REPORTING FROM … BOBCATS ARENA

     It's Lakers @ Bobcats and Kobe and Phil are looking for their usual pack of courtside celebs, but the best the CLT could come up with was Willie Parker (he's buds with fellow Heel Raymond Felton) and NASCAR ace Denny Hamlin.
     Kobe got off to a very slow start against a team he hung 58 on a year ago. Turns out most visiting superstars come out sluggish vs. Bobcats. Why?
     "Easy," an Arena ops guy told me. "It's the Bojangles."
     Bojangles is a regional Cajun-themed chicken chain in the south (coming to Brooklyn this winter) and supplies boxed bird and biscuits for the pregame meal at 'Cats games … and the visitors go crazy over it. (Especially LeBron. Rumor has it that he ships loads of it back to Cleveland.) But it's hard to go to the hole with a belly full of Bo.
     Suffice it to say, Kobe didn't score until deep into the 1st quarter.
     The grease wore off by the second half, Kobe recovered for 31 and the Gasol-ized Lakers won again.
     P.S. I ran into Hamlin on the way out and told him I'd be in Daytona on Thursday for the Twin 150 qualifying races. His response? "I'll meet you in Victory Lane."

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