The winds do blow, and the time does change, and if you wait arond a few years the big get small, the good gets bad and something else turns into something else (except we are all still waiting on Shaq.) It all happens before our eyes in various amounts, shades of proclivity and acclivity. It's probably bad for me to take such delight in the downfall of Kobe Bryant, but what follows is pure poetry: From the geniuses at Rotoworld


Lakers interim coach Frank Hamblen is taking some swipes at Kobe's defense, or lack thereof, as well as his shot selection. The Lakers lost the game in the fourth quarter last night when Kobe hit just 2-of-9 shots and wasn't exactly a defensive stopper. Kobe's man has scored 25 points (Ronald Murray) and 22 points (Gordan Giricek) in their last two games.

''He just kind of shakes his head or says he was trying to get something going or whatever,'' Hamblen said. ''There are times to gamble and times when not to gamble.'' Kobe is averaging just 1.3 steals per game this year, down almost a full steal from 2002-03. When Hamblen was asked if Bryant's defense was a concern, he paused for a moment before answering. ''We've had problems with guards all year long,'' he said. It's obvious that Kobe could get away with gambling more on defense when he had Shaq playing goalie for him. Now he's disappearing in fourth quarters, playing shoddy D and getting slyly ripped on by a guy named Frank Hamblen.

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