Mitch Albom's Inner Voice

"Friggin' Morrie and those GD seven people I met in heaven never said jacksh*t about this:

Albom Addendum

A team of Detroit Free Press reporters is continuing to investigate past stories by sports columnist Mitch Albom, who is back at work after being suspended for writing about a basketball game before it happened.

A Free Press reporter called USA Today correspondent Patrick O'Driscoll to confirm that O'Driscoll had personally interviewed attorney Larry Pozner for a March 3 report on the civil settlement between Kobe Bryant and the woman who accused him of rape.

Two days later, Albom's column said: " 'In Kobe Bryant terms, the check will be small,' a Denver trial lawyer named Larry Pozner said last week. In the accuser's terms, 'the check will be gigantic. Kobe just bought her a home.' " The quote was word for word what had appeared in O'Driscoll's story. "I guess in the current climate, where we're trying to attribute everything," O'Driscoll says, the lack of credit "does surprise me a little bit."