Jellybean's kid certainly is a polarizing figure.

There's not much middle ground when it comes to Kobe Bryant.  Fans either love him or hate him and seem to do so with equal ferocity. 

Detractors cannot, and will not, be appeased.  To them, his headline-grabbing 81-point barrage against the Toronto Raptors in January was merely a sign of his selfishness, a deliberate attempt to push all of his teammates off the stat sheet so he could soak up the media love all by himself.  Never mind that the torrential downpour of jumpers and slams that went uninterrupted for four quarters was done so in nearly historic proportions, with only Wilt's 100 in Hershey, PA trumping the accomplishment.  

Skeptics dismissed his one-man show at the Staples Center that night as all sizzle and no steak, a meaningless regular season win against a truly bad Toronto team in which Bryant took 46 of the Lakers' 88 shots in the game and took 20 of the team's 33 free throw attempts.

Similarly, detractors point to his 50-point, Game 6 performance against Phoenix last Thursday as another example of Bryant's me-first, team-second attitude.  With a chance to put the hammer down on the Suns and send them packing back to Phoenix with a scathing 4-2 first round playoff loss, Bryant forced the final shot in regulation and had it partially blocked by Shawn Marion.  In OT, Bryant scored 12 of the Lakers' 13 points in the extra period.  And Phoenix won by 8.

Off the court, Bryant has been at the center of a number of troubling storms, the most disturbing of which was an allegation of sexual assault in the summer of 2003.  Although charges in the case were ultimately dismissed, the anti-Kobe crowd is quick to point out that there was enough merit in the case to have it proceed to trial before the prosecution decided to drop the charges.  In fact, Bryant's voluntary statement after the dismissal included an apology in which he acknowledged how the young woman who had filed the charges could have felt that their physical encounter was non-consensual.  And the shadow that whole episode cast goes a long way towards explaining the degree of uneasiness many have with Bryant.

In other off the court matters, Bryant's relationship with now-former Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal deteriorated during the 2004 off-season to the point that the franchise felt it was forced to choose between the gifted shooter (Bryant) and the dominant big man (O'Neal).  They chose Bryant, shipped Shaq off to Miami, and the team hasn't been a serious championship contender ever since.

In a related matter, Coach Phil Jackson blasted Bryant in a tell-all book, berating him as being uncoachable.  In the wake of that public trashing of his star guard, Jackson packed his bags and vowed his preference for the Montana wilderness over the bright lights of the NBA sideline.

So, there was Kobe, left holding the remnants of a once-perennial title contender and, viewed by many, as the sole reason the Lakers had turned to dust in an instant.

Not surprisingly, supporters see things slightly differently.

To them, his 81-point game against the Raptors was, as it says right there in the record books, the second-greatest offensive performance in the history of the NBA.  That sheer number of points in a single game is impressive at any level, that it happened against NBA talent makes it an unquestioned act of sports greatness.  In addition, the Lakers won the game and, as a team in the bottom half of playoff hopefuls, the win did, in fact, mean something.

In fact, the entire 2005-2006 NBA season was a non-stop highlight reel for Bryant, a continuous loop of a superstar player lifting a decidedly average roster to a place they should not have been able to reach.  His 35.4 ppg average was the 8th highest of All-time in NBA history, and many would argue that that elite level of performance was the only reason the Lakers made the playoffs this season.

Once in the playoffs, Kobe led the underdog Lakers to a 3-1 lead in their first round series against Phoenix, culminating with Bryant hitting a game-winning buzzer beater in Game 4.  The Suns, who had finished the regular season with the Western Conference's 3rd best record at 54-28, rallied to win Game 5.  However, Kobe's defenders will note that Bryant only took 17 shots in the game and dished out 5 assists in an effort to get his teammates more involved in the game.  The 17-pount drubbing that resulted (which very notably included Rajah Bell's WWE-style takedown of Kobe) likely had a significant effect on how Bryant approached Game 6.

Where critics blasted Bryant as being selfish in Game 6, others point to the Game 5 failure of the kinder, gentler Kobe and would assert that Bryant's 50-point, 5-assist performance had the Lakers on the brink of eliminating the Suns if not for Tim Thomas' dagger of a 3-pointer that tied the game with 6 seconds to go in regulation.  While some argued that Bryant actually prevented his team from winning that game, others claimed the very opposite, that it was only because of Bryant's stellar shot-making in the closing minutes that the Lakers were even in a position to win that game in the first place.

As for Bryant's off the court troubles, his defenders will note that the sexual assault case was dismissed before the trial even started.  And the fundamental principle that guides our legal system is the presumption of innocence in criminal cases until proven guilty.  That Bryant was never proven guilty of the charges and that he never even faced a trial before all charges were dropped is enough to erase any doubt for many that he did not commit any of the alleged crimes.

