The Glove, Spree and The Mexican Hunter.

[Ataraxia]

The Glove' sizes up Pierce

Gary Payton has been a Celtic for less than two months, but that didn't stop him from taking on the team's franchise player. Payton said this past week that it's time that Paul Pierce took stock of his game in order to reach his potential. He also questioned Pierce's shot selection, saying it has to start coming out of a group flow rather than forced isolation. Pierce was yanked from a game by Doc Rivers a week ago for not staying in the flow of the offense.

"He needs to make some changes, but it's been like four years that he's been taking those type of shots and stuff like that," Payton said. "Now he has to understand that that's got to go. He's getting a little deeper into his career - he's more than seven years deep - and those shots are not going to make it for you. You can be the man here scoring 20 or 30 points, but you're not going to win basketball games, you know what I'm saying? He's going to learn. I think he's going to have to learn the hard way. It's going to take somebody like myself to keep talking to him, but he'll get the picture."

NBA pop quiz

What exactly did Latrell Sprewell invite a female fan to do last week that caused the NBA to suspend him?

A. "Feed my kids."

B. "Throw up on my boat."

C. "Pet my pit bull."

D. "Choke my coach."

E. Insider can't say without getting fired. Can say, however, Spree was worse than vile: He was downright uncreative.


Kobe's hate mail has Karl packing

It's hard to say which is shrinking faster: the number of games that the Lakers can reasonably be expected to win or the number of teammates that Kobe Bryant has yet to tick off.

Karl Malone became just the latest to be insulted by the Lakers' self-absorbed captain. Malone, who has been rehabbing his knee, officially ruled out returning to the Lakers this week after Bryant implied on a radio show that Malone's situation is a distraction to his teammates. Malone promptly announced that it'll be a clear day in Los Angeles before he returns to the Lakers.

Said Malone: "No disrespect to anyone, but this wasn't an equipment guy saying this ... I can read between the lines."

Despite Isiah Thomas' recent inquiry, the Knicks are not in the running to land Malone when he returns sometime in January. The Spurs remain the frontrunners, but the Timberwolves and Heat also are in the mix.

At 41, Malone's top priority is to land with a team that still has a shot at a title - which means Bryant probably didn't need to open his yap to make sure The Mailman doesn't return. The only title the Lakers have a shot at right now is that of being the best team in Los Angeles. And they might not even win that, given the way the Clippers have been playing.