Minecraft Disskusion » a Paddy Power-financed FIFA

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Immediately after the Los Angeles Lakers declared Kobe Bryant out for the season, he already was thinking about how to make sure the Lakers will be much less miserable when he returns. Bryant expressed only mild frustration Wednesday after the long-expected decision to end his 18th NBA season after just six games. The superstar guards broken bone in his left knee has kept him out since shortly before Christmas, and it still hasnt healed enough for weight-bearing exercise. With just five weeks left in their injury-ravaged season, the Lakers (22-42) elected to preserve Bryant for next year, when hell be 36. And though Bryant has barely played, he is determined to make sure the Lakers failures of this season arent repeated in 2014-15. The Lakers ruthlessly competitive scorer cant take much more of this incompetence from his 16-time NBA champion franchise. "I feel like killing everybody every time I go to the arena," Bryant said. "Im just on edge all the time. Yeah, I still feel it, probably more than anybody in the organization does. I probably feel it more, and it drives me absolutely crazy." Bryant clearly identified the Lakers top off-season priorities in his mind, and they didnt include specific free-agent additions. The fourth-leading scorer in NBA history called on the Lakers front office -- and owner Jim Buss in particular -- to set "a clear direction" for the franchises return to the top after they miss the playoffs this spring for just the second time in his career. "Youve got to start with Jim," Bryant said. "Youve got to start with Jim and Jeanie (Buss), and how that relationship plays out. It starts there, and having clear direction and clear authority. And then it goes down to the coaching staff, and whats Mike (DAntoni) going to do, what they want to do with Mike, and then it goes from there. Its got to start at the top." Phil Jacksons apparent decision to take a front-office job with the New York Knicks also drew a negative reaction from Bryant. The Lakers flirted with re-hiring the 11-time NBA champion coach early last season before unexpectedly choosing DAntoni, whose two injury-plagued teams have gone 62-74. "You know how I feel about Phil," Bryant said. "I have so much admiration for him, and respect, and have a great relationship with him. Personally, it would be hard for me to understand that happening twice. It would be tough. I dont really get it." Bryant said nothing about his relationship with DAntoni, and the coach said he hadnt spoken to Bryant about the decision to shut him down. But Bryant said he wont be satisfied with another rebuilding year for the Lakers, even though his two-year, $48 million contract extension starting next season will absorb a large chunk of the teams upcoming salary-cap space. Most of Los Angeles roster will be free agents in the summer, and Bryant has said he wants centre Pau Gasol to return. "How can I be satisfied with it?" Bryant asked. "Were like 100 games under .500. I cant be satisfied with that at all. This is not what we stand for. This is not what we play for. A lot of times, its hard to understand that message if youre not a die-hard Laker fan. Its hard to really understand where were coming from, what were used to, what were accustomed to, which is playing for championships. Everything else is a complete failure. Thats just how it is." Exactly 11 months after tearing his Achilles, Bryant remained confident he can return in something close to top form. He plans to approach his remaining rehabilitation as "a seven-month training program," giving him ample time to rebuild strength in his left leg. "I dont want to say Ill be back at the top of my game," Bryant said. "Because everybody is going to think Im crazy, and its the old-player-not-letting-go sort of thing. But thats what its going to be." Bryant missed the first 19 games of this season after tearing his left Achilles tendon last April, returning Dec. 8. The five-time NBA champion was back in uniform for just 10 days before fracturing the top of his shinbone in Memphis. The Lakers initially thought Bryant could return shortly after six weeks of recovery, but the bone has been slow to heal. "With Kobes injury still not healed, the amount of time hed need to rehab and be ready to play, and the amount of time remaining in the season, weve simply run out of time for him to return," Lakers trainer Gary Vitti said. Los Angeles began the day in a three-way tie for last place in the Western Conference with 29 losses in its last 38 games heading into Thursdays trip to Oklahoma City. Steve Nash hasnt been formally shut down for the season, but DAntoni indicated its also unlikely the two-time MVP guard will return this season. The 40-year-old Nash, who has one year left on his contract, has played in only 10 games this season while dealing with back problems and related woes. DAntoni said Jordan Hill and Nick Young are both unlikely to play on the Lakers upcoming two-game road trip, but Gasol is probable despite skipping part of practice Wednesday. China Shoes Wholesale . Maximilian Arnold put Wolfsburg ahead in the eighth minute, when the stationary Fallou Diagne allowed him to guide Patrick Ochs cross beyond the helpless Freiburg goalkeeper, and Ivica Olic doubled the lead three minutes later after Luiz Gustavo did well to set him up. China Shoes Online .Y. - Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby captured his second career Art Ross trophy on Sunday after leading the NHL in scoring this season. https://www.chinashoes.us/. The moves were the first punitive steps taken by the Dolphins since a report on the NFLs investigation of the case was released last week. Investigators found that guard Richie Incognito and two teammates engaged in persistent harassment directed at tackle Jonathan Martin, another offensive lineman and an assistant trainer. Nike Shoes From China . Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Fiorentina levelled on aggregate in the 14th minute when Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez headed back a long ball from David Pizarro and Pasqual smashed home an angled volley. China Shoes Store .com) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quickly found themselves a new offensive coordinator, and one thats quite familiar with the NFC South.PARIS - Dont laugh. Theres nothing funny about the gambling industrys latest wheeze to sink its teeth even deeper into football and its fans.Were talking here about David Ginola. So silky as a player for Newcastle and Tottenham; so ridiculous now with his car-crash campaign for the FIFA presidency.Ginola has zero chance of unseating Sepp Blatter. FIFAs election and ethics rules will almost certainly keep him off the May ballot. After Thursdays passing of the entry deadline, Team Ginola should fade away.But thats not the point here. This was about making a splash. In pocketing 250,000 pounds (335,000 euros; US$375,000) from bookmaker Paddy Power for this stunt, Ginola became the latest Trojan horse in the gambling and gaming industrys creeping and creepy embrace of football.Im here today to talk about love were the Frenchmans seductive opening words at his campaign launch in London this month.But the targets were our wallets and spending habits, not our hearts. That much was clear from the Paddy Power branding.Bet. Bet again. Bet some more.That is the message that football, more than most other sports, is mainlining into our homes, helped by names like Ginola and teams lending their cachet, stadiums, jerseys and players to the industry that had cash to splash when the 2008 financial crisis hobbled other sponsors.Its eyeballs were after, 12Bet executive Rory Anderson, quoted in the Daily Mail, said when the online bookmaker became the name on Hull Citys shirt for this Premier League season.And how about this blurb from Sky Bet, title sponsor since 2013 of Englands three divisions below the Premier League. It reads like a plug for Fifty Shades of Grey.Sport matters more when theres money on it, it says. Theres more passion, more pleasure and more pain.Whoa. What ever happened to sport for sports sake, for the buzz of competition, not a bet? How quaint. That was before online bookmakers offered odds on anything and everything, from match results and goals scored to which team will win the coin toss or take the first corner, and before their relentless advertising.Sports and gambling have, of course, long gone together, feeding off each others success and growth. Tuning iin for results of football betting pools, which offered big jackpots for small stakes, was a Saturday afternoon ritual for many 20th Century English families.ddddddddddddBut gambling advertising wasnt as in-your-face as now. In the UK, which liberalized gambling advertising in 2007, adults exposure to gambling commercials on television soared five-fold in eight years to 2012, regulator Ofcom found. The increase was three-fold for children aged 4-15.Asking your kids to make tea during half-time breaks wont shield them from the bombardment, not with gambling ads flashing throughout matches on pitch-side light-boards. Hull against Aston Villa on Feb. 10 will pit two Asian online bookmakers against each other. Villas shirt sponsor is dafabet, a name that works better in Chinese, where dafa means big wealth. Stoke and Burnley players are billboards for Bet365 and Fun88 (another name that plays on the Chinese word to get rich).All this in a sport grappling with the increasing danger of gambling-related match-fixing and with ample examples of gambling-addicted players who frittered away their wealth.One of those is Kevin Twaddle, a former player for Motherwell and other Scottish clubs who told his story in the biography, Life On The Line: How to Lose a Million and So Much More. He no longer gambles and has delivered talks to other players about the risks.Twaddle takes a very dim view of Ginolas Paddy Power-backed grab for FIFA.Its an absolute disgrace, he said in a phone interview. Its great for Paddy Power. But I mean youre talking about one of the biggest, powerfulest jobs in football and all youre getting to hear about is Paddy Power.It just makes like a mockery of football.Imagine, for a moment, a Paddy Power-financed FIFA president. It wont happen; FIFAs ethics rules should see to that. But the mere thought of the gambling industry even attempting to place a stooge at the very top of football makes the prospect of another Blatter term seem perhaps not quite so bad.And that isnt funny at all.___John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester ' ' '