Kobe shows Dirk and Carlos how many favs his last joke got. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBA/Getty Images)

So, on Friday afternoon, this happened:

The antisocial has become social #mambatweets

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) January 4, 2013

An hour and a half after it was sent, Kobe Bryant's maiden tweet has received more than 17,000 retweets and 4,100 favorites, and his @kobebryant account — up and running after he'd held out long past scores of his NBA peers — has well over 140,000 followers. (Predictably and perfectly, he is not following anyone.) To the surprise of nobody, the legendary Los Angeles Lakers guard is pretty popular on Twitter.

[Related: Kobe Bryant blames 'old' Lakers after another sluggish loss]

The decision to start communicating in 140-character bursts comes less than two weeks after Bryant "took over" the Nike Basketball Twitter account on Christmas Day; the takeover lasted a few days and included missives like Kobe suggesting that Santa Claus has nothing on him, win-delivery-wise, and a photograph of him in an ice bath. Apparently, he enjoyed the communicative experience enough to dust off the @kobebryant account on Friday.

And "dust off" is the right phrase here, because this is actually Bryant's second go-round with Twitter.

First, it was Ronny Turiaf with the Los Angeles Lakers (and, later, the Clippers). Then, it was Robert Sacre following in Turiaf's excited forum-blue-and-gold footsteps. And now, California's other NBA team has an energetic end-of-the-bench champion all its own.

Ladies and gentlemen, please meet rookie Kent Bazemore, who's logged just 28 minutes of floor time for the Golden State Warriors this year, but has burned plenty of calories on the Oracle Arena sideline:

Smooth moves, rook. I'm not sure which I like best — the teeter-totter biceps flex after a Golden State big makes a strong move in the paint or the long stride, exaggerated stretch and vaguely Munsonesque bowling motion of the 3-point celebration — but really, when you're talking about greatness, "best" is merely a matter of degrees anyway.

At this point, it's not exactly news that J.R. Smith is capable of remarkable, jaw-dropping feats on a basketball court. As a member of the Denver Nuggets in seasons past, we saw him finish lobs with 180-degree slams, hit 11 3-pointers in one game and nearly kill Gary Neal; as a member of the New York Knicks, we've seen him break out double-pump 180 windmills, nail improbable game-winners ... and, now, team up with point guard Pablo Prigioni to finish off the San Antonio Spurs in style:

Dang, J.R.

It's been less than three weeks since Stephen Jackson returned to action after losing nearly a month to a fractured right pinky. Now, the San Antonio Spurs small forward could find himself back on the shelf, thanks to an unfortunate foot-fall, a possibly ill-timed food order and the mayor of the City of New York.

The unusual play took place with just under four minutes left in the first quarter of San Antonio's Thursday night visit to Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Knicks, with the Spurs holding a 17-14 lead on their hosts. With Spurs point guard Tony Parker dribbling above the 3-point arc on the right wing, Jackson slid along the left sideline down toward the far corner. Parker dribbled left around a Tim Duncan screen that slowed New York defender Jason Kidd, and as teammate Carmelo Anthony stepped up to stop Parker's penetration, the San Antonio triggerman jumped and tossed a pass to a wide-open Jackson for a corner 3-point attempt. Jackson gathered and shot over the outstretched left arm of the hard-charging Amar'e Stoudemire, but his shot came up a bit short.

Stoudemire's left elbow made contact with Jackson's right side after the shot was in the air, but it didn't appear hard enough to knock Jackson off-kilter; rather, the Spurs swingman just took a simple step backward, and then suddenly crumpled to the deck. When the Knicks headed up the floor in search of a basket, they did so with a 5-on-4 advantage, as Jackson stayed down behind the play. New York took advantage of their power play, with center Tyson Chandler rebounding Stoudemire's missed top-of-the-key jumper and kicking out to Anthony for a wide-open right-corner 3 that tied the game at 17.

[Also: Notre Dame football commit Torii Hunter Jr.'s injury caught on film]

After the bucket, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called a 20-second timeout at the 2:57 mark of the opening quarter so that Jackson could exit the game. The 13-year veteran hobbled off the floor and back to the Spurs' locker room, and did not return.

On Thursday evening, Los Angeles Lakers Executive Vice President of Business Operations Jeanie Buss took to Twitter to share with her friends and followers news of a new bauble she'd received:

Twitter family - Phil finally gave me that ring I wanted!:-) twitpic.com/bs8xc5

— Jeanie Buss (@JeanieBuss) January 4, 2013

The piece in question:

Nice manicure. Oh, and also, that other thing. (Photo via @JeanieBuss)

Naturally, we wondered if this meant that she and longtime beau Phil Jackson had gotten engaged to be married. Buss told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles that they had, saying that she was "beyond happy" to be getting hitched to the "Zen Master."