Regarding the relationship between Kobe and Shaq, many will assign Shaq as much or more responsibility for the way things turned out for the Lakers.  Simply, there were two big egos that got in the way of each other, and Shaq was at least as adamant as Kobe in not getting out of the way.  And Shaq did little to dispel the notion that injury-plagued, 30-something centers who weigh in at well over three bills are a slightly more risky investment than sleek, 25 year-old scoring machines (as Kobe was in 2004).

As for the Zen Master, he's back pacing the sidelines for the Lakers.  So whatever rift he had with Bryant was temporary, as is evidenced by his willingness to return as Kobe's head coach.

So, as Game 7 between the Lakers and Suns loomed this weekend, yet another opportunity for Kobe Bryant to polarize the masses presented itself.  And he did not disappoint.

In a "win or go home" showdown, the Lakers were run out of the gym and all the way back to LA by the Suns.  Phoenix handed Kobe and his mates a 21-point thrashing, and it was unheralded Phoenix guard Leandro Barbosa who controlled the game by hitting 10-of-12 from the field and 5-of-5 from the line to finish with a game-high 26 points.

Bryant finished the game with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting but scored only a single point in the second half and attempted only 3 shots after the break.  Again, reaction to Bryant's performance in the game was swift, and it was divisive.  Critics who had labeled his Game 6 performance as "selfish" now blasted him for not doing enough to help his team win.  Bryant was damned if he did (35 shots, 50 points in Game 6) and damned if he didn't (16 shots, 24 points in Game 7), with the bottom line being that he simply did not lead his team to victory in either game.  Others maintained that it was Bryant's teammates that shared, and shared significantly, in the Lakers' failure.  In Game 7, Kobe shot 50% from the field while the rest of the team shot 32%.

And both sides have a fair degree of merit.

A 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series is the equivalent of a massive sleeper hold. The team in the lead simply continues to apply the pressure until the other team goes out.  It is supposed to be a nearly invulnerable position, and a true superstar is supposed to make sure his team doesn't ever lose its grip on that hold.  However, the 2006 Los Angeles Lakers are on the growing list of teams that now knows how tenuous that grip can be and how quickly a seemingly insurmountable lead can go from black to red.

And in team sports, it tends not be a single play or player that causes such a massive slide (or from the Suns perspective, a huge comeback).  Rather, it is a series of plays that involve several players that trigger multi-game swings.  So, while Kobe didn't do much to help win Game 7 for LA (emphasis on "not much"...3 shots in the final 24 minutes!), he also wasn't solely at fault for allowing the Suns to absolutely dictate the tempo of the game.  They had been pushing that pace for the two games prior as well.

As a team, Phoenix simply does not like to wait.  The faster the scoring opportunities present themselves the better.  If a game is projected to reach a final score of +100, it tends to include the things the Suns do best: fast break points in droves and open looks from 3-point range.  And in Games 5, 6, and 7 against the Lakers, Phoenix had those things and more.

And at the end of the day, there was a reason the Suns had the 3rd best record in the conference while the Lakers had the 6th best.  Phoenix simply had more quality players than LA did, and that is probably the biggest reason the Suns are moving on and the Lakers are going home.

But in a Kobe-centric universe, he must play a definitive role in everything.  So, the haters will continue to do so while their opposite numbers will exonerate and embellish his every move.  And his recent 4th place finish in the NBA MVP voting shows this dichotomy to exist even amongst the sportswriters and broadcasters who participate in that balloting.  Bryant finished with the second highest number of 1st place votes but wound up 4th overall, which suggests that the he was largely considered either the very best or not even close.

Like I said, Jellybean's kid certainly is a polarizing figure.

For a general sporting public that does not pay much attention (if at all) to horse racing, I find it fascinating that nearly all of us take at least one day a year to take a peek at the Sport of Kings. 

Yes, it is that time of year again.  Break out the mint juleps, the crazy hats, and those even crazier D. Wayne Lukas shades. 

                                     Those are, indeed, crazy shades.

It's Kentucky Derby time!  The 132nd Run for the Roses will take place tomorrow afternoon at Churchill Downs in Louisville and will attract at least some attention from both avid horse racing enthusiasts and those who wouldn't know a furlong from a futon.  It is America's one day to pretend to know the first thing about 1,100-pound thoroughbreds thundering around a mile-and-a-quarter dirt track.  And if there is one thing sports fans everywhere like to do above all else, it is to offer up an opinion whether or not they have an iota of information about the subject at hand.

So, you may well hear several half-baked theories on what Derby favorite Brother Derek needs to do coming out of the 18th post position to win the race.  Or how trainer Bob Baffert's winning Derby pedigree affects the chances of his three Derby contenders this year.  Or how the condition of the track may influence the pace and strategy during the race.

I, for one, will come clean on this.  I know very little about horse racing and probably even less about this year's Derby participants.  Having said that, I will be happy to share what little I do know about this year's Kentucky Derby.

