I don't know who can still think that after video evidence to the contrary...but I guess people see what they want to see. Go for it.
Sorry to disagree with you, hoopsie, but there are videos with a lot of different angles/views, and some of them look more damning than others.
To me, the foul should have been called a flagrant on the court. I am beyond sick and tired of Kobe's posturing and pretenses of innocence after he's done something to provoke someone else. Ron Artest was not the aggressor in this matter. Kobe was... and he did it with the sure and certain belief that he could get Artest angry enough to lose it.
I don't like to see that kind of action from a champion-caliber player any more than I like seeing it from a scrub. The fact Kobe has gotten away with it his whole career is just more proof that there is a definite favoritism involved here.
I like you and I respect you as a basketball fan, but I don't think you - as a Laker/Kobe fan - can be any more impartial about this than I - an avowed Laker/Kobe hater - can be.