ESPN's Jason Whitlock puts all the hooplah around Kobe Bryant's performance in the NBA playoffs into perspective:
You'll hear all about it tonight on ABC as the Lakers and Spurs resume a series that's deadlocked at 2-2. You'll see the footage of Kobe Bryant in business attire, entering a not-guilty plea. You'll see him get into a chauffeured SUV, get whisked to an airport, enter another chauffeured vehicle and emerge at the Staples Center dressed as RamKo. All the while, several narrators and commentators will gush about RamKo's mental strength.
No one will comment about the absurdity and the stupidity of the situation.
Not once will you hear anyone speak this truth: "Man, it's a damn shame that Kobe Bryant is putting himself, his teammates, his fans and his family through all of this crap. Wow. As good as he played Tuesday, just think: If the idiot hadn't stepped out on his wife and slept with a teenage woman he didn't know, he might have been even better Tuesday night. Or maybe the Lakers would be winning this series and wouldn't find themselves in so much turmoil. But these are the dangers of a high-profile, married man sleeping with a teenager he's only known for 30 minutes. You might catch a case and wind up on national TV looking like Boo-Boo the Fool."
Someone on the local sports radio station remarked how tough it was that Kobe had to get up at 4:30 AM on game day to make it to Colorado. I guess I never stopped to consider how difficult it is to nap on a private jet.
The use of the "hero" appellation is something that's been touched on here before, and however you want to throw it around, it never applied to Bryant. If being accused of a crime makes one a hero, half the NBA would be lining up for citations.
That captures the sad reality of RamKo's existence. RamKo isn't Martin Luther King Jr. writing a letter from an Alabama jail. RamKo isn't a victim. His teammates are victims. His fans are victims. Hell, I feel like a victim myself, being forced to listen to and read the glowing accounts of RamKo's heroism.
RamKo is not Pat Tillman. There's nothing heroic about fighting rape allegations by day and playing basketball by night. Nothing.
Well, if he played for the Clippers, maybe.
I'm just sick of the way the media is manipulating this story for ratings and attention. Mark Cuban predicted this. He said the Kobe case would be good for NBA business. Cuban said it would be an amazing reality TV show. We ridiculed Cuban at the time. We said he was stupid and insensitive. But Cuban was right. RamKo is developing into the summer blockbuster for which NBA execs had been hoping.
Cuban, annoying as he can be, is no idiot. Still, he didn't have to be Mesmero the Mentalist to predict that the media would seize upon this like pit bulls on an unattended toddler.
Which is one of the many reasons I want the Spurs to win.