Kobe, Lebron and a Whole Buncha Morons

Hello there, boys and girls.

You might have heard by now that Gilbert Arenas has made it impossible for anyone in the NBA to reference guns in any way. Apparently, though, that message didn't get passed along in time to stop a Nike ad featuring Lebron James and Kobe Bryant (otherwise known as the two best players in the league, with all due apologies to Kevin Durant).

In the print ad, which has been pulled wherever it could be pulled, Kobe and Lebron (I use their first names because I'm hip like that) are pictured in black-and-white photos, looking imposing. The tag line is "Prepare for Combat," as you'll note from Lebron's portion of the ad pictured to the right.

On the now-pulled ad featuring Bryant, there is a quote from Bryant in which he says he "leaves nothing in the chamber."

So offensive and insensitive given the recent events ... of one moron taking four guns into a locker room.

There are people seriously upset by this. So much so that Kobe has issued an apology for the ad's insensitive message. And now Lebron is being criticized for "not getting it," because he came to Kobe's defense and in the process acted like a sane individual.

"That has nothing, zero, to do with guns, ESPN reported James said, raising his voice at reporters. At all. At all. Zero. That's very simple. For somebody to even say that -- that's a basketball term. To try to highlight Kobe and say that he was referencing guns is totally ridiculous. We say a lot of things as basketball players that make a reference to guns and violence, but it's really not guns and violence."

I'll say something you won't often hear: The angry professional athlete is correct.

Do we now have to find other terms to describe what players are doing when they use their arms to physically propel a basketball towards a basket? Because I gotta tell ya, it's going to be pretty weird not using "shoot," "shot," "launch" or "fire up" anymore.

But hey, what are ya gonna do? Gilbert Arenas has ruined it for all of us. Funny. Eight-one people in this country are killed by a gun every day, but it's Arenas' "joke" that finally pushes us over the edge.