nasty, nasty sports journalism

July 10, 2003 2:07 AM

If this article toes the line, then this one completely jumps overboard. In the wake of basketball player Kobe Bryant's recent legal problems, ESPN freely insinuates that perhaps his legal troubles are caused by his desire to boost the sales of his endorsed products. But don't sell Kobe short on marketing power, as we meFites can already attest. [more inside]
posted by cohappy (12 comments total)

Perhaps I'm over-reacting, and perhaps this is done more in jest than seriousness (I'm thinking specifically of the page2 article), but I do think the message is still there. Are we really living in a time were our journalists freely speculate that athletes are willing to commit crimes in order to raise their "street cred"? How sick is that? Or is this more a sign of what sports journalism has become?
posted by cohappy at 2:13 AM on July 10, 2003

After the allegations first came out, I remember watching reporters speculating that Kobe has already lost millions from possible contracts and such. My reaction was, "are you kidding me? Now he'll sell way more shoes."

However I doubt that these troubles were a cause of his desire to sell said shoes.
posted by futureproof at 2:49 AM on July 10, 2003

oh my god someone smokes weed. Im sure they must not do anything with their lives. If you ever smoked weed, you would agree this is kind of fucked up.
posted by Keyser Soze at 4:08 AM on July 10, 2003

I'm sponsored by marmite, mmm
posted by shadow45 at 4:22 AM on July 10, 2003

I think the more interesting phenomenon emerging from Kobegate is the unquestioned defense he's received from the sports reporting industry. Kobe is absolutely being defended as strenuously as possible in a way that OJ or Nate Newton or Ray Lewis didn't. I guess ESPN is worried that the NBA will take another black eye after they just (last season) won the contract to air games.
posted by norm at 7:02 AM on July 10, 2003

norm - remember, Kobe is innocent until proven guilty and is squeaky clean before this event. I think the press is just giving him the benefit of the doubt. If it comes out that he did the alleged acts, don't you worry, the medai will come down swift and brutal on him.

I'm no Kobe apologist, but I think he has mostly carried himself with dignity, and I agree with the media's self-imposed wait-out period.
posted by vito90 at 7:24 AM on July 10, 2003

vito-
Agreed. The problem was the media's rush to condemn Lewis, not their being reasonable in regards to Bryant.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 8:07 AM on July 10, 2003

Well, it's also a shame that ANYone even knows this much about nothing. The fact that this story is all over the news and there isn't really a "story" yet is fucking ridiculous. I mean the story was everywhere and charges hadn't even been filed yet... without a blip of evidence to suggest that there even could be in the future. This kind of sensationalism is really getting old.

On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if an athlete ever faked a story in order to gain more attention and exposure in an effort to sell a product. Nothing surprises me anymore.
posted by Witty at 8:16 AM on July 10, 2003

"...is this more a sign of what sports journalism has become?"

No, it's more a sign of what sports marketing has become.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:05 AM on July 10, 2003

I'm suprised no one has linked to this:

Kobe Bryant Will Slap Ho, Mispronounce Words to Increase Street Cred.
posted by internal at 11:30 AM on July 10, 2003

On July 2, SportsPickle (like the Onion for sports) predicted Kobe Bryant Will Slap Ho, Mispronounce Words to Increase Street Cred.
posted by Frank Grimes at 11:32 AM on July 10, 2003

Oops, internal, you win.
posted by Frank Grimes at 11:32 AM on July 10, 2003