….but picking Kobe over Shaq was not one of them.

There’s a major storm brewing in the UK over Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s chummy relationship with zillionaire / MLS propper-upper Phillip Anschutz.

The Independent’s Andrew Buncombe outlines just a few of the ways this friendship might prove embarrassing to the Labor Party :

John Prescott’s genial host in Colorado is a billionaire conservative who has used his vast wealth and influence to promote his Christian viewpoint, to rally against gay marriage and fund an organisation that questions the theory of evolution. He has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates.

The Deputy Prime Minister claims he spent only two-and-half hours with Philip Anschutz (above) over the entire July weekend he spent at his 35,000-acre ranch, Eagle’s Nest, an hour from Denver. Mr Prescott said he went to satisfy an ambition to see a working cattle ranch – stirred by watching Westerns as a boy – and to talk with sugar-beet farmers about the state of their industry.

But if the MP for Hull East had time to dig a little he might have asked Mr Anschutz about Amendment 2, an ultimately failed ballot initiative he funded to overturn state laws that protected gay rights. The measure was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1996.

He might also have asked Mr Anschutz about the Discovery Institute, a “think-tank” he funds in Seattle that criticises Darwin’s theory of evolution and argues for the involvement of a “supernatural” actor in the development of living things.

That said, Buncumbe refers to Anschutz as owner of the Los Angeles Lakers.  In fact, Anschutz holds just a 30 percent share.  Whether or not his Christian viewpoint would find room for Phil Jackson sleeping with his kids out of wedlock, we can only wonder, but I think it might be a problem.