General: Sterno's Talkin' Smack -- Episode #30

Sterno's Talkin' smack. No holding back here. It's all trash, all the time. Welcome to the Friday morning edition.

Today's edition is dedicated to the two horror stories taking over our airwaves over the past month. An update on Kobe Bryant, and new shocking comments from Carlton Dotson, the accused murderer of Brian Dennehy.

Smack This: The Kobe Bryant Saga -- Okay, we have been following this story for quite a while now and there have been plenty of twists and turns, but, finally, through sources of ABC and ESPN, we have some of the prosecution's case against Bryant.

Apparently, Bryant met the 19 year old when on a tour of the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera (the famous hotel). On this tour, he schmoozed with the girl and asked her to come to his room later that night. She accepted.

Okay, timeout. I have been on these kinds of tours. You see the pool and where the drinks are. Here is where the towels are, and so on. In what could not have been more than fifteen minutes, the Lakers superstar was able to build enough rapport to get a booty call? Beyond that, didn't this guy just have surgery? What the heck was he doing walking around the hotel's grounds? Go to your room and go to sleep. You have a beautiful wife, a great lifestyle and a child. Moron!

As the story goes, the girl went to the hotel room to "visit" Kobe. She was only there just under a half an hour. (Wow, Kobe works fast eh?) Anyway, apparently there was some sort of consensual activity, before the girl eventually decided enough was enough. According to the prosecution, Kobe wasn't finished and proceeded to physically force the girl to continue the sexual activity.

This story keeps getting uglier and uglier. Between the vaginal tears, which is part of the evidence according to sources, and the physical bruises the girl suffered, this does not look good for Kobe. We don't know what happened yet, but I would love to know about alcohol intake, witnesses directly after the incident, and so on.

To make this much worse for Kobe, he has been lying to the police. He told them, the first time he was questioned, that he had no knowledge of this girl, and nothing had ever happened. Then, he did a complete turn around, admitted that he had committed adultery.

There are two ways that you can look at this. On the one hand, Kobe has once again proven that while he may speak a bunch of languages, he is missing a screw or two. You absolutely never lie to the police. It makes whoever is in question, look guilty. That's all there is to it. If he didn't hurt this girl either purposely or accidentally, then just tell the truth.

Now, that being said... on the other hand, Kobe was protecting his family. He knew what he had done was sick, and that his wife would be devastated. It is possible that the only reason he lied to police was to keep that information from his wife.

Either way, there are cracks in Kobe's armor right now.

Kobe Bryant Saga -- Smacked!!!

Smack This: Carlton Dotson -- Mr. Dotson, you have officially pissed me off. This whole thing with Brian Dennehy is sickening. Lies and contradictory stories about what the Baylor coaching staff did, and didn't know, what kind of danger these guys were, or weren't in, and what exactly happened that night that Dotson decided to kill his best friend.

"I thought he was my friend but he betrayed me," Dotson told The Dallas Morning News in a copyright story in Thursday's editions. "If someone points a gun at you and shoots and it doesn't go off, what would you do? If someone is pointing a gun at you and they start putting more bullets into the gun, what would you do?"

This was a comment recently from Dotson, who now is claiming that he acted in self defense. To me, this guy is a lunatic and nothing out of his mouth is true. He lied about what he knew, he lied about what he had done, and now he is taking advantage of people who want to hear what he has to say.

Dotson when asked what happened after the prior statement's activities occurred, just simply laughed. They should throw this guy in a cell on live television. How sick is this guy to be laughing when a family just lost a loved one, and a body was just retrieved after all this time?

It's absolutely disgusting. I have a few thoughts on this "self defense" claim. Let's take this at face value for a second. If my best friend, or anyone I knew for that matter, had loaded a gun and threatened to shoot me, and I had to use my gun in self defense, I would shoot the guy in the leg and run for help.

Not only didn't Dotson shoot Dennehy in the leg in this case, but he put multiple, yes multiple bullets in the man's head. To me, Dotson knew that he was going to kill Dennehy, and popping him that many times in the head proves exactly that.

Now, some are going to say that Dotson is crazy. There are certain comments being made that he had approached Baylor coaches about getting therapy. Let me tell you something folks. This is not the coaches' fault. It is Dotson's. He may however still be crazy. Apparently, Dotson was hearing voices. Yes, ala "Son of Sam."

"We are many. We are strong. We are behind you. We support you. We are ready for war... a spiritual war."

Yeah, he's definitely nutty. Ready for a war? Who is going to war Carl? This is a sad story, to a lesser extent in numbers, the likes of the Columbine incident a couple of years ago. It makes you wonder who this guy's parents are, where they have been, and how they allowed their son to get this way.

"I'm really not a bad person," he told the newspaper. "Some things happen that aren't in your control."

Are you kidding me? Oh, I got it, you were forced by the voices, right? Please, we are not that dumb, Carl. Go preach to someone else. In the meantime, you can prepare for a lifetime in jail. That pain, will pale in comparison to reality of what you have done to another man, a friend, and his family.

That's all I can say about this. It bugs me too much to say anything else.

This Dotson guy is a creep.

Carlton Dotson -- Smacked!!!

One for the Road: As trades began to roll in on Wednesday night, the night before the trading deadline, we heard the biggest noise from a man who was as far from the block as can be.

Alex Rodriguez made comments to the media saying that he would consider a trade if the Texas Rangers decided to go in another direction.

Alex, you are definitely in my mind, the best and brightest in all of baseball. You are also a class act most of the time. However, you went to the Rangers knowing full well that you had no chance to win there. You left the Mariners, a perennial playoff team (in 1st place this year by the way) and went to a team with no pitching, and no hope.

The Mets wanted you, but they would give you enough locker room space. The Mariners wanted to keep you but you wanted a change of scenery. The Yankees would have paid almost anything to get you. Yet you went to Texas. Now, you have to live with it.

Look folks, this is not that big a deal. Of course A-Rod would be willing to listen to trade opportunities, but unless it was the right situation, I don't think it would matter really. He is not going to restructure that ridiculous contract which is what a lot of teams would need in order to work out a deal.

Alex isn't going anywhere. However, many have, and will. A quick one liner on one deal I loved. The Oakland A's were able to add Jose Guillen from the Reds as their fire sale continued. Guillen started the season as the team's fourth outfielder and ended up being their best. He can hit for average, and power, and will step right into the everyday right field spot in Oakland. He will help their offense immensely.

Well, that is all for me this week my friends. Check back on Monday and see who gets on my nerves this upcoming weekend!

Hit me up with feedback at eSports (click the Write the Editor link) or on my homepage at http://www.suite101.com/myhome.cfm/theycallmethecloser. Come on and click that link already! You can't possibly agree with everything I say!

I'll see you all on Monday. Til' then, DON'T be the one who's smacked!