Listen people, Kobe Bryant is not really comparing the Dream Team to the group heading over to London in a couple of weeks.  He is trying to fire the team up, stoke the competitive fires a bit.  That’s Kobe.  The guy can’t take a leak without challenging his teammates that he can pee harder than anyone else.  He knows damn well the Dream Team members played a different game in a different era.  He knows these sorts of comparisons are worthless to everyone but radio talk show jocks and sportswriters who need to fill airtime and column inches.  He just wants the 2012 Olympians to land at Heathrow thinking that they are the best assemblage of basketball players in the history of the universe and no one can stop them from winning the gold. That’s it.

Michael Jordan probably knows this too.  On the other hand, this is the guy who runs the Charlotte Bobcats, so I’m not sure his opinion should be given a lot of weight, no matter what kind of a career he had as a player.

Lakers fans at the July 4th barbecue I attended were split on this news (granted, there were only about four of us…it was a small barbecue.)  I’m not a fan of signing a guy who is 38 years old as your starting point guard.  On the other hand, Nash’s numbers are still pretty damn good and rank up among the top PGs in the league.  On the other hand, I still remember the Gary Payton-Karl Malone experiment, and this feels similar.  On the other hand, this Lakers team does not have the toxic Kobe-Shaq dynamic.  On yet another hand, this team does have the problem of Andrew Bynum and his ever-regressing maturity.  Unless they pull off a trade for Dwight Howard, who has a big liability in…his ever-regressing maturity.  Good Lord.  I’m glad I’m just a guy with access to the internet, and not Mitch Kupchak.

Oh.  Damn.  Why do people want to play for the Clippers?  Guys, long term, it is still the Clippers!  Donald Sterling is still the owner!  The Lakers are still run by…oh right, this guy.

Carry on then.