SPORTS: OLYMPICS: etc.

SportsDeke.com reports that Laker star,

Kobe Bryant, has lost 16 pounds since the

NBA season ended. And what in the world

is this we hear? Commissioner David Stern

appears to want to steal the sweet fun and

excitement we all feel at seeing the USA

represented in the Olympics playing our

favored sport of basketball. He is expressing

imposing age limits for players to participate.

The games' profile has been elevated so much

higher around the world due to these games

being played against other countries and it

is fitting it should be so. Now, many of our

very good players might be in jeopardy.

By recruiting the best and the brightest

Americans in this sport, Director Jerry Colangelo

has made it so cool to wear U.S. colors on

the free-throw line. The NBA is now lobbying

to turn  the Olympic tourney into a second-

tier clambake for players no older than 23.

Well then, goodbye Kobe Bryant...ought to

just turn the channel. Not one of the superstars

want though, to come out of the games.

Keeping all this in mind, it is a fair bet that

Money, power and more money is keeping a

mighty close watch on the cash register then

for David Stern. Kevin Durant scored 22 points

and LeBron James added 8 assists and the U.S.

Olympic men's basketball team opened tournament

play with a score of 98-71 win over France on Sunday.

Kobe had earlier said the U.S. team could very well

beat the 1992 Dream Team that did change inter-

national hoops forever at the Barcelona Games.

Steve Nash (formerly with Phoenix Suns) and now

beginning his games with our Lakers, will make his

debut as Kobe's teammate when the Lakers play host

to the Dallas Mavericks on October 30 to close out

the league's opening night tripleheader. In London,

Pau Gasol said that  "We all know this season is a very

important one and we would like to get back on top

as a team". Nash had spent 6 seasons with the Mav's

before being traded back in 2004 to Phoenix, which

originally drafted him in 1996. Nash will play again

in Phoenix, but as a visitor, on January 30th.

At any rate, both Olympics games and back here at

home with the regular season games, basketball

remains a winner in this writers' eyes. Slam-dunk!

Babs Wells