Courtesy: slumz.boxden.com

By now, those who even remotely follow the NBA know that the league and its commissioner, David Stern took the hard line and recently suspended Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton for the remainder of the season for possessing guns in the Washington Wizards’ locker room.

The move follows a brewing PR nightmare in which Arenas was seen publicly mocking his behavior virtually daring the league to take action.   However a new print advertisement featuring the NBA’s two biggest superstars has further picked at the scab by including what critics have called a gun reference.

The Nike ad, which appears in several publications including Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine features LeBron James on one page and Kobe Bryant on the other. Along with the slogan, “Prepare For Combat.” On the lower part of the page you will see a quote from each player demonstrating his heart.

Kobe’s however say, “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games. I don’t leave anything in the chamber.”

This is the Highbrid Nation so no need to explain the chamber reference.  But should the ad strike up such controversy?  Nike thinks not an defended the ad.

“The Nike print ad featuring Kobe Bryant was intended to illustrate his all out play and commitment on the basketball court,” Nike said in a statement. “It is a commonly used reference for shooting the basketball and no offense was intended.”

Avoiding any further embarrasment the NBA quickly condemned the ad.

“We had no prior notice of this ad,” spokesman Tim Frank said. “We think it is inappropriate.”

No stranger to controversy, Kobe took the high road and co-signed with the league at risk of contradicting himself.  (BTW he’s a clown….IMO)

“That ad was done months ago, prior to anything that came out,” Bryant said. “Obviously, we’re very sensitive toward that considering the current time and everything that happened since then. It’s definitely inappropriate. I advised my business partners of that.”

Not obligated to defend anyone, James who has been very outspoken on politics and other issues went to bat for Bryant statements even when he wouldn’t.

“That has nothing, zero, to do with guns,” James said while getting visibly angry reporters. “At all. At all. Zero. That’s very simple. For somebody to even say that — that’s a basketball term. To try to highlight Kobe and say that he was referencing guns is totally ridiculous.”

 So what do you think?  Should the league take a hard line against this and other gun references however vaguely correlated they might be?  Or has too much ado been made of nothing?  Whose right, Kobe for taking the high road or Lebron for standing up for what he believes.  Good debate here today.  SOUND OFF!