When the news came out that Vanessa Bryant had finally filed for divorce from basketball great Kobe Bryant after 10 years a lot of people assumed it was because she’d reached the magic number and would be entitled to half of all his earnings. It was way back in 2003 that Kobe admitted to cheating on Vanessa with a 19 year-old hotel employee who claimed it was rape. (Kobe said it was consensual.) So Vanessa knew her husband was a cheater and held on for as long as she had to in order to reach paydirt. According to the National Enquirer, prior to filing for divorce Vanessa hired a team of private investigators and made sure that she had plenty of evidence that her 6’6″ husband was stepping out on her all over the country. This was actually really smart of her.

Cheating Kobe Bryant was caught red-handed with women all over the country after his furious wife Vanessa had him tailed by an army of private investigators, who compiled a thick dossier of his affairs so he can’t squirm loose.

And with no prenuptial agreement to protect Kobe’s $300 million fortune, sources predict that Vanessa’s divorce action against the LA Lakers superstar will be a slam-dunk.

Incredly loyal Vanessa had stuck by Kobe even after he was charged with sexually assaulting a Colorado woman in 2003.

But he apparently repaid her by plunging into a string of romances, reportedly having affairs with dozens of women.

“Vanessa said Kobe’s cheating was out of control,” said the source. “She estimated that he was averaging at least 10 affairs a year with different women over the course of their marriage and puts his number of conquests at 105.

“The lies and deceit hurt, of course, but racking up these kinds of numbers is mind-blowing and left her devastated.

“And when she discovered he was still cheating during the recent NBA lockout, that was the final straw.

“Her private detectives caught him red-handed with incriminating photos…”

Whenever Kobe was caught womanizing in the past, he sweet-talked Vanessa with jewelry, cars and other expensive gifts.

“Each time he promised to reform, and each time he broke his promise,” said the source.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 2, 2012]

I would bet that Vanessa actively ignored her husband’s cheating until she reached the 10 year mark. She’s not stupid, but she probably didn’t want to face reality until her plan could come to fruition. Prior to that she made sure she was suitably distracted by lots of pretty, glittery, useless things. Just like her husband. So was she truly shocked by the sheer number of other women he had on the side, or was she just gathering her evidence, making sure that she had all her ducks in a row?

Kobe and Vanessa are shown on 9/7/11 and 2/19/11. Credit: WENN.com

Don’t make me talk about sports or athletes. I’m completely out of my depth when it comes to athlete gossip and the like – I just don’t pay attention to any of it. But! I did pay attention in 2003, when Kobe Bryant was accused of rape, and I remember the press conference he gave with his wife Vanessa and I remember the purple diamond ring – the so-called “apology ring” – the one Kobe gave Vanessa two seconds after he claimed that he didn’t rape a 19-year-old hotel employee, he just had sex with her. Vanessa stuck by him them, but for a lot of people, Kobe was no longer the golden boy of basketball. So what’s going to happen now that Vanessa has filed for divorce, and it’s looking like Kobe is about to be Tiger Wood’d?

Kobe Bryant, it seems, is soon to be a free agent. The Los Angeles Lakers star’s wife of 10 years, Vanessa, filed for divorce Friday in Orange County, Calif., a source confirms to PEOPLE. Vanessa cites irreconcilable differences, and is seeking spousal support and shared custody of their two daughters, Natalia Diamante Bryant, 8, and Gianna Maria-Onore, 5.

Bryant, 33, and his soon-to-be ex-wife, 29, married in April 2001, when Bryant was just 22 and she was 18.

The couple released a statement to The Insider’s Kevin Frazier saying, “The couple say “We ask that in the interest of our young children and in light of the upcoming holiday season, the public respect our privacy during this most difficult time.”

In 2003, they weathered a public scandal after Bryant was charged with allegedly raping a 19-year-old Colorado resort employee. The charges were eventually dropped after the accuser refused to testify. The case settled out of court.

Just days after Bryant was charged, his wife was seen sporting an 8-carat purple diamond ring worth about $4 million, which many interpreted as a apologetic gesture to her.

“I sit here in front of you guys, furious at myself, disgusted at myself for making the mistake of adultery,” Bryant said in a press conference in July of that year. “And I love my wife with all my heart.”

[From People]

Apparently, Kobe doesn’t have a prenup – although I don’t think it would matter because “10 years” is the magic number in California, isn’t it? After 10 years, everything is community property and Vanessa automatically gets half? TMZ reports that Kobe has already moved out their “sprawling” Newport Coast mansion and Vanessa is staying put. For why? Why is Kobe acting guilty? Because he likely is guilty of a lot of Tiger Woods-style whorin’. TMZ also reports:

Kobe Bryant’s wife Vanessa caught the NBA star “very recently” in the latest act of infidelity, and that is why she filed for divorce … sources directly connected with the couple tell TMZ.

Our sources would not tell us how Vanessa caught Kobe, but we do know it was NOT through text messages a la Tiger Woods.

We’re told Vanessa had caught Kobe with “multiple women” over the years … but his latest affair was the straw that broke the camel’s back … and she felt she needed to finally end the marriage.

What’s ironic … is that Vanessa still loves Kobe — but she just can’t stand his infidelities anymore.

