http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/la-sp-simers12dec12,1,5068426.c
olumn?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba
Both Bryant and Karl Malone - speaking through his agent, Dwight Manley -
confirmed Saturday night that they had a major falling out involving
Bryant's wife, Vanessa, two weeks before the Bryant radio interview that had
supposedly ticked off Malone so much.
Before Saturday night's game with the Clippers, Bryant listened as I relayed
the story that's going around town, and when I finished, he said, that's
true.
On Nov. 23, the night the Lakers played the Bucks at Staples Center, Vanessa
was talking on the phone to Malone's wife, Kaye. Kaye gave Vanessa her
husband's cellphone number, and Vanessa called Malone, who was sitting at
courtside, and invited Malone's child to join her.
Malone, wearing cowboy boots and a hat, eventually took the child to
Vanessa.
Malone hugged Vanessa, and then Vanessa asked - as Manley recounts this part
of the story - "Hey, cowboy, what are you hunting?"
"She said it twice," Manley said, "and Karl answered the second time, 'I'm
hunting for little Mexican girls.' "
After the game Vanessa told Bryant that Malone had come on to her, and said
several inappropriate things. She also told Bryant that she had called
Malone's wife and asked Kaye to get her husband away from her.
Bryant called Malone on his cellphone after the game, and Bryant laid into
Malone. Bryant said Malone didn't have much to say in return and didn't deny
anything.
What's a husband supposed to do when your wife tells you something like
that? Bryant wanted to know as we talked.
Bryant said he was uncomfortable discussing the incident and he would have
preferred to keep it quiet, but the New York Post reported this week that
Malone was seen giving Vanessa a big hug, and then "somehow Malone managed
to cross Vanessa" and got on her "frosty side."
AFTER I talked to Bryant, I relayed the same story to Manley and asked for
the opportunity to talk to Malone and hear his version.
"Karl wants me to give you two messages," Manley said after calling Malone.
"He never hit on Vanessa, nor would he.. In fact, when he first heard about
[the accusation], he said, 'You have to be kidding me.'
"As for the comments he made to her that offended her personally, he told
both her and Kobe that night that he apologized."
Manley said that after Malone apologized, "Kobe followed that with a string
of threats."
Bryant said he was upset but he said that he made no threats and was only
coming to the defense of his wife, and that he told Malone to stay away from
his wife.
Bryant said when he did the radio interview with XTRA (690/1150) he never
mentioned anything about the simmering feud between the two because he
didn't want to take personal shots at Malone.
Manley said Bryant called the Malone home the next day with more threats,
and that Malone's wife listened in on a speaker phone.
Bryant said that both he and his wife called the Malones the next day in an
attempt to work things out but failed.
The Bryants' second-day phone call and continuing accusations infuriated
Malone and that led him to effectively end his relationship with the Lakers.
The subsequent radio interview with XTRA allowed the rift between the two to
go public without any mention of the soap opera - until now.
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