Brace yourself for some candor, Curt Schilling-style: The injured Red Sox pitcher was gifted some “ridiculously good” courtside tickets for game two of the NBA Finals, and decided to blog his observations on the sport. Schilling’s comments about Kobe Bryant are sure to roil Angelenos and spark a day full of bickering on ESPN. Interestingly, Schilling’s observations reinforce some things Ray Allen said about Kobe four years ago:

From the first tip until about 4 minutes left in the game I saw and heard this guy bitch at his teammates. Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren’t doing, or something they did wrong. No dialog about “hey let’s go, let’s get after it” or whatever. He spent the better part of 3.5 quarters pissed off and ranting at the non-execution or lack of, of his team … I thought it was a fascinating bit of insight for me to watch someone in another sport who is in the position of a team leader and how he interacted with his team and teammates. Watching the other 11 guys, every time out it was high fives and “Hey nice work, let’s get after it” or something to that affect. He walked off the floor, obligatory skin contact on the high five, and sat on the bench stone faced or pissed off, the whole game … He’d yell at someone, make a point, or send a message, turn and walk away, and more than once the person on the other end would roll eyes or give a ‘whatever dude’ look.

Kobe bitching at his teammates is nothing new, but here’s what we’re interested in: Why didn’t any sportswriters note this? Assuming at least a handful of them are still seated courtside – although in recent years, teams have jettisoned many of them to make room for high-rollers who are willing to shell out big bucks to have James Posey fall into their popcorn – surely some of them had to hear this. We can’t seem to find any mainstream outlet that has written about this in the last 36 hours. And it’s sort of difficult not to notice a teammate rolling his eyes at the team’s best player, right?

This leads us to believe Schilling is exaggerating, or perhaps sportswriters fear getting iced by Kobe. With two weeks left in the season, that seems unlikely. Either way, this is sure to reignite the Boston-Los Angeles rivalry.

Manny, JD, Papi, Lester and the NBA Finals. (38 Pitches)