Kobe and Artest’s ‘Conversation’

by Marcel Mutoni

Going into Houston last night, the Lakers were in the midst of a three-game road losing streak, and Kobe Bryant wasn’t exactly feeling chipper. And that was before Ron Artest began jawing at him.

With the Lakers trailing headed into the second half, the two stars started going at it, and that’s when the trouble began for Ron-Ron. Their chat went something like this:

Clearly, they were jawing back and forth. They also were shoving, which earned them matching technical fouls with a little less than 7 minutes left in the game. I wasn’t close enough to hear what was said, but my answer to Ramona was this:

Artest: “Eff you.”
Kobe: “No, eff you.”
Artest: “No, no, eff you.”
Kobe: “No, no, no, eff you.”

Bryant would later say only that their conversation was “edgy.” I ran my guess of their conversation by Derek Fisher and he laughed and said, “Yeah, something like that.”

The agitated Bryant scored 31 of his 37 in the second half, leading the Lakeshow to a much-needed road victory.

The number of F bombs dropped, however, has yet to be tallied.