Sports Journalists drive me nuts

From Truehoop's first cup today:

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: "Mitch Richmond knows: The single greatest common thread between Jordan and Bryant is their ability and hunger to destroy every opponent in their paths. Belittle Bryant's cold arrogance all you want. Call him selfish. Rail about his sense of entitlement. But you can't deny that Kobe and Jordan are the only two guards who have played the game like this. 'Both guys, when they've got you in a cage, they're going to keep you in there,' Richmond said this week. 'They're going to kill you and keep killing you until you're dead.'"

O RLY?  The "only two guards in the game" who were ever ridiculously cut-throat competitive?

What the hell?  I wonder Magic Johnson (or Dennis Johnson, or Kevin Johnson) agrees.  Or Jerry West.  Or Gary Payton.  Or Isiah Thomas.

So you really believe that because Kobe has won 3 titles that he's got a "killer instinct"?  Where, prey freaking tell, has that instinct been then, since, oh, I don't know, <b>2002</b>!?  A year, by the way, where he got to play with Shaq in his prime.

Kobe Bryant is good.  Really good.  But all this "best player in the game" bullshit is getting annoying, not because of any truth behind the statement, but because the arguments for it always seem to boil down to something like "I mean, look, you can see it in his EYES, man!"