I don't feel like talking about Kobe/Lebron but
loaded with BS
Kobe was never as marketable as Lebron even before the rape case. Kobe's shoes never sold and he never had the endorsement offers of Lebron. The entire Kobe/Lebron thing started from insecure Kobe fans. If you don't believe me, go take a look at the lakersground archives. Kobe stans, even before Lebron came along, used to hate; Iverson, Vince Carter, and T-mac. Later they would hate D-Wade and even CP3. Basically anyone who was seen as comp/better than Kobe. It was only a matter of time before they would hate Lebron because he was better out of highschool, and then ran off a string of 4 mvps in a 5 year span. Lebron fans never looked at Kobe as comp. It was always the ghost of Jordan that he chased, in their eyes.
kobe wasnt as marketable? LOL> pre rape trial that didnt happen, yes he was.
You have to understand what i just said. we have never seen an entire network(ESPN) basically grow a mega star before. they helped bron grow into a brand and it became The ESPN bron show. Bron was the truth right out the gate. so you cant really hate on it. But thanks to that it made you THINK he was so marketable from the jump. we dont know what he would've been as a normal player coming in from high school without that sports media hype from the biggest sports network on the planet at the time. so to make a long story short, i guess you could say bron was more marketable but it had little to do with bron and more to do with espn. later in life bron became the good guy with things he's done for the kids, cleveland, etc. but we're talking about right off the bat. kobe had mcdonalds commercials, nike, etc, etc.
Lets not forget that reaction of china during the olympics, bron, wade come out, they love em, but when the mamba walks out. they go beyond nuts. its like Michael Jackson just stood up. why is that? because kobe was marketable. in addition he was very wordly not so with most nba guys that are born and raised here in the states. You can't knock that reality, the dude wasnt a bad looking guy right. we know thats one thing you need. he wasnt so big where he was too big to imagine being him(like a lot of big men in the nba), and he spoke 3 languages. That is easily marketed towards the world. I bet you bron wasnt interviewed by spanish stations in cleveland like that, but kobe was, kobe was being questioned by international spanish stations when in the olympics. dont be blind to our US only. Nike is world wide. so is mcdonalds and a few other big boy corporations.
Now i will ride with you on this point. Kobe was so nerded out on basketball and nothing else. I agree with you there, that he was less marketable than bron bron or any other super star player that has a LIFE outside of hoops. you would never see kobe in traffic in the club, etc. dude was in the gym or ghost.
the eagle thing killed off most of his marketability. some people dropped him and picked him back up later, some he said i'm good when they tried to come back because he felt the manner in which they dropped him (without finding out if he did it or not so quickly, he realized these people dont have my back at all. not even a little bit.)
BUt again this aint a bron vs kobe in reality. this is a reality that was created due to those things i stated earlier:
-Bron being raised by ESPN(biggest sports network)
-the NBA never again pushing any one player like they pushed MJ, so it will always have to be multiple stars, which means they will try to retire you early and pop off about the other younger guys coming up.
-Eagle, CO killed a lot of kobe marketability.
- Bron walked into a sorry team as a mature team playing baller who could also score. so all eyes were on him and this is post kg and post kobe, post R.lewis, etc. we've seen these HS dudes go straight to the league and ball. so now we're no longer afraid to follow them around like stars, we know some of them have the ability to deliver on the hype. bron was one of those guys who delivered. he was truly what they advertised to us. the next one.
Not the media hyping them up
Might be a while before Fish gets back in the NBA
