Bryant’s No Favorite, O’Neal’s Wife Says

She tried to be politically correct, and she danced around the question a bit, but the true feelings of Shaquille O’Neal’s wife, Shaunie, bubbled to the surface during a Monday radio interview with KSPN’s Steve Mason and John Ireland, when she was asked her opinion of Kobe Bryant as a person.

“This Kobe that I have gotten to know or learned to know is a different person, I just would’ve never thought he would be as selfish,” Shaunie O’Neal said. “I mean, we all can see how he plays and people can say he’s a selfish player -- I’m not part of that. It’s just, as a person, regarding the question you asked me, I hate to say it, because someone’s going to try and put it in the paper, but let’s just say that he’s not on my favorite people list.”

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Trivia time: With a tip of the cap to Isabel Sanford, who played Louise “Weezie” Jefferson on “The Jeffersons” and died last week, which California Angel hit a home run at her TV husband, George, only to have him embarrassingly drop the ball at Yankee Stadium as part of a show’s plot?

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Looking back: On this date in 1995, right-hander Ramon Martinez threw a no-hitter in the Dodgers’ 7-0 win over the Florida Marlins at Dodger Stadium. Martinez retired 22 batters in a row to start the game.

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Curses? Jim Armstrong, in his AOL Sports column, wonders whether the Lakers are headed down a familiar path. “Word is the Lakers are going to deal Shaq to the Heat for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and Caron Butler,” he wrote. “Yeah, and what other six players? That deal would be the biggest rip-off in sports since the Yankees wrote a check for Babe Ruth.”

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More Armstrong: “Whether it’s the Heat or another team, the Big Diesel is rolling off into the sunset. Why? Because Kobe doesn’t want to play with him anymore. With Shaq gone, Kobe will be free to sign a seven-year contract. Then he’ll have to hope he doesn’t get a 30-year deal from the Colorado penal system.”

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The other rich Jay: The Toronto Blue Jays have two people who will clear $10 million this year -- first baseman Carlos Delgado ($19.7 million) and Pat Smith ($14.8 million), says Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle. You may not have heard of Smith. She’s the office manager of Toronto’s spring-training operations in Dunedin, Fla. According to the Toronto Sun, she and her husband won $27 million in the Florida lottery.

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A bad rap: The Denver Nuggets have cut rapper Percy “Master P” Miller from their summer league team. Miller “thanked me and was very respectful,” coach Scott Brooks told the Denver Post. “ ... I heard some questionable stories from other teams. He worked hard. But he even knew it and said he wasn’t in shape.”

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Trivia answer: Reggie Jackson.

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And finally: Charles Barkley, on Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period”:

“I don’t want to bash ESPN, but I want them to quit saying that Kobe Bryant is as good as Michael Jordan. It ain’t even close. Kobe Bryant is a really good player, but to compare him -- I know they have to hype up today’s athletes -- but it ain’t even close.”