Curt Schilling Takes On Kobe Bryant

Laaadiiies and geeentlemen. In this corner, weighing in at 205 pounds, standing at six feet six inches, is the pride of the Philadelphia suburbs, Kobe Bryaaaant!

Aaaand in this corner, weighing in at a doughy 215 pounds, standing at six feet, four inches is the hero of the 2004 ALCS, Red Sox pitcher Cuuuuuurt Schilling!

Who will be crowned the champion of shooting his mouth off? Let’s head into the ring.

Earlier this week, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling brought his totally disinterested daughter and captivated son to take in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Like any blogger worth Dan Shaughnessy’s scorn, Schilling dropped some insidery goodness on his site.

From the first tip until about 4 minutes left in the game I saw and heard [Kobe] bitch at his teammates. Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren’t doing, or something they did wrong. No dialog about “hey let’s go, let’s get after it” or whatever. He spent the better part of 3.5 quarters pissed off and ranting at the non-execution or lack of, of his team.

He walked off the floor, obligatory skin contact on the high five, and sat on the bench stone faced or pissed off, the whole game. . . . I would assume that’s his style and how he plays and what works for him because when I saw the leader board for scoring in the post season his name sat up top at 31+ a game, can’t argue with that.

Curt is careful not to call Kobe a jackass outright, but you can read between the sics on this one.

Kobe, who doesn’t seem to be into the whole blogging thing, responded to reporters yesterday.

Asked if he was disappointed in Schilling’s comments, Bryant responded, “Go Yankees!” and pumped his fist, drawing laughter from reporters Wednesday.

“After the time of all those bleeps, we almost pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in history,” he said. “It seemed to motivate them pretty well.”

Let’s go the judge’s scorecard. Namely, ours.

We’ll have to give Curt the edge, not only because he’s on one of our teams, and we’re easily swayed (not as easily as an NBA ref though!), but because he actually took the time to articulate an argument. Kobe stuck with stock cliches and bragged about a victory that didn’t actually happen.

You’re Your winnnnahhh: Curt Schilling.