Locker Room

Due to all of the confusion by the local media regarding the hometown hockey team, the savvy Los Angeles Kings created a infographic going forward for the remainder of the NHL playoffs.

Their social marketing department definitely deserves a huge raise after pissing off Western Canada and poking fun at all these erroneous TV reports.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

The media is having fun this morning with footage of Kobe Bryant crashing Pau Gasol’s Game 3 press conference and dishing about their former teammate Derek Fisher. Far more interesting to FishbowlLA are the comments made by the Lakers superstar to Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski.

Bryant long ago established a reputation for telling it like it is, when the mood strikes. So, not long after amiably gliding through a post-game chat on national TV with Lisa Salters, there was this:

“I don’t give a [expletive] what you say,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports late Friday. “If I go out there and miss game winners, and people say, ‘Kobe choked, or Kobe is seven for whatever in pressure situations.’ Well, [expletive] you.”

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Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has a long list of incidents where he comes off as an asshole, but Monday night wasn’t one of them.

Following a 119-90 loss to Oklahoma City, a member of the media mustered the courage (and stupidity) to ask Bryant if the Lakers could guard the Thunder.

Exit, stage left.

[H/T Larry Brown Sports]

Playoff time brings out the very worst in Kobe Bryant when it comes to dealing with the media.

He’s notoriously known for his smug and snarky answers during this time of the year and Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke called him out on it following Game 3 of the Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets Western Conference 1st round series.

Here’s J.A. Adande of ESPN.com explaining the incident:

Props to Plaschke for not backing down to Bryant. The 23-year-old Bryant probably wouldn’t have laughed it off but Kobe, now 33, has finally matured to the point where he can laugh at himself every now and then.

With some free time on his hands, Metta World Peace finally sat down with Conan O’Brien Monday night.

The Los Angeles Lakers forward had to cancel a scheduled appearance last month following his elbow incident with Oklahoma City guard James Harden.

With his seven-game suspension winding down, World Peace admitted to O’Brien that he hasn’t called Harden to apologize but spoke with “third parties” to make sure he was OK.

Playoffs or no playoffs, World Peace should have picked up the phone by now to say, “I’m sorry.” But that’s Metta being Metta, I guess.

Welcome aboard the Los Angeles Kings bandwagon, Dan Patrick.

Sporting a black home Kings jersey on his national radio show this morning, Patrick has been singing the praises of the hottest team in the NHL.

I’m expecting a witty and offensive tweet from the @LAKings account if they pull off the sweep Wednesday night at Staples Center.

After missing the first five home games of the 2012 season due to a cold, Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully returned to the booth Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

The 84-year-old spoke to reporters prior to the Dodgers 5-4 victory and said he first started feeling ill last weekend in San Diego and was nearly diagnosed with pneumonia.

“I couldn’t stop coughing,” said Scully. “That night, as God is my witness, I did not sleep a wink. I didn’t want to keep coughing because when you cough, it makes you hoarse. So I packed the pillows up to try to prevent the coughing, but when I packed the pillows, I couldn’t sleep. I went to the ballpark (on Sunday) and thought, ‘Oh, Lord, if I can somehow get through this one.’ So I did the game, and I went home. I was asleep in the car on the way back, or at least trying to sleep. That was the lowest point.”

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If you’ve been to a USC football game in the past 22 years, you likely know the booming voice of public address announcer Dennis Packer.

Unfortunately for the retired police detective and voice of the San Diego Chargers, it appears Packer will be replaced next season and nobody knows why, according to the Daily Trojan:

Packer said he received a telephone call on March 27, from Craig Kelley, the university’s associate athletic director for marketing, in which Packer was notified he would no longer be needed as the team’s PA announcer and USC was headed in a different direction.

He says he has tried to follow up with the athletic department, as his brief communication with Kelley slightly differs from the release posted online on April 2.

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On paper, it must have sounded like a great way to light up the beginning of last night’s Dodgers-Pirates game. But on YouTube, let’s just say this Bear Grylls stunt plays a little less spectacularly.

After being let go earlier this year from Discovery’s Man vs. Wild, Grylls has now discovered what happens in the case of mound vs. wind resistance. Namely, the flame gets extinguished before the ball makes it to home plate.

Maybe it’s just a matter of a better liquid fuel coating. Grylls gets an A for effort, but not quite an F for flammability.

Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully could return to the booth as early as Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The 84-year-old has missed the last three home games due to a bad cold.

Thanks to this nasty weather in Los Angels, it appears he might not miss a fourth game because Friday’s Dodgers-San Diego Padres game could be in jeopardy.

I look forward to hearing all of Scully’s stories from his time at home this week.

Update (4/14: 6:11 PM): The Los Angeles Dodgers tweeted an update on Scully:

Tomorrow, Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully is expected to return to the booth for his 1st 2012 regular season game at Dodger Stadium.

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 15, 2012