The NBA is missing out on marketing Gold in Kobe Bryant

Why the NBA does it’s best to sell its younger talents like Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, the real king of the NBA remains the Black Mamba – Kobe Bryant.

In a game hyped by the best sports hype machine in the world; ESPN, the Miami Heat vs Los Angelis Lakers Friday game (December 4th) lived up to the billing.
Both super starts came to play, but only one was able to close the game out at the buzzer.

Normally a Kobe Bryant buzzer beater would be ho-hum. Haven’t we seen that before? Don’t we expect it to happen? The talk of the NBA should’ve the Nets actually winning a game. Now that’s a rare event.

Except this shot — this off-one-leg, swaying-to-the-left, three-point bank shot at the buzzer to beat Miami — was so ridiculous that it had his NBA peers firing off astounded tweets (“@rudygay22 Are you kidding me Kobe!”) and even Bryant had a hard time believing it. He called it “the luckiest shot I’ve made by far.”

“I released the ball, I was kind of like, ‘No effing way. No way this ball’s going in,’” Bryant said. “It felt good, I just didn’t think I was going to make that shot. I’d like my chances if I had squared up and got the shot I’d wanted to.”

Call it luck, call it skill, call it guts, the fact of the matter is, this was a heck of a shot from the Best Player in the Game right now.
The NBA is lagging in the ratings again this year, and the reason is because they are working hard to sell stars like Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dirk Nowitzki and other guys in the league that might be good, but not great.
Don’t get me wrong, these guys are star worthy, but, to be great, consistency most be the name of the game. No one has been more consistent in the last 10 years in the league than Kobe Bryant even during the terrible years after the departure Shaquille O’Neal.

Kobe is head and shoulders above any star in the NBA today (including Lebron James) and he plays in the most complete team the NBA has to offer. If the NBA plans to boost ratings, then market the guy that is sure to be in the mix in June winning another NBA championship.

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