While bound for free agency in the summer of 2004, the Lakers star openly spoke about teams he might consider. But Bryant now says Cleveland star LeBron James is making the right decision by deciding earlier this week to stop talking about his impending free agency.
"He doesn't need to,'' Bryant said in an interview with FanHouse while in Denver for Friday's 105-79 loss to the Nuggets. "He did the right thing by not talking about it. I mean, what can you say?''
The Heat drew mostly guffaws when it retired the jersey of Michael Jordan, who never played one second for the franchise. Heat prez Pat Riley suggested it was a move to honor the game's greatest player, but most saw it as a silly bit of marketing showmanship.
MJ attended Thursday's Heat-Cavaliers game with Riley -- the TNT broadcast crew noted that Scottie Pippen also sat courtside, and suggested it might have been some subliminal "pair with Dwyane Wade!" messaging to LeBron James. MJ's presence made the game a bit more weird, and led to a rare political statement from LeBron: he thinks players should stop wearing No. 23 out of deference to His Airness, and he plans to lead the charge by switching to No. 6 next season.
Take it from the pioneer who started this idea of cozy, contractual relationships between the shoe giants and the NCAA schools: adidas has screwed up this time.
"What a PR nightmare for adidas. This should have been a no-brainer,'' Vaccaro said. "It's nothing but a personal thing against Michael Jordan.''
At issue is the recent decision by adidas to severe its relationship with the University of Central Florida, which has a contract that requires all of its athletes and coaches to wear adidas products.
With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.
Madison Square Garden is the crown jewel of NBA arenas. It's the oldest building in the league, and has hosted a ton of special moments throughout its history. Many of those moments likely helped shaped the hoop dreams of many of the league's current stars.
Of course, no one had a greater influence on making MSG a special place to play than Michael Jordan (sorry, Knicks fans). Since Jordan, every NBA player has wanted to come to the Garden and put on a show.
Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Thursday, there are 5 days remaining.
It takes five years of retirement for a player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Make it 10 for Dennis Rodman, who always did things differently. He did win five NBA titles.
If you think that Michael Jordan caused a commotion with an unconventional acceptance speech last month when he headlined the Class of 2009, just wait until Rodman shows up in 2010 wearing a dress and lipstick.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
Actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer is a huge sports fan who tells us that he use to be a boxer and these days he enjoys golf. In this FanHouse exclusive we talk to Cedric at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California (not to be confused with the Sherwood Forest -- home of Robin Hood). Cedric who hangs out with lots of top athletes tells us about the time he was doing Vegas with Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Charles Barkley.
Tamir Goodman is retiring. This might not mean much to you because Goodman is better known as "The Jewish Jordan". (This always struck me as weird, although I've since taken to calling Michael Jordan "The Gentile Goodman".)
Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame speech has made waves in the NBA community -- everyone seems to think, for some ridiculous reason, that Jordan shouldn't have smack-talked his opponents in what was supposed to be his moment of glory.
I'm of the other opinion; trash-talking was Jordan's legacy and he used people who challenged him as motivation to get better. Bryon Russell was one of those people: Jordan cited Russell's claim that he could guard Jordan (um, whoops, guy) after MJ retired the first time, only to get absolutely torched by His Airness several years later in the very famous "non-push-off" from the 1998 NBA Finals. Naturally, Russell took exception to that part of the speech.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Here is each Hall of Fame Inductees' best line from Friday night's ceremony in Springfield, Mass.:
Jerry Sloan: "Tom Boerwinkle ... 6-foot-11, built my backyard. When he bought the house behind me, I said: 'Tom, we were roommates one day and next day you're in my backyard looking out the window. He said 'I've got that figured out; I'll build a fence 6-feet-10, I can see over it and you can't.'
DENVER -- Do as I say and not as I do.
The 
Take it from the pioneer who started this idea of cozy, contractual relationships between the shoe giants and the NCAA schools: adidas has screwed up this time.
With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, 
Tip-Off Timer
Elie Seckbach
Michael Jordan
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