[From TMZ]

Radar is more specific – their sources claim that Kobe has been having an affair with one of Kim Kardashian’s close friends, a girl named Carla DiBello. Carla is also a producer on Keeping Up With the Kardashians too. You can read more about her here – she actually does NOT sound like “just some bimbo” and Carla and Kobe have allegedly been “close” for the past few years. So… it’s interesting.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa are being sued by their former maid, Maria Jimenez, for wrongful discharge, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, and unpaid wages. She claims that Vanessa was an insufferable boss (probably not the b-word she wanted to use), calling her names and accusing her of stealing a mouth retainer. Vanessa also blew up when Maria put her expensive blouse in the washer. She made Maria pay off the $690 blouse out of her own paycheck and forced her to stick her hand in a bag of dog excrement to retrieve the price tag. To make it worse, Vanessa yelled at Maria in front of her children (great example for the kiddies). Maria tried to quit, but Kobe convinced her to stay.

Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa are being sued by their former housekeeper, who claims Vanessa was incredibly abusive — even demanding that she put her hand in a bag of dog feces to retrieve a tag from her blouse…so Vanessa could deduct the cost of the blouse from the maid’s salary!

Maria Jimenez claims Vanessa called her “lazy, slow, dumb, a f—ing liar, and f—ing sh-t.”

In the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Orange County, Jimenez claims Vanessa accused her of stealing her (mouth) retainer.

Jimenez says it got so bad — Vanessa allegedly “badgered, harassed and humiliated Maria by yelling and screaming at Maria and criticizing her in front of Kobe, the Bryants’ children, employees and other people in the household” — she threatened to quit but Kobe talked her out of it.

The final straw: When Vanessa went nuclear because Maria put an expensive blouse in the washer. Vanessa demanded that Maria put her hand in a bag of dog feces to retrieve the price tag for the blouse.

Maria says she wanted to quit and Vanessa responded that she “had to work until payday to pay for the $690 blouse, which she did.”

[From TMZ]

Really, treating anyone with such disrespect is unacceptable, but to yell at her in front of the children is even worse. What is Vanessa teaching them? That she wants them to grow up to be entitled brats too?

Somehow this really doesn’t surprise me. When Kobe’s sex scandal broke, Vanessa stayed by his side, but with a new addition to her jewelry collection: a $4 million eight-carat diamond ring. Does this scream “demanding goldigger” to anyone else? With Kobe’s history of covering up transgressions with expensive items, I’m betting this whole thing will go away with a substantial settlement.

Here’s Kobe and Vanessa at the ESPY awards in 2006. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

36 year-old Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal performed an amateur rap at a NY Club on Sunday in which he took pot shots at former LA Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant and suggested that Bryant was responsible for his divorce. The refrain for the song was “Kobe, tell me how my ass taste[s]” and the lyrics included a suggestion that Shaq may have cheated on his wife, Shaunie, with whom he filed for divorce last September. Shaq raps “I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced.”

TMZ reminds us that Bryant said in 2003 during his rape trial that he “Should have done what Shaq does … Shaq would pay his women not to say anything.” That was well before Shaq filed for divorce so Bryant must have done something else that he thinks sabotaged his marriage.

ESPN reminds us that the Lakers without Shaq lost the NBA Finals 4-2 to the Boston Celtics, which seems to be what Shaq is referring to when he says “last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.”

Here’s a transcript of Shaq’s rap if you can’t listen to the video above:

You know how I be, last week Kobe couldn’t do without me
I call myself big but I’m not as good as Biggie.
I call myself big because I live next to Diddy.
Excuse me, Diddy live next to me, so in the hood dog I feel like B I G
Because if Biggie was still here… [unintelligible]
It’s like a white boy trying to be more nigga than me…
It’s like Patrick Ewing having more rings than me..
It’s like Kareem saying to himself he’s better than me.
Now stop, think about that, it aint about that, it’s about B I G aka big Shaq
Now that’s the difference between first and last place
Kobe, nigga, tell me how my ass tastes
Ok, Kobe, tell me how my ass tastes
Ok everybody, Kobe, tell me how my ass taste
I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced
He said Shaq gave a bitch a meal
I don’t do that, because my name’s Shaquille
I love ‘em, I don’t leave ‘em.
I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em
Kobe how my ass taste?
Everybody, Kobe how my ass taste?
Kobe, you can’t do without me
Everybody, Kobe how my ass taste?

[Transcribed from video originally posted on TMZ and shown above]

I love how he says “I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em.” Shaq says he was just freestyling and that it was all meant in jest.

Reached by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Monday, O’Neal issued the following statement: “I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. That is what MC’s do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. And by the way, don’t forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don’t make something out of nothing.”

O’Neal and Bryant do have a history of feuding, however, which started even before the Lakers split them up. Bryant bristled when O’Neal called him his “little brother.” At one point, Bryant questioned O’Neal’s conditioning.

Soon after being traded by the Lakers, O’Neal didn’t hide his disdain, calling Bryant a “clown” and a “joke.”

In recent years, however, the war of words has quieted, and O’Neal even went on record as saying that Bryant should have won the 2007 MVP award.

[From ESPN]

I totally forgot that Shaquille O’Neal had a rapping career in the early 90s. According to Wikipedia, he put out Shaq Diesel in 1993, which reached platinum status and was #10 on the Hip Hop chart, Shaq-Fu: Da Return in 1994, which went gold, You Can’t Stop the Reign in 1996, also gold, and Respect in 1998. He also had a greatest hits album, The Best of Shaquille O’Neal, which came out in 1996 along with music on the soundtracks of Kazaam and Steel. Do you this guy would not have a rap career if he wasn’t a basketball superstar?

Here’s You Can’t Stop the Reign from 1996. Most of his songs seem to center around how great and how rich he is: