Josh Smith’s Olympic Team snub is puzzling

Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith just can’t seem to get any respect. Despite being one of the Eastern Conference’s best players he seems to get snubbed from the All-Star team year after year. Now he has been looked over for a chance to show off his vast array of skills on the ultimate stage: the Olympic Games.

It’s understandable that Smith wouldn’t be among the final players chosen by the Olympic committee to fill the 12-man roster but when a rash of injuries lessens the talent pool like it has this year, there is no way Smith shouldn’t get a shot to represent his country as a member of Team USA.

The ‘Jordan-factor’ has hurt Kobe Bryant in MVP race

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant is arguably one of the greatest players of all time but as good as Kobe has been it makes you wonder; why does Kobe only have one MVP award on his resume? Well there are a lot of reasons really and many of them can be traced back to Michael Jordan.

Kobe is a victim of the legacy that Jordan left. I mean you can’t fault Kobe for wanting to emulate the player who most consider the greatest player of all time but when you step into Jordan’s shadow you can expect to be overlooked at times.