Smush Parker blows up Kobe Bryant

I can't believe we're talking about Smush Parker either. But Kobe Bryant started it. The Lakers legend on Wednesday blamed Parker for Bryant's defeat at the hands of Steve Nash in the race for the 2005-06 NBA MVP award. From Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times:

"I tell Steve, you won MVP but I was playing with Smush Parker...He's playing with [Leandro] Barbosa. I'm playing with Smush and Kwame [Brown]. My goodness." [...]

"Smush Parker was the worst. He shouldn't have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on."

Parker went on radio on Thursday to give it right back to Kobe. From Larry Brown Sports, who transcribed the best bits from Parker's Hard 2 Guard Radio interview:

"I had a workout with the Lakers, beat all the guards out for the starting position, earned a spot on the team. Midway through the first season, I tried to at least have a conversation with Kobe Bryant - he is my teammate, he is a co-worker of mine, I see his face every day I go in to work - and I tried to talk with him about football. He tells me I can't talk to him. He tells me I need more accolades under my belt before I come talk to him. He was dead serious."

That's some straight-up Anna Wintour stuff. Parker also goes on to say that he disliked Kobe's personality and treatment of teammates so much that he stopped passing Kobe the ball toward the end of the 2007-08 season. Parker was not retained for the following season.

This is the best feud ever.