The Referee Made Me Do It

I grew up playing soccer, and I immediately know what you are thinking if you are reading this and live in America. Wuss.

You have seen some of the players. Flopping, complaining, flopping, whining, hot wives, and more flopping.

The funny thing is that the flopping, complaining and whining works in the game.

I found a dude that is taking it to the next level: off the field.

Premier League soccer player Rob Malcolm was recently found in a drunken sleep behind the wheel of his car in the middle of a highway. Who did he blame? A referee from a match that he played the day before.

Malcolm, 27, a Scottish international player, later apologised for the bizarre incident before apparently offering every player's favourite excuse - blaming the ref.

He told fans he was "very upset and frustrated" by official Steve Bratt's handling of a match on Boxing Day, the day before Malcolm was arrested.

Malcolm appeared before magistrates in Chesterfield, Derbyshire charged with driving with excess alcohol.

He blew double the legal limit when he was given the breathalyser.

Another car almost ran into him while he was passed out on the highway.

Hey he was not driving, he was just sleeping. He had this to say: " "I would also like to stress that at the time of the incident, I was not driving my car.

I had pulled over to the side of the road and was sleeping. Once again, I apologise for what has been a major error of judgment."

When he says "pulled over to the side of the road," what he really means is that he had ten scotches and decided the best place to pass out was the middle of the road. Safe right?

And when he says that he "was not driving my car," he means that he drove to that location to pass out and did not pass out while the car was still running.

Ah if life were that easy.

"Yes, I did not do that report boss. And what of it? My old lady pissed me off the night before with her meatloaf. Hey, at least I decided not to do the report on a Friday. We will not have to worry about it until Monday."

I really do not know why many soccer players are injected with wussbag-itis, but the reputation never seems to get away from the 'ballers.

We would not have a Rasheed Wallace in the NBA world if he reacted like Malcolm.

Mike D'Antoni Likes To Whine

Throughout the NBA season you will see Mike D'Antoni crying up and down the court. I do not think there is anything worse then seeing that dude whine. Google him, 90% of the images that come up are like the one to the left.

Last night, D'Antoni did not take kindly to Phil Jackson and his timing of calling a timeout. Jackson called a timeout immediately after D'Antoni had, with the Los Angeles Lakers blowing out the Phoenix Suns. D'Antoni went nuts immediately after he called the timeout, and looked like a hyena excited about seeing a lion.

You can read Jacksons lips in the following video, "what the f**k is wrong with you? Go sit down!":

D'Antoni had this to say after the game:

"Yeah, I was pretty upset," D'Antoni said. "I thought he disrespected our players. But he likes to play the mind games and that's fine. He might want to try to do it in playoff time when we bust them every year."

You got some balls D'Antoni... little as they are, you have no room to make such a comment. Every year? I guess two years in a row constitutes "every year". Just how many championships have you won? What is that I hear? Oh that is right, nothing, meaning zero.

If Jackson had the talent you had on your squad he would have already won back-to-back titles. Your players underachieve in the playoffs, and take on the persona of their head coach: whiners. This Lakers team took your team to the brink of elimination, and would have easily defeated you had Kobe Bryant possessed a teammate better than your average gym basketball player.

D'Antoni would not be able to take this Lakers team to the playoffs like Jackson has the past two years.

Jackson had this to say about D'Antoni flipping out:

"He wasn't thinking straight. That's all," Jackson said of D'Antoni. "He'd understand that if he thought about it for a second. I think he thought I was trying to showboat or grandstand. But when you have a mandatory timeout coming in a minute and a half or something like that, just get it out of the way."

You know Jackson was smiling when he said that.

Memo to D'Antoni: you do know you are Mike D'Antoni right? Win something, and then talk.

I think I am going to take back my prediction that the Suns are winning it all this year.

(Side note: I just noticed Lakers assistant coach Frank Hamblem smiling after Jackson tells D'Antoni to sit down. Classic.)

Kobe Bryant - Los Angeles Drama

The drama just not stop with the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant. The latest development is that Bryant may have cleaned out his locker at the Lakers practice facility, in preparation for a trade.

Bryant has been quiet ever since Lakers owner Jerry Buss announced that he is entertaining offers to trade the superstar.

Does it ever end? There is drama everyday in LaLa Land.
Buss made that statement regarding trading Bryant to show who is the man in the town. He had to. Bryant had basically called him an idiot over the summer, and this was a way for Buss to get back at the star. Not saying that this is the right approach, but anytime you are a business man you have to flex your muscle.

There is no way Bryant stays with the Lakers past the 2008 NBA draft, and that is being optimistic. The longer the Lakers wait to trade Bryant, the less trade value he has. He can opt out after the 2009 season and the closer they get to that point in time, the less the Lakers will get in return.

Bryant is in a unique situation in that he has the NBA's only no trade clause in his contract, meaning he can dictate where he is traded to. And even setting up the trade is going to be a tall task. You will never get equal value for Bryant.

Bryant is not the Lakers, and I am a fan of the Lakers, not just one player on the team but the name on the front of the jersey. Just for the record, I was always a Shaquille O'Neal guy and did not agree with Bryant's antics when Shaq was in town. If only Bryant realized that he could co-exist with another superstar earlier and asked that Shaq not be traded from the Lakers.

The finger pointing can be distributed all over the organization.

I guess I can collect on a bet I made with my buddy, stating that Kobe would never win another championship with the Lakers (a bet I made a week after Shaq was traded to Miami).