual arrangement with the Dodgers and, from what multiple sources within the team tell me, is more likely to retain those rights.

If this Lakers TV deal sounds unusual, it isn’t. There are other markets in which cable companies have jumped into the sports business, but this is TWC’s first foray.

While this is big news for Lakers fans, the more important part of this story is what it will mean to the ownership of the team.

From Flint:

Witmer said the move to get into business with the Lakers is part of its overall desire to “control our economic destiny.”

Read more…

In a blog entry in the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Tuesday night, longtime Lakers beat reporter Kevin Ding made a serious accusation of an ESPN-TV anchor.

Ding claimed that ESPN News anchor Will Selva had plagiarized his December 26 story about the Lakers in the Register, reading the lede of Ding’s piece word-for-word in his open to Lakers-Spurs highlights on ESPN News early Wednesday morning.

Ding:

Hey, Will Selva of ESPNEWS. Glad you liked my last column so much. Try not to plagiarize it next time.

I got back to my hotel room late Tuesday night after the Lakers-Spurs game and turned on ESPNEWS’ “Highlight Express” show. Imagine my shock when anchor Will Selva proceeded to use the first several paragraphs of my column looking forward to the game as his lead-in to the highlights.

I mean, word for word.

Christmas isn’t over yet, Lakers fans.

The big game, it turns out, will be the game after the supposed Game of the Year.

In San Antonio on Tuesday night, the Lakers will be out to give themselves and their fans the much-needed gift of hope.

Honestly, it wasn’t my best lead, come to think of it. Sorry about that, Will.

Unbelievable.

Thanks to a website that transcribes virtually every word said on ESPN TV outlets, I was able to check up on Ding’s damning accusation of Selva today. Read more…

Today Yahoo NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski has a truly epic blindside today from a recent interview he did with Kobe Bryant.

Wojnarowski:

Out of nowhere one afternoon, Michael Jackson made a call to the irrepressible and isolated (then-18-year-old) Kobe Bryant, and so much changed for him.

… They would talk for hours and hours, visiting at Neverland Ranch, and Bryant has long been fortified by the lessons Jackson instilled about the burden of honoring true talent, about the ways to open your mind to be smarter, sharper and insatiable in the chase

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

Sounds weird?

More from Wojnarowski:

“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.”

After reading Wojnarowski’s lengthy piece on the inner workings of Bryant, I think I may finally have a clue why we all know so little about #24’s personal life. Read more…

Jimmy Traina at SI.com’s Hot Clicks and Larry Brown of LarryBrownSports.com have the details on an unfortunate oversight during the Los Angeles Lakers ring ceremony Tuesday night.

(Standing next to Kareem a hazard when getting your bling)

As Laker staffers were being announced to the Staples Center crowd - and a national television audience - one team official was completely skipped. Read more…

Today the Lakers announced that Magic Johnson was selling his 4.5% ownership stake in the franchise.

(If Magic Joins Pistons, Izzo’s down)

Johnson has owned shares of the team for over 10 years, so why is he formally breaking from the only NBA team he’s ever been associated with?

Three months ago Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com reported that Johnson had been part of a group that had recently attempted to buy the Golden State Warriors. That opportunity fell through, but had Johnson’s partners been able to secure ownership of the team, Howard-Cooper reported, “Johnson would have sold what is believed to be a five-percent stake in the Lakers for a larger, but unknown portion, in Golden State.”

Johnson also made it known on the record at that time that he was very interested in joining the Detroit Pistons organization if it meant a significant front office position combined with a possible ownership stake. (The Pistons are up for sale by Karen Davidson, wife of the late Bill Davidson.)

Here’s Johnson back in August on the opportunity to return to his home state to help oversee the Pistons: Read more…