Our heroes should hear only positive thoughts

These are troubling times for journalism.

If things weren't bad enough, now we all live in fear of being cussed out by Vanessa Bryant after every Laker game.

And worse yet. To date she's only directed obscenities toward bloggers, like we need another reminder that no one pays attention to newspapers anymore.

Some folks were shocked that Vanessa would use such vulgar language around her two children, but come on, the blogger, working as a freelancer on behalf of ESPN, referred to her as a "soccer mom."

Last year Vanessa went to the four-letter words, screaming at one of the Kamenetzky brothers, who blogs about the Lakers for The Times, because he looked at one of her kids while waiting for the Lakers' locker room to be opened after a game.

At the time I just took it for granted she was frustrated like everyone else -- and couldn't tell the difference between the Kamenetzky brothers.

Whatever the reason, obviously she's struggling to become adjusted to this new age of media like everyone else, but on a positive note, at least she's not reading Dwyre.

Ask any USC fan what it was like to have a Domer overseeing USC newspaper coverage the last couple of decades. That's like assigning Joey Crawford to every Spurs game.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn when they complete the investigation, it was Dwyre who killed the whole newspaper industry with his negativity.

He writes a lot about horse racing, boxing and tennis, and it makes you wonder -- now those sports are dying too.

Here we are, the Lakers about ready to go to the NBA Finals, and Dwyre is writing in the newspaper the refs should have called a foul on our Lakers. Even the refs are pulling for the Lakers, but not Dwyre.

It was a short column, so it wasn't all bad, but is it really necessary to take the shine off of anything our heroes are doing these days? Can you imagine anyone doing such a thing?

The Times is the Lakers' hometown newspaper, and as Plaschke pointed out last week, the millionaires who play for the Lakers are a gift to Los Angeles, and he wouldn't write such a thing unless he really believed it.

And even if he does change his mind later should they lose to Boston, the important thing is he's behind our guys now when we all love them the most.

Everyone is so giddy happy over the Lakers, it's like a city full of Vic the Bricks. You bounce a ball, shoot as well as the Lakers, win as many games as they have, and there's no limit to how much people are going to adore you.