It's all Kobe, all the time in Los Angeles sports market
Gotcha!!
Yeah, I know. That was too easy. You just can't help yourself. It had that magnetic word - Kobe Bryant.
He has a pull like no other sports celebrity in this city. He is the supernova of L.A. sports stars. And there never may have been a time in Southern California when a single sports star so clearly stood alone.
Kobe Bryant hiccups and it's news. Kobe Bryant goes for 40, big news. Kobe Bryant trashes teammates, management and asks for a trade, and it's mega, stop-the-presses, Armageddon-is-upon-us news.
The poor Ducks are trying to win a Stanley Cup in a media vacuum.
The Dodgers and Angels are in first place. The Galaxy is underway, the NCAA baseball playoffs have begun, the Los Angeles Clippers are in the lottery - and all completely dwarfed by anything Kobe Bryant.
This was all underscored this past week when Kobe Bryant flip-flopped so many times Mitt Romney asked him to be his running mate.
He had his own personal radio row. He called the Lakers front office a mess and said he wanted to be traded. No, wait, he really loves the Lakers and wants to end his career a Laker. Check that, he absolutely wants a trade.
Banner headlines were being changed by the hour. It
was so hectic, so surreal that the next day the really big Kobe Bryant news was that there was no Kobe Bryant news.
Has anyone been left wondering if the Lakers still are the No.1 sports team in Los Angeles? Three disappointing seasons, and it's gnats on the windshield.
Even less questioned is Kobe Bryant's place in the L.A. sports universe.
He is so many light years beyond anyone else, it's not even a discussion.
The second-biggest sports celebrity in Los Angeles isn't even an athlete. It's USC coach Pete Carroll. The third-biggest L.A. sports celebrity has yet to even play a moment here - David Beckham.
There are no superstars on the Dodgers. Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent are local boys who made good, but they don't get fans in a tizzy. The Angels have a superstar in Vladimir Guerrero, but after 11 seasons in the major leagues he still is uncomfortable speaking English and locally is more admired and respected that adulated.
The Los Angeles Clippers have Elton Brand, great guy but kinda quiet. The Ducks have Teemu Selanne and Chris Pronger, but most people here wouldn't recognize them at the lunch counter. Who is on the Kings?
Kobe Bryant is L.A.'s uncontested superstar. No one even approaches his celebrity, which is why you should believe the Lakers never will trade him.
Magic Johnson had to share his stage with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and at the time the Dodgers had Kirk Gibson, the Kings had Wayne Gretzky, the Raiders had Bo Jackson and the Rams had Eric Dickerson.
Los Angeles always has had an abundance of superstars, but not now.
Now there is only Kobe Bryant, and people gravitate to him like few sports stars in history.
Los Angeles can't get enough.
"Part of it is the soap opera," said David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute. "In L.A. we like a good story, a good celebrity-driven soap opera.
"He's sports, pop culture, business and entertainment all wrapped into one. This past week, he wasn't just on the top of the sports page, but the front page."
He's not just a great athlete, he's great theater. He's that small world we all live in at the work place with its problem personalities and prima donnas and massive dysfunction.
Only now we get to watch this played out on a grander scale, with more glitz and travails and speculation and angst. Come on, it's riveting stuff.
Southern California has watched Kobe Bryant grow since he first showed up a fresh-faced 18-year-old, all giddy to be in the NBA and playing in Los Angeles.
"People perceive that they have a relationship with Kobe Bryant," Carter said. "Between his proximity on the court, to having watched him grow, to his being such an icon.
"They think they can relate to Kobe Bryant, that they know what he's about, though I don't believe any of us really do."
They're all left wanting more. More Kobe Bryant greatness, more Kobe Bryant surprises, more Kobe Bryant on Entertainment Tonight.
Kobe Bryant's past week not only commandeered local media, but his star is so bright, it almost had equal impact nationally. Even during the conference finals, his on-and-off trade demand was the NBA's dominant story until LeBron James exploded.
But he's L.A.'s supernova, our No.-1-jersey-selling center of the sports universe and our own phenomenon.
Through the years Los Angeles has had a plethora of superstars, but never one standing so alone. Never one it just could not get enough of.
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