Our friends at Dime Magazine put together this dope list. Make sure to check out the Dime blog for NCAA previews, exclusive NBA coverage, and more.
Anybody who watches MSNBC's Lockup knows this much about prison etiquette: It's all about perception. You might come into the bing at 5'4" with a real pretty mouth, but if you create the perception right away that you're stone crazy, you can drop the soap all you want and not have to worry. Same rules apply in basketball. Guys only mess with you if you let them think they can, which is why Kobe Bryant is such a strange case. Despite being the illest player on the planet for the last decade, Kobe still regularly runs across opponents who treat him like a rookie. Of course, Jordan had his agitators, but by the time MJ was a few rings deep, they were fewer and farther between. Even the younger, less-decorated LeBron doesn't have as many guys going after his head. With Kobe, there still seems to be a perception around the League that he's soft and susceptible to mind games.
Over the weekend, Matt Barnes joined the rank and file of Kobe instigators. Although the Orlando Magic swingman was on the wrong end of a 34-point effort by Kobe, he had Kobe more frustrated than anybody has all year, and Barnes' team got the win. That got us thinking about the surprisingly long list of Kobe's most notorious agitators...
RAY ALLEN
DIME SAYS: The feud peaked when Ray was in Seattle, and was briefly reignited when he joined the Celtics and beat Kobe in the '08 Finals. Back in '04, Kobe's first year without Shaq, Ray publicly questioned Kobe's leadership ability and predicted he would regret losing the big fella. "If Kobe doesn't see he needs two-and-a-half good players to be a legitimate playoff contender or win a championship, in about a year or two he'll be calling out to Jerry Buss that. 'We need some help in here,' or 'Trade me.' And we'll all be saying, 'I told you so.'" That led to an alleged threatening phone call from Kobe to Ray and some tense stare-downs on the court, but both guys have downplayed the rivalry ever since.
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SMUSH PARKER
DIME SAYS: We're thinking Smush won't get an invite when Kobe gets inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The NYC playground legend was the Lakers' starting point guard for two seasons that Kobe would probably like to forget, when L.A. suffered back-to-back first-round playoff losses and Kobe had a terrible supporting cast. Smush was often the scapegoat for whatever went wrong, catching the wrath of Kobe and Phil Jackson. Now out of the League, he's taken to blasting his ex-teammate in interviews by the bodega.
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