The Boston Red Sox’s resident hothead, Curt Schilling, was at Game 2 of the NBA Finals between Boston and Los Angeles (I still think the Cavs could have hung with the Lakers if they were able to sneak past Boston. With Tim Donaghy’s allegations and the foul calling disparities in the Boston-Cleveland series, maybe there were bigger forces at work) and he had a comment (surprise, surprise) about Kobe and how he talked to his teammates. Curt said in this post:

I only know what I have heard, starting awhile back with the entire Shaq debacle. I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other on or about him other than to know that people feel he might be one of the 4-5 greatest players to ever lace it up. What I do know is what I got to see up close and hear, was unexpected. From the first tip until about 4 minutes left in the game I saw and heard this guy bitch at his teammates. Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren’t doing, or something they did wrong. No dialog about ‘hey let’s go, let’s get after it’ or whatever. He spent the better part of 3.5 quarters pissed off and ranting at the non-execution or lack of, of his team. Then when they made what almost was a historic run in the 4th, during a TO, he got down on the floor and basically said ‘Let’s f’ing go, right now, right here’ or something to that affect.

So, Mr. Schilling, there’s no cursing by baseball greats? The difference between baseball and football is we can’t hear what’s going on in the dugout but anyone in proximity of courtside (and sometimes the TV audience) can hear the dialogue on an NBA bench. Game 2 was the Lakers’ 99th game this year so I think they know how Kobe rolls by now, certainly a lot better than you.

Schilling then proceeds to laud Kevin Garnett and how he handles himself on the floor, all the while wearing a Larry Bird throwback.

Here’s a big difference between Garnett and Bryant…0 to 3 as in how many rings Kobe has. With Shaq, without Shaq, it doesn’t matter. He has 3 rings. He knows a little about what makes a champion in the NBA. While I wouldn’t handle things the way Kobe would, Kobe has his style and it has gotten them thus far.

I am a Red Sox fan (Coco, Manny and Tim Wakefield are my favorites — what can I say, former Indians and a knuckleballer) but you have to call out a jerk and Curt, you are that jerk.

Stick to the sport you know…the word for you is…shhhhhhhhhhhh.