  Just checked ESPN this morning, all this stuff going around about whether Kobe or Rip Hamilton will dominate the urlLink LA-Detroit Finals series , starting Sunday. Are they kidding!? Talk about searching high and low for a headline. Rip Hamilton runs all day. He's the energiser bunny of basketball and went on a scoring tear against the Pacers. Problem: he's about as strong as a strand of cotton soaked in starch. Against Indiana he spent most of his time running past Reggie Miller, who at 37 isn't quite the athlete that Kobe is. Kobe is going to tear Hamilton to shreds. Stephen Smith on ESPN Motion talks about Rip running around to get his open shots, but it ain't so easy to get good screens past Shaq and Mailman.
Yeah, one's an O'Neal but that's about all Shaq and J-O have in common, and the other Laker in the paint ain't exactly a Jeff Foster (even if he is 40 years old). Good luck Rip. RIP. The real battles to watch in this series will be the Wallaces against Shaq and Malone. In particular Malone vs Rasheed. Machismo vs Schizo! 'Sheed is going to be taunting him about his age, how much he can't jump anymore and all sorts of crap just to get in his head and Big Karl won't be backing off an inch.
Look for the tech count in this matchup. In urlLink another NBA story , I saw a headline saying Knick forward, Thomas, was heading in to surgery. I thought it might be Tim Thomas heading for brain surgery after having a crack at Kenyon Martin during the playoffs, but turns out it was Kurt Thomas, getting some quack work on his hand. 
