Apparently, Bonzi is already battling the Bee.

I turned off ESPN's NFL Monday Countdown (see side note below) long enough to hear Grant on 1140 rambling about the Bee screwing up a story on Bonzi and Bonzi being extremely upset about it.

They started talking about the USC-Texas BCS debacle shortly thereafter, and scouring the web found little info.

This is apparently the story in question. There's an editor's note up top. Grant said the Bee would be coming out with an apology and correction tomorrow.

Apparently, the issue is this passage:

Grant said the original version of the story (and the print version) didn't have the "of other players" clause. Bonzi got pissed, since it makes it look like Bonzi was beating his wife and getting charged with possession and fighting in the locker room (when it was Ruben Patterson, Damon Stoudemire and Zach Randolph, respectively, doing those things).

I see Bonzi's point, though fans are smart enough to know the guy was a problem but not THE problem in Portland. This isn't something that should be a huge deal – in fact, it should be a private matter. The last thing Bonzi should want is a feud with the paper and one of its NBA columnists, especially so early in his stay here.

More on this when the apology comes out in the morning.

Update [2005-10-25 10:31:16 by TZ]: Here's the Tuesday apology/correction. Why wouldn't the Bee just name exactly which players were charged with what in Portland? It's public record, and common knowledge among NBA fans. Get it fricking over with, and this problem would go away.

(Side note: If there's a show more annoying in its sheer lack of information and prominence of mindless backslapping and gimmicky "reporting" than ESPN's NFL Sunday Countdown, it's the Monday night show – Stuart Scott plus Michael Irvin is about the worst idea ever. Chris Berman plus Mike Ditka is a close second. And don't get me started on Berman. That guy was entertaining at some point, right? I'm not dreaming up things, am I?)