Did Kobe do it? What do you think? Is it possible for him to be
cleared in time for the new NBA season? What about all of his
commercial spots in the meantime? What is the racial composition of
the jury?
Who cares?
As most reasonable people still suffer from the O.J. hangover,
the media is about to hit us with another round of Kobe
over-sensationalism. A harbinger of things to come already arrived
a few weeks ago.
On Aug. 6 Los Angeles Lakers star, Kobe Bryant stood at an Eagle
County Courthouse in Colorado to hear charges brought against
him.
Along with him sat more than 20 reporters and more than 30
satellite vans set up shop outside, forming a veritable journalist
shanty town unlike any seen since The New York Times unloaded
staff. The proceedings lasted fewer than 10 minutes, a preliminary
to preliminary hearings. Yet, it was hyped more than this year’s
NBA Finals.
I, for one, am sick of it already. And believe me, it’s only the
beginning.
Oh, but won’t it be fun? Celebrity trials, especially of
athletes, have a way of disrupting the very ebb and flow of our
lives. Forget about that no-name Scott Peterson; they’ve nabbed
Kobe now. Everywhere we look, he will be in the forefront.
At the newsstands, as if we couldn’t get enough literature on
Kobe already, now People, Newsweek, and Time in addition to the
usual sporting magazine lineup can be expected to cover the hype.
CNN Fox News and Peter Jennings will also have the scoop.
Daily, maybe even hourly. It’ll be a race to find out the
verdict, so we can tell our friends and give that “heard it here
first” grin.
ESPN will finally get another chance to thaw out their legal
correspondents, being hurled unassumingly into SportsCenter opening
segments; instead of flashy jams and home runs, we will get Kobe in
a pinstriped Armani.
Sure it’s not really “sports” as the show’s title indicates; but
nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how Stuart Scott can
work a trite “BOO-YEAH” into courtroom commentary. “Can a brotha’
get a witness?!” may be more like it.
More than anyone, Lorne Michaels must be having a field day.
Anticipation for the new “Saturday Night Live” season seems unlike
ever before.
A trial featuring Bryant makes for better material than even R.
Kelly could produce.
Thank goodness for scandal, or else the first half-hour of “SNL”
may have always been as boring as the second half of the show
consistently is.
We’ve seen it all before, and will see it all again. Scandals
like these are the gift that keeps on giving. There already exists
so much precedent for them that anyone can cover them easily.
Most newspapers and editorialists could practically pre-draft
scandal stories with a fill-in-the-blank for celebrity name or
corporation. Replace O.J. with Kobe; replace murder with rape,
lather, rinse, repeat.
I could speculate further about the media and public’s obsession
with the case; the voyeuristic attitude of a public’s obsession
with a celebrity and their undoing.
There are hundreds of sanctimonious columnists who can make such
social generalizations and express their glee at the inequities of
a rich, gifted and successful individual. It won’t be that big of a
change of pace. The lights are just brighter.
In the end, hopefully, justice will be done.
Hopefully, there will remain some aspect of life that Kobe
doesn’t permeate into. Hopefully, this will all be over soon.
Most of all, I just hope Kobe is truly innocent, plain and
simple. Why? I want to see this year’s Lakers team lose mightily,
with him taking part.
Even if he’s not guilty, Kobe should suffer in some way for what
he’s about to put us through.
