Once upon a time, Jason Kidd’s son, T.J., dressed up as Brian Scalabrine for Halloween. This was back when T.J. was smallish, the Jason-Joumana marriage was rock solid, and the Nets played in the dreary confines of the Meadowlands, where T.J. had his own locker.
I only got to make a brief reference to that small piece of Scalabrine history this morning in an interview on Sirius-XM NBA radio, partly because Scalabrine was busy predicting that Kobe Bryant will shoot 37 percent this season for a Lakers team that will not make the playoffs.
As for whether this will be Kobe’s last season, Scals and I had a little disagreement.
He believes Kobe will take a subjugated role on a 2016-17 Lakers team that could add a pair of max free agents.
I believe Kobe is too much of a diva to come off the bench as an 18-minute per night player … but that does not mean I believe this season will be Kobe’s final one. (That will be determined by the level he is playing at.)
(RELATED: VOTE ON WHETHER YOU BELIEVE THIS WILL BE KOBE BRYANT’S FINAL SEASON)
As I reported last week from Las Vegas, there is a possibility that Kobe makes his swan song as a member of the U.S. Olympic team, ending his career atop the gold medal podium in Rio.
And speaking of the Olympics, that also came up for discussion in our interview. There are going to be four teams from the FIBA-Americas region, which will account for one-third of the field. Why won’t the IOC expand from 12 teams with so many worthy candidates out there who could boost the caliber of the competition?
That answer, plus much, much more, in this podcast with Scalabrine, Jonathan Hood and myself. Enjoy.