NBA housecleaning usually happens after the playoffs, but not for Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa Bryant. Their former housekeeper, 48-year-old Maria Jimenez, has sued them, claiming they harassed and humiliated her and failed to provide the health insurance they’d promised her. While everyone thinks of Vanessa as a victim of infidelity, Jimenez paints a different, stinkier picture. She alleges that Vanessa verbally abused and demeaned her, once ordering her to “put her hand in a bag of dog feces to retrieve the price tag for [a] blouse.” (Note: We’re left to wonder if this is what Kobe meant when he told Marc Ecko that he doesn’t like dog shit.)

Legal proceedings will determine if any of this is true or just a woman’s attempt to get paid to shut up, but it wouldn’t be the first time an athlete had a crazy wife. With this mess in mind, Complex presents the six craziest athlete wives. And for anyone who’s about to go ape shit when they don’t see Craig Hodges’s wife Carlita (doused him with gasoline and threw lit matches at him) or Nick Harper’s wife Daniell (attacked him with a knife), we’re talking non-domestic abuse crazy. We’ve learned you can’t throw punch lines at crazy violent women without getting arrested…

SHERRIE DALY (JOHN DALY)

• Aside from allegedly attacking John with a steak knife in 2007, his fourth wife pleaded guilty to a federal charge involving a drug ring and an illegal gambling operation in November 2004 and was sentenced to a five-month prison term. She was already caught up in dirt as early as 1996 and met John in 2001, or we’d gladly make a joke about the alcoholic golfer’s liquid assets running low.

ANNA BENSON (KRIS BENSON)

• While Kris was pitching for the New York Mets in 2004-05, his ex stripper wife told Howard Stern she’d sleep with everyone on the team (including the ball boys) if her husband ever cheated on her, showed up to the organization’s Christmas party dressed like a cast member from XXX-Mas Cums Early and snidely said that Dominican General Manager Omar Minaya was putting together an all-Latino team. You know your wife is crazy when a professional baseball team that has dealt with scandals ranging from cocaine to steroids trades you because they can’t deal with her insanity anymore.

JANET JONES (WAYNE GRETZKY)

• This former actress and dancer won the lotto when she wifed the Great One in 1988. It turned out she liked games of chance a little bit too much, though. In February 2006, Janet and several NHL players were linked to a New Jersey-based sports gambling ring (the NHL forbids anyone associated with it to gamble). To her credit, she did try to shield Wayne from the scandal. For not snitching, we’ll just say she’s “crazy…in love.”

JACKIE CHRISTIE (DOUG CHRISTIE)

• Jackie stands by her man—literally. When Doug was playing for the Toronto Raptors from 1996-2000, his overprotective/suspicious/insecure wife accompanied him during interviews with certain female reporters to be sure there was no funny business. She also felt uncomfortable with female Raptors staffers having access to the players’ locker room, so Doug changed clothes in a separate locker room. As crazy as these practices are (and we haven’t even mentioned the wretchedly romantic hand signals or annual marriage ceremony), nothing trumps the time a young female fan in Toronto approached Doug for an autograph and a kiss and Jackie summoned the voice of Beelzebub and screamed on her. She shoots for three (sixes)…nothing but net!

BRENDA WARNER (KURT WARNER)

• Back when Kurt was with the St. Louis Rams in 1998-2003 and losing, his ex Marine wife used to call talk radio programs and bark on the media and Kurt’s coaches. Fine, but why’d she have to look like female Johhny Unitas while doing it?

With the series heading back to L.A, the players’ significant others will be on full display to the Hollywood shutterbugs. And we must admit, the two teams stack up pretty well against each other on the female front. We decided to take a look at the confirmed wives and girlfriends of players like Kobe Bryant, Derek Fischer, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to see who’s really winning off the court. See the wifeys and vote on the winning team after the jump.

The Lakers Women [Click thumbnail for larger image]
From L-R, Kobe/Vanessa Bryant, Luke Walton/Bree Ladd, Derek/Candace Fisher

The Celtics Women [Click thumbnail for larger image]
From L-R, Ray Allen/Shannon Williams, Paul Pierce/Julie Landrum,Kevin/Brandi Garnett

Five years ago, a 19-year-old Colorado resort employee accused Bryant of raping her. He'd allegedly hit bottom (word to Sodom) and then would go on to hit a more figurative low over the next 14 months before the case was eventually dropped. The league's suddenly fallible golden boy had to state publicly, his wife by his side, that he'd had consensual extramarital sex with his accuser (we're sure the consensual bit helped smooth things right over at the Bryant home). Companies like McDonald's and Nutella terminated his endorsement contracts.

With the added pressure of the trial, and a stunning loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals, Bryant's already strained relationship with superstar center Shaquille O'Neal soured further and the star guard forced brass to ship the Diesel to Miami'cutting short a potential dynasty and denying the world a possible “Wood in the Hood” collabo rap album between the two stars. In Miami, O'Neal won another title with Dwyane Wade.

Bryant, finally the center of attention in L.A., struggled with a less talented supporting cast. Last off-season, sick of a third straight season without a playoff series win, Bryant criticized his teammates and Lakers management for not trading them, and then tried his best to get shipped out. When the season started, Laker fans who'd supported him during the rape allegations were morally outraged by his treachery and booed their beloved superstar.

In the end, the Lakers kept Bryant, who matured as a leader while the team's young players developed into legit role players and GM Mitch Kupchak pulled off a completely one-sided trade for the Memphis Grizzlies' talented seven-foot power forward/center Pau Gasol. Now, many people favor them to win it all. To do so, Bryant must return to the great state where he was accused of rape and dominate the Denver Nuggets. If he does, he will really come out on top. Again. Allegedly.

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