Jeanie Buss says there is no date set yet. But since she'd been wearing the ring since Xmas, figured she should let people know. Awwwww

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) January 4, 2013

Ain't love grand?

Amar'e Stoudemire shows how much he has to learn. (Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports)

When Amar'e Stoudemire made his 2012-13 season debut with the New York Knicks in the team's New Year's Day loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, he didn't exactly look great on defense. This is not surprising; as NBA.com's John Schuhmann (among others) noted, defensive breakdowns have been the rule rather than the exception throughout Stoudemire's NBA career. For all his scoring talents and athletic ability, even at the pre-injury peak of his powers with the Phoenix Suns, Stoudemire has just never been an aware or adept defender, much to the consternation of the fans of the teams for which he has played.

Luckily, there is a very simple explanation for Stoudemire's defensive woes — just teach him how to play defense, dummy! (For your health.)

You see, according to the man himself, as detailed by Al Iannazzone of Newsday, nobody's ever taken the time to do so:

"Just having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help," Stoudemire said. "I've never been taught defense in my whole career. To now have a coach that actually teaches defense and teaches strategies and knows positioning and posture and how to guard different plays is going to be helpful. I'm going to take it as a challenge, accept the challenge and try to improve as a player."

OK, sounds great. Thanks, Amar'e!

Except — and you're not going to BELIEVE this — the spiteful New York media has decided, for some odd reason, that a 30-year-old player in his 11th NBA season shouldn't be blaming coaches (and, specifically, the offense-first coach for whom he has played the bulk of his career) for his defensive shortcomings. From Marc Berman of the New York Post:

Greg Smith has come a long way in a relatively short period, going from undrafted out of Fresno State to D-League All-Star to winning a roster spot in a crowded frontcourt and becoming the backup center on a Houston Rockets team that's become both an awesome nightly watch and, at the moment, the sixth seed in a very competitive Western Conference. But while the 21-year-old big man has been a revelation for the Rockets, hitting nearly 65 percent of his shots and averaging better than 16 points and 10 rebounds per 36 minutes, his game still needs some polishing.

One key area for development? Court awareness. Knowing where you are on the floor at all times is important at the highest level. Another? Self-awareness. Knowing your limitations — what you can and can't do on the floor — can be the difference between also-rans and All-Stars. During Wednesday night's game against the New Orleans Hornets, Smith took a step forward in both areas, learning A) that he can't tie his shoe in less than three seconds, and B) that if he's going to try, he shouldn't be in the paint while the Rockets have the ball:

Sure, you'd figure a player would have the "don't just kneel down in the lane and tie your shoe during a play" thing down by the time he got to the NBA, but hey, life is about learning, and we're betting coach Kevin McHale — who was pretty mortified by the whole thing — promptly took to instructing Smith about the dos and don'ts of the matter. Such is life with a young team, after all.

David Lee and Stephen Curry dominated the Clippers on Wednesday. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

It's a point I've made after both the first and second round of ballot results in the fan voting for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game — the lack of recognition that Stephen Curry and David Lee are getting for their sensational early-season play with the Golden State Warriors is a bummer. Well, they'd better be getting some attention now.

The Warriors' star point guard and power forward combined for 55 points on 20 for 32 shooting, 19 rebounds and 15 assists on Wednesday night, propelling Golden State to a 115-94 punking of the formerly red-hot but now reeling Los Angeles Clippers. It was the Dubs' fourth straight win and seventh in the last 10 games, pushing them to 22-10 on the season.

Golden State's dynamic duo took turns dominating, with Curry coming out of the gate white-hot (11 points on 4 for 5 shooting in the first quarter, 25 on 9 for 11 shooting in the first half) and Lee taking over after intermission (18 points on 7 for 11 shooting, nine rebounds, two assists in the third and fourth). Taken together, their brilliant play — not only offensively, but also on the defensive end, where Curry did able early work on L.A. All-Star Chris Paul and Lee holding his own in the post against the likes of likely All-Star starter Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan (with some help from their friends, of course) — seized control of the game and, as their head coach saw it, gave prospective All-Star voters a reason to cast ballots in their favor, according to Antonio Gonzalez of The Associated Press:

"If my two guys didn't make a statement, I don't know what else they have to," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. Later, he added, "Maybe I'll hold my own game if these two guys aren't in there."