Kobe just went OFF on the Lakers front office on within the last few hours. Number 24 is upset about numerous things:

1) The Lakers told him they were going to build a contender around him when he re-signed, yet Phil Jackson revealed to Kobe today that the Lakers front office told him (after they fired him in 04) that they were going to build for the future (with a 5-6 year plan).

Kobe says he only re-signed because he was assured they would be trying to build for now and not the future.

2) The Lakers staff keeps throwing him under the bus for the Shaq deal. Kobe stated that Lakers owner Jerry Buss told him in February of 2004 that they were trading Shaq no matter what because they didn't want to pay his salary.

Basically in the middle of the 04 season, Buss had already decided to trade Shaq. In today's L.A.

Times, Mark Heisler quoted a Laker insider as saying that Kobe is the reason Shaq is not playing for the Lakers anymore. Kobe is furious about this saying he thinks the Lakers have been content with him taking the bullet for the Shaq fiasco for years and that he's not going to sit back without speaking up about that anymore.

3) They traded his best friend Caron Butler (without even so much as consulting him) for Kwame Brown.

Kobe stated that he and Butler were working out together that entire summer in anticipation of playing together during the next season. I'm of the opinion that the Lakers didn't want to extend Butler to a long term deal (which Washington did after they traded for him).

After reading yesterday, I became a little bit upset. In the post Mr.

Berger criticized current Memphis Grizzlies GM Jerry West for following the draft lottery:

"It's like pitching pennies. It's grossly unfair to the team, but I've said it before, I don't think the lottery is fair. I never liked it.

I don't think it's a good system at all, period.

"There have been a lot of picks in the lottery that have [failed]. There are two in the lottery this year that are not going to fail.

There are two superstars in the draft. I think for the teams fortunate enough to get them, the fortunes of their franchises have changed forever."

Berger categorized the comments as "sour grapes", stating that Mr.

West only made the comments because his team lost the lottery. However, being the media watch dog that I am, I know that Jerry West had been urging the league to change its current lottery system long before Tuesday's draft lottery. In fact, in back in early April, Mr.

West spent half of the interview talking about how terrible he thought the system was.

Jerry West, the greatest player to come out of WVU and the second greatest native to the state (just behind Don Knotts), will be getting a statue in his honor this weekend. In return, he's .

NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West has donated $800,000 to West Virginia University for scholarships and a new study area for athletes.

That raises his total gifts to his alma mater to more than $1 million.
Of that money, $250,000 will go to the new academic athletic center. The new facility was something that WVU has been trying to raise money to build for a while.

Getting it built and this past December when WVU was trying to renegotiate the contract with football coach Rich Rodriguez.