• Watching 20 supremely conditioned animals who weigh over half-a-ton each cover a mile-and-a-quarter in two minutes is pretty cool.
• Trainer Bob Baffert, who has three horses in this year's race, looks like former Georgia Tech basketball coach Bobby Cremins, which is unnerving because I always thought Cremins was a pretty strange looking dude.  Maybe, it's the white hair that looks inappropriately long and inappropriately feathered.

 Bob Baffert  Bobby Cremins...separated at birth?

• Ashley Judd is a Kentucky native and attends the Derby every year.  Since Ashley Judd is the most beautiful woman on the planet, the Derby becomes really cool by association.

The most beautiful woman on the planet enjoys horse racing and college hoops!  Nuff said.

• There is a horse running from the 2nd post position named after the 60's rock group Steppenwolf.  Derby officials will earn bonus points in my book if they crank up "Born to be Wild" on the loudspeakers should the aforementioned thoroughbred win.  Bonus points, however, have already been deducted from the horse's trainer, Dan Peitz, for declaring that the horse has taken the ownership/training team "on a magic carpet ride."
• OJ Simpson is taking more time off from his avowed crime sleuthing to attend the race and announced that "Lawyer Ron" was his pick to win the race because he (Simpson) "loves lawyers".  I think I need a jacket...to take away the chill that just went straight down my spine.
• The coolest name in the field has to be "Sinister Minister".  Say whatever you want about the speed, power, and intimidation factor in any other sport, but I'm not sure that many can match half-a-ton of angry thoroughbred roaring down the backstretch at 35 mph, especially when they're named "Sinister Minister".

 And in the end, we will spend our one day of the year enjoying the Sport of Kings by watching in amazement the speed and grace of the participants, pretending that we called the winner from a mile away, and thanking our lucky stars that we do not have Bob Baffert's hair.

Ordinarily, I would say that the Houston Texans' selection of Mario Bowie as the #1 overall pick in this year's NFL Draft was a mistake.  Except there was no Mario Bowie in this year's NFL Draft.  Or a Reggie Jordan, for that matter. 

Of course, these seemingly minor details have not prevented a slew of people from comparing the 2006 NFL Draft to the 1984 NBA Draft.  And in this amalgam-driven comparison NC State defensive end Mario Williams somehow has gotten turned into former Kentucky center Sam Bowie and USC running back Reggie Bush has magically morphed into a skinny junior guard from the University of North Carolina who would go on to become the greatest player in NBA history.  And the clock gets turned back 22 years.  And the ellipse-shaped ball held onto like grim death by running backs and wideouts gets turned into a giant sphere bounced on the floor by guards and sent rattling through a metal rim by centers and forwards.

This is starting to make my head hurt.

Houston's selection of Mario Williams (even with incumbent Heisman winner Reggie Bush still clearly on the board) in the 2006 NFL Draft is not tantamount to the Portland Trailblazers' decision to choose Bowie over Michael Jordan in the 1984 NBA Draft.  Period.  Fin`e.  Th-Tha-That's all, folks!

Jordan and Bowie were professional basketball players who debuted in the NBA 20 years ago and whose careers have long since been completed.  Williams and Bush are about to become professional football players.  Neither has played a single down in the NFL.  Assessing the relative greatness (or mediocrity) of each at the professional level isn't even possible yet.  So, the whole Reggie=MJ thing must wait.

Thus, the Mario Williams=Sam Bowie equation should also be tabled.  Bowie was already injury-prone in college.  He missed two full seasons at Kentucky with various leg maladies.  So, it was no surprise when his injury problems followed him into the NBA and lead to a star-crossed pro career. Williams, on the other hand, missed exactly ZERO games due to injury during his three-year collegiate career at NC State.  And, if the actual draft order plays a part in this, Bowie was not selected #1 overall in 1984, Hakeem Olajuwon was.  However, comparing a 21-year-old rookie defensive end to Hakeem Olajuwon makes just about as much sense as comparing him to Sam Bowie.  (Interestingly, the true draft order of the respective 2006 NFL and 1984 NBA Drafts would actually turn Bush into Bowie and Vince Young into MJ!)

And if the Williams-Bush, Bowie-Jordan thing can somehow, mercifully, be shown the door, so, too, should any comparison of Reggie Bush to football legends such as Gale Sayers or Barry Sanders and of Mario Williams to Bruce Smith or Reggie White.

What we really have here (you have no idea how tempted I was to say "a failure to communicate," but in deference and utter respect to the late, great Strother Martin, I shall not) are two supremely gifted athletes who project favorably at the NFL level.  Any attempt to qualify those projections by predicting duplicate performances of past NFL greats at this time seems pointless.

If some form of projection at the pro level must be made for Williams and Bush before either has had a chance to have any of his NFL career play out, then a brief look at the production/longevity trend by position is probably in order.

