Kobe isn't a lovable loser, just a loser. He has been the only player to circumvent the NBA's draft system. 12 other teams, including the storied Boston Celtics and the "wonderful west coast market" LA Clippers, on him because he had passed on them. Lorenzen Wright, Kerry Kittles, Samaki Walker, Erick Dampier, Todd Fuller, and Vitaly Potapenko were higer draft selections because a kid a few months removed from high school was too big for those markets. *Kobe* could say no (to the draft rules and Shaq), yet his victim in Devner wasn't allowed to.

Is this season just an anomolay to throw people off the scent that the eastern confernce (minus one team, Detroit and Miami in years past, Boston this year) is just a farm team for the west? *That* is why TV ratings have been down, and being 50% over a small number is nothing to brag about.

The NBA needs to get its house in order fast, or the league itself will join the NHL as a league looked at as loveable losers.