I COULD NOT DISAGREE MORE: With this Eric Neel column about the "lost idea of Kobe Bryant." What, you mean the lost idea of the completely manufactured superstar about whom we knew nothing--nothing--about? Nobody ever bought Kobe--his persona is just too vapid, a shamless attempt by Phil Knight (I'm guessing) to milk the remaining velocity of the Jordan era. Contrast Kobe (yet again) with Allen Iverson, someone who lives his life completely publicly and as a result is a minor American deity, and you'll see what I mean. I mean, Kobe never had any sort of life in the American consciousness outside of his endorsements--and they were uniformly bland. And for bland products. McDonald's? Sprite? Yikes.

So, the only idea we're losing here is that manufactured public personas based around basketball talent tell the truth about the person they represent. Especially when said public persona appears designed to be as inoffensive as possible. And any citizen born into our media-saturated existence should be immune to that idea from day one. There you go.

Check out Max Power on the Kobe case. Via Eric McErlain.