Tot-o Thrown under the Buss. When Kobe Bryant was charged with rape, Jerry Buss and his son Johnny Buss (owners of the Lakers and the Sparks) stood by him, signing Kobe to a new obscenely rich contract and even picking up the tab for Kobe's charter flights to Colorado where he was facing the rape charges. When Latasha "Tot-o" Byears was accused (not by the alleged victim apparently) of sexual assault --- though she was never arrested and never charged --- she was immediately tossed off the Sparks by the same owners who were lavishing millions on Kobe. According to the Buss family, Latasha was causing "dissension" on the team. However, in the words of SLAM magazine sports columnist Dave Zirin, she was "thrown under the bus."

In this morning's OUTSTANDING feature by John Barr on ESPN's Outside The Lines, a weekly broadcast hosted by Jeremy Schaap, we learned from on-camera interviews with Latasha's former Sparks teammates DeLisha Milton-Jones and Temecka Dixon that after Tot-o was sent packing, the entire team, together, went to the Sparks' owners and begged for her reinstatement. "Dissension," huh? Nikki Teasley added that she was at the party where the alleged incident occurred, and was certain that if something like that had happened, she would have known. And Karleen Thompson, the Sparks' Assistant Coach at the time, stated that she believed Latasha's assertion of her innocence.

There was much much more to this program. If you didn't get to see it, find someone with a copy and borrow it! The BasketCases put this one in the category of required viewing!