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I’ve been a strong critic of NBA commissioner David Stern over the last few years. There have been a few instances where he totally rubbed me the wrong way, with my major gripe being the infamous dress code forced upon its players. The specific banning of necklaces, chains, pendants, and doo-rags pretty much said “we don’t want our black players to look like black players”, and it pissed me off.

The latest crop of players like Josh Childress, Carlos Delfino and Juan Carlos Navarro leaving the NBA to play overseas has accidentally started a firestorm of interest from top stars like Kobe, LeBron, and Dwayne Wade. LeBron spoke up first by stating he’d be willing to entertain a $50 million dollar deal to jump ship. Kobe followed suit by saying he wouldn’t sign another NBA contract until he tested the global market.

“As players, the business of the game (is) evolving, I think free agency now is becoming a global thing …. When players become free agents, the team they’re currently with – their competition is no longer the rest of the teams in the NBA. But it’s global. So, the market’s opened up. So we’ll just have to see how the league responds to it.”

…..then Wade threw in his two cents…

“They throw 30, 40, 50 million a year at me? I can’t turn that down,” said Heat star Dwyane Wade, a free agent in 2010.

Ba-da-da-pa-paaaaaaaa I’m Lovin It!!!

Kobe is so popular that there is speculation that he will create an international bidding war. Check out this video of Kobe walking through the crowd at the Beijing Olympics, kids are crawling all over themselves just to touch his arm.

Leaving the NBA could potentially turn these men (Kobe and LeBron) into billionaires over time if they play their cards right.

Spotted this photo over at Game Time With AG, which is a great blog by the way. Anyways I thought it was a dope photograph and decided to share…

This story is beginning to turn into something completely different than originally intended. The little YouTube video of Shaq dissing Kobe has gone completely viral and swept the web and sports world by storm.

TMZ cameras caught up with rapper Nas coming out of a restaurant with his wife Kelis, he went hard for team Shaq.

“Shaq is my man, f*ck Kobe,” he said. “Shaq is my man, big up to Shaq.”

Hip Hop fans may remember that this isn’t Nas’ first time dissing Kobe Bryant. On his old album “Street’s Disciple” Nas had a song called “These Our Are Heroes (Coon Picnic)” where he had HARSH words for Kobe. He layed into Bryant for ratting out to the police and cheating on his wife with a hotel clerk.. here are sample lyrics from the song and a stream of the track below (he talks about Kobe in the first verse)

Uh, Massa used to breed us to be bigger to go play
Athletes of today in the NBA, make me proud
But there’s somethin’ they don’t say
Keep gettin’ accused for abusin’ White pussay
From OJ to Kobe, uh let’s call him Tobe
First he played his life cool just like Michael
Now he rock ice too just like I do
Yo, you can’t do better than that?
The hotel clerk who adjusts the bathroom mat?
Now you lose sponsorships that you thought had your back
Yeah, you beat the rap jiggaboo, fake nigga you
You turn around then you shit on Shaq

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates this weekend, I went on a little trip an Stank-O is focusing on school now. But Sportaphile is back full strength now.

The VERY first piece of news I see is Shaq’s HILARIOUS freestyle dissing Kobe Bryant. Things like this is why Shaq is one of the most lovable athletes in the last 50 years. He’s downplaying the freestyle now, and I believe him. There may be a little competitive “one upsmanship” but I doubt theres serious dislike.

“I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever,” O’Neal told ESPN.com Monday. “That is what MC’s do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all.”

The NBA season is over and gone.

Garnett and Kobe have left the public eye to go enjoy their lives and they’ve taken every ounce of excitement with them. This little odd period between mid-june and the beginning of September is downright brutal. No NFL games to watch… no NBA games to watch… we’re left with Major League Baseball, golf (with no Tiger Woods since he’s injured), and Tennis.

Slim pickins indeed.

Theres a dim light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the Beijing Olympics, but who knows how that’s going to turn out. They don’t start until the first week of August, so we’re gonna trudge along for the next six weeks or so and HOPE something truly interesting happens to hold us over.