"The Kobe League would still have room for lovable losers"

Okay, maybe Kobe isn't all that lovable, but in the Big Picture he pretty much fits the second part of the phrase. Titles without Shaq=Zero. (And without his bitching and moaning there would have been more than 3 titles with Shaq.) And until they picked up Gasol, Kobe wasn't even getting them to the playoffs. And people can compare him to Jordan all they want, but MJ never let a 20+ point lead in The Finals slip away.

"Expansion was a con. ...But the teams they got are still second-class citizens (or worse)."

The Heat won the title only two years ago. Shaq and Penny took the Magic to a Finals. The Hornets made plenty of noise this year and were strong when LJ and Mourning were with them in the early years in Charlotte. The T-Wolves had that great year when KG won the MVP. Even the Raptors have had their moments. It's really only the Grizzlies that have consistently disappointed as the Bobcats are still too new to judge yet.

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.