Running backs are the sleek, high-performance engines of the NFL, combining power and speed in nearly equal measure.  Their careers tend to burn bright and burn fast.  Any slip in either power or speed, and their careers tend to end instantly.  Zero to 60 in a blink, and 60 to zero just as fast.

Some want to compare Reggie Bush to Gale Sayers and Barry Sanders.  Ok.  Sayers was electrifying on the football field. His twisting, slashing runs are the stuff of legend.  His career was seven years of blinding intensity and then it was abruptly over.  Sanders had an equally fascinating running style, darting and dodging would-be tacklers at will, all the while keeping his powerful but compact 5'8" frame close to the ground.  He thrilled fans and perplexed and maddened opponents for ten years before suddenly leaving the game.  The image of the star running back is akin to a bolt of lighting: intense, jarring, and gone in an instant.

Conversely, defensive ends are steadier, more methodical.  Although they also rely on speed and power, some measure of each can be substituted with superior technique.  Thus, their careers tend not to burn quite as fast as running backs.  Though, it may also be argued, not nearly as bright, either.

And if comparisons of Mario Williams to Bruce Smith or Reggie White are to be made: Smith played for 19 seasons; White, 15.  The current NFL career sack leader Michael Strahan will be entering his 14th NFL season in 2006, and he is still a pass rushing force.

So what does any of this mean?  Not much really.  Frankly, no one has a clue as to how either Reggie Bush or Mario Williams will perform in the NFL.  History tells us that the running back (Bush) is more likely to be flashier and that the defensive end (Williams) is more likely to have a longer career.  However, neither factor really indicates if (or by what degree) the Houston Texans made a mistake by drafting Mario Williams over Reggie Bush.  And outside of serious Texan fans (and, as by-product of Bush slipping to the 2nd pick, serious New Orleans Saints fans), why does anybody really care if the Texans made a draft pick mistake in the first place?

As for all of that business comparing football players in 2006 to basketball players in 1984, there is this kid, D'Brickashaw Perkins, who pass blocks like nobody's business and can hit the medium-range jumper with some consistency.  But can you believe he was picked 4th, ahead of that ferocious linebacker/rebounding machine AJ Barkley?

The last thing a young ballplayer wants to do when given a cup of coffee at the MLB level is spill it.  So when San Francisco Giant rookie 2B Kevin Frandsen stepped into the batting cage before a game between the Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers this evening, the last thing he probably expected to do was spill his first MLB cup of coffee before the game even started.

Alas, nearly as soon as young Frandsen started taking his BP hacks, his promptly spilled his aforementioned cup of coffee.  All over Barry Bonds.

The man with 712 career MLB home runs was struck on the forehead by the rookie 2B with 0 MLB home runs when one of Frandsen's BP hacks sent a foul ball into the netting of the batting cage and, simultaneously, into the forehead of the guy two swings away from tying George Herman Ruth on the All-time Home Run list.

Although Bonds was not seriously hurt and appeared unaffected enough to take his regular turn of BP after the incident, the same likely cannot be said for Frandsen, who was called up from Triple-A Fresno just five days ago.  So far, it has been a rough week for the rookie.  Although he rapped out three hits in his MLB debut against Arizona last Friday, he has had a succession of bizarre happenings ever since.

On Saturday, he went 0-for-3 and committed the cardinal sin for all MLB rookies by not running out a routine infield pop up which was eventually dropped and turned into a double play because the rookie was not running to first on the play.

On Sunday, he was hit by his third pitch in as many games and became part of another bizarre double play when Bonds was called out on a check-swing third strike and Frandsen was thrown out at third on a botched steal attempt in which he failed to slide.

Yesterday included Frandsen's first MLB error, yet another HBP (his fourth such plunking in five games), and a pair of strikeouts.  I wonder if Mama Frandsen told him that there would be days like these.  If she did, even she probably wouldn't have predicted her son would follow all of that up by bouncing a foul ball off of the noggin of one of the game's greatest and most controversial players.

But keep your chin up, young Mr. Frandsen.  Five days of nothing but bad news can be followed up with nothing but ringing extra base hits and sparkling defensive plays.  Baseball is like that.  Good and bad can trade places in an instant and over 162 games there's a whole lot of time for each side of the coin to show itself.  And until regular 2B Ray Durham gets a balky hamstring to be not quite so balky, you still have a little time to keep whatever is left of your initial MLB cup of coffee in the cup.

Infielders will make errors, so don't sweat it unless they start to add up.  Getting hit by a pitch, while painful, is also a ticket to first base.  And the next time you hit a popup, put your head down and run your ass off.

And most importantly, make sure to tell Mr. Bonds to stay as FAR away from the batting cage as possible the next time you take BP, because the coffee is still very hot and you don't have that much of it left.