Unintentional? Doesn't cut it as Kobe carves out elbow room

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I gave Kobe Bryant the benefit of the doubt when he tried putting another dent in Manu Ginobili's nose with an errant elbow Jan. 28. The fact Byrant made contact but managed to have enough sense to grab a loose basketball out of the air and attempt a shot threw me off. I should've remembered who I was watching.

Kobe Bryant's flying elbow sets the precedent for his earlier suspension. (AP)

Bryant is one of the top five basketball talents ever to grace this earth. If anyone can land an elbow with one arm and try and fire off a game winner with the other, he can. He pulled the wool over the refs' eyes, too. No foul was called.

NBA disciplinarian Stu Jackson wasn't fooled that first time. He immediately called Bryant out for his actions, suspending him one game without pay, keeping him from his only annual appearance in New York.

Fast forward to this week: The people who bought tickets to see Bryant in Milwaukee on Wednesday had to wake up, catch the replay of Bryant's actions in Minnesota the previous night and scream, "Damn it, Kobe!"

You knew it was coming. Bryant had to be suspended for elbowing Marko Jaric in the latter stages of regulation in the Lakers' eventual double-overtime loss in Minneapolis.

"Some of the determining factors were the fact that there was contact made with Ginobili above the shoulders and the fact that this particular action by Kobe was an unnatural basketball motion," Jackson said five weeks ago. "Following a shot, he drove a stiff arm in a backward motion and struck Ginobili in the head. We did not view this as an inadvertent action."

With another errant elbow, Bryant tied Jackson's hands. All you have to do is substitute Jaric's name for Ginobili's and you have the league's reasoning for a suspension. The precedent had been set: one flying elbow, one game.

In fact, Bryant is lucky he didn't get more. Had he been given a pass, the integrity of the league office would've been compromised.

Whether you believe the Lakers superstar deserved to be suspended for his strike on Ginobili, the fact is he was, and decisively. No immediate appeal was granted. Jackson never second-guessed his decision. If we were talking about Smush Parker or Maurice Evans catching a defender with a flailing elbow, there's no debating the matter. It was a reckless play. Only that it's Bryant skews opinions.

Now in his 11th season in the league, Bryant is a genius at getting separation where there seemingly is none. He has dealt with a decade of swarming, and Bryant himself is among the NBA's top defenders. He knows what he can and can't get away with. There's not a trick in the book he doesn't have, and this latest one is becoming a nasty habit.

Bryant's elbows haven't been malicious in the aspect of wanting to maim his opponents, but they have been intentional. They scream, "I'll do whatever it takes to win." Although he'll try to sell it to you as an accidental part of the game, you would have to be pretty gullible to swallow that. It's part of his repertoire.

Basketball is an instinctive sport, and for a great like Bryant, that instinct becomes magnified, particularly in late-game situations. That it went through his head, twice, to extend that elbow in order to gain an advantage, blows away the inadvertent-action defense. In fact, if it happens again, Bryant should be suspended for three games.