Kobe Felt 'Violated' Wearing Retro Shorts
Posted Dec 31st 2007 5:14PM by Brett Edwards
The Lakers' breaking out of the retro shorts for last night's contest versus the Celtics has gotten plenty of attention, and with good reason. It was a hilarious idea in theory (click here for more short-shorts pictures), but in practice it just didn't work out all that well for the Lakers. The players and coaches had their various opinions on the subject, but no one's words summed up the feeling better than those of
Kobe Bryant:
I don't know what it feels like to wear a thong, but I imagine it feels something like what we had on in the first half. I felt violated. I felt naked. It's one thing to see films with guys wearing those things. ... I'd rather stay warm, man.
Technically, the Lakers
were violated ... by the Celtics. The one detail that I thought was really funny about the extra-short shorts was the fact that all of the Lakers felt the need to wear the spandex bicycle-style shorts underneath them. Um, guys? The shorts aren't
that short, I don't think you needed any extra protection to prevent us from accidentally seeing something we shouldn't.
For the Celtics, this was just another easy victory over a sub-standard team. But the Lakers -- and especially their promotions staff -- can hopefully use this game as a learning tool. The lesson is simple: when you overdo it with the pre-game hype and uniform gimmicks, the fans might enjoy it for a while, but all the team is going to get out of it is distraction, ultimately resulting in a loss.
