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San Francisco
had Barry Bonds. LA has Kobe.
Everywhere else in the land, folks couldn’t understand
why all those people in San Francisco were standing and
cheering for Bonds.
I know
how most folks in LA feel about
Kobe.
He threw
a major league tantrum last summer when the Lakers
wouldn’t give him Jerry West, or better players in
exchange for Andrew Bynum, and then he cried louder,
insisting that he be traded.
He
called Jerry Buss an idiot, and insinuated the same
about Mitch Kupchak.
Mention
any of that now and Lakers fans giddy with the team’s
success are quick to e-mail and say Bynum and the team
wouldn’t be as good as they are today had Kobe not
motivated everyone to improve.
Try
calling your boss an idiot.
Last
summer Plaschke was writing that
Kobe
should be granted his wish and traded elsewhere. Now
giddy with the team’s success, he’s leading the campaign
to anoint him the league’s Most Valuable Player.
You hit
a lot of home runs for a city and all that matters is
how good it makes people feel. You score lots and lots
of points in thrilling fashion and so it goes.
But I
wonder how Kobe, the LA beloved, is playing elsewhere?
Is
Colorado ancient history for the folks in Nebraska,
Florida and Maine? Does the image of a selfish
basketball player, advanced in part by Phil Jackson’s
book and the split with Shaq, linger?
“He
still struggles,” said Matt Delzell, senior client
manager for the Davie Brown talent agency, which ranks
athletes and celebrities in eight categories to
determine their viability as endorsers.
“Kobe
has a high awareness number, so people know who he is,
but when it comes to trust, appeal, influence and such
things, he scores below the average score for everyone
else in seven out of seven categories.”
Obviously, outsiders don’t know our
Kobe
like we know our Kobe, and sometimes when I type I feel
as if my fingers are not attached to my body.
“People
are not as aware of LeBron James,” Delzell added, “but
those who do know him think more highly of him, and
perceive him to be more trustworthy and worthy of being
a spokesman candidate.”
Or, as
Darin Davis from the sports agency Millsport put it,
“He’s done plenty on the court, but the overall
perception of the one-man team and Colorado hasn’t
changed too much. He would be somebody we would
typically stay away from.”
But
isn’t the number of
Kobe jerseys sold across the country a good indication of
his overall popularity?
“I
happen to think jersey sales are the No. 1 metric
measure of popularity,” said CNBC.com sports business
columnist Darren Rovell. “It’s not a poll, it’s voted on
by money spent, and
Kobe is right there,” second only to Kevin Garnett.
Rovell
said Kobe’s 81-point game put him back on the court with
fans across the country, “but he’s still missing that
blue chip, non-basketball-related endorsement.”
When
Kobe went crying and kicking into the summer, did it
wipe out any advancements made in recapturing a positive
image?
Rovell
and Henry Schafer, who gives Q ratings analyzing the
popularity of celebrities, agree the outburst remained
an LA story rather than something to further irritate
folks nationally.
As for
his overall standing across the country, Schafer,
executive vice president of Marketing Evaluations in
New York,
said, “Kobe is certainly coming back among sports fans,
but he’s still a polarizing sports figure.”
Take 10
sports fans, he said, and ask them if they are aware of
Kobe, and 85 percent will say they are. The others
presumably are bowlers—never leaving the alley.
Kobe’s familiarity number is the highest in the NBA, while
someone as popular as James has a familiarity ranking
around 70 percent. Wouldn’t you like to meet three out
of 10 sports fans who have never heard of James?
When it
comes to the most likable players in the National
Basketball Association, while not necessarily the most
familiar to sports fans, Tim Duncan and Steve Nash lead
the pack with positive Q numbers around 30, followed
closely by Dwyane Wade and Shaq.
The
calculations go through the end of 2007, with Kobe’s
positive Q at 22. Garnett, James and Dirk Nowitzki all
have higher positive numbers than Kobe, which make them
more appealing to advertisers.
Kobe’s negative Q of 36 puts him second only to the most
disliked player in the league, Ron Artest.
“But
that’s an improvement from when his negative reaction
went through the roof,” Schafer said. “It’s slowly
starting to calm down. After Colorado, he was the most
hated personality in sports, and while people will never
forget Colorado, time almost heals all.” |
