Thoughts while camped outside the Four Seasons Mall ...
... which apparently is a better place to score interviews with top figures in the sports world than, say, a locker room.
How do I know this to be true? Because a couple of guys - now immortalized as the "Kobe Video Guys" - keep running into Kobe Bryant outside a shopping mall in Newport Beach, Calif. And Kobe, for reasons that can only be clear to him (then again, maybe he's not even sure why) - keeps talking to them and giving them very juicy comments about the Lakers. All while a cell phone video camera records the moment for posterity.
Naturally, the Kobe Video Guys (we'll go with KVGs from here) are trying to profit from these fortunate encounters. They've set up a website, www.thekobevideo.com, where they're charging $2 for folks to see the video. They won't release the video until at least 50,000 people sign up. So far, according to the site's counter, they're at 6,213.
SI.com's Arash Markazi has a piece about the video, which centers around Kobe ripping the Lakers for failing to trade young center Andrew Bynum for Nets point guard Jason Kidd.
"Andrew Bynum? What the f---?" Bryant says in disgust. "Are you kidding me? Andrew Bynum? F---ing ship his ass out. Are you kidding me? We're talking about Jason Kidd. But they didn't even want to do that. Now we're here in this f---ed up position."
It's interesting, Markazi concludes, but is it really that big of a deal?
The bigger question, asked by SI.com's Chris Ballard, is why in the heck would Kobe do this in the first place? Sure, demand a trade on Stephen A. Smith's radio show if you want? But who rants about his GM's inaction to a couple of random people in a mall parking lot?
Ballard's theory, which I think is probably on target, is that Kobe is desparately seeking street cred from the average fan. Viewed for most of his career as aloof and withdrawn, he's yearning to have the public truly understand him and his motives. So when Joe Laker Fan stops him in the parking lot and asks him about how things are going, he can't resist the urge to rant.
To which I say, rant away Kobe. I'm sure he'll get ripped for throwing a teammate (Bynum) under the bus, but the honesty is pretty refreshing. And as a member of the media, I wish I could run across more coaches/players in unguarded moments.
That's why I'm hanging here in the Four Seasons parking lot, hoping that Roy Williams or Toney Baker comes wandering by.
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