Mark Kiszla, and the Fine Art of Kobe Hateration . . .

(hat tip TrueHoop)

Seriously dude, just let it go, let it go.

Mark Kiszla in a column for the Denver Post lets loose with about a ton of bile directed towards Kobe Bryant.

All Kobe's done in the Olympics is act respectfully towards his opponents, enthusiastically about being a part of the Olympic experience, and consistently played the best on ball defense ever seen in Olympic play (seriously, if he plays this sort of defense for the Lakers, they'll be unstoppable next season).

But that's not enough for Kiszla.

Pucker up and Kiszla my ass, jerk.

He's not even man enough to admit that the article is really about the Colorado based unpleasantness from a few years ago, that doesn't get a single mention, but it's the only subject on his mind when he wrote his piece.

UPDATE:

I just realized that my aside about if Kobe played this sort of defense for the Lakers they'd be unstoppable might sound like I'm accusing him of slacking off defensively for the Lakers, and that's not true. He's playing about 30 minutes a night, and they only play every other day, without any travel between, whereas the NBA is a long slog, and Kobe plays around 40 minutes a night with many a back to back, and lots of travel, so it's understandable that he can't maintain the fierce defensive intensity he has displayed in the Olympics (but it'd be awesome if he could).

Also, if he gambles and let's a guard past him, he still has Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, and the like to pick up the slack. This is a monster team, and they play well as a team, which is something new for one of these 'dream teams'. They've started slow, in all three contests so far, but their defensive intensity never wanes, and the points always come eventually, so I expect that they'll crush Spain on Saturday to send a message, and set themselves up for success in the medal rounds against whichever teams they face. Unless the refs just go insane with lopsided calls and give all Team USA's big men early showers, I don't see any team stopping their quest for gold.