YAYsports! NBA

Before we get into Kobe Bryant, here’s a little contest. The Photoshop work done on the accompanying picture is maybe the most subtle we’ve ever done. First one to spot what we did, wins the prize.

Anyway, yesterday’s Laker finish, which you’ve surely read or seen the details of elsewhere a hundred times over, was one that will go down in history. Instant classic, etc, etc.

There are so many storylines running through this (2 vs 7 upset, Kobe-not-the-MVP vs Nash-the-MVP, impending Lakers vs Clippers) that it’s hard to pick one. Considering our long history of love/hate with the man, we’re going with the now-complete rehabilitation of Kobe Bryant.

He’s been around so long, it’s easy to forget the guy’s only 27. Could it be as simple as he’s finally all grown up? Whatever the case, it’s fun to watch, and we can’t believe we were jumping around and cheering for the Lakers yesterday.

“This is the most fun I’ve ever had,” Bryant said. “Because this is us. This is us, the entire team, enjoying the moment with the entire city of Los Angeles.”

“This game is so much more fun, so much more enjoyable. It’s a blast. I’ve been in a lot of playoff battles, but I’ve never had one quite like this,” Bryant said, adding, “To see those smiles on my teammates’ faces …”

As much fun as it is to watch the Kobe Show, which is amazingly not the Kobe Show at all, but the Lakers Show, there are two other figures here that merit a mention.

One is Shaq, who we’ll get to in a bit.

The other is the Wheaties exec who put Steve Nash on the box this week. This person is probably wondering what their boss was thinkig while Steve Nash kept dribbling into double-teams yesterday. It was probably something like “Don’t dribble into that double-team!”

Also, we hate getting sensationalistic, and we don’t want to be crude or ignorant, but we didn’t even know they still made Wheaties.