Kobe and the Playground

Kobe Bryant and the coverage of his 81-point feat shows us that sports journalism and the NBA have each shown themselves to be willing to drop to least common denominator. First it was the feud between Kobe and Shaq. Before that, it was the rape trial (and I'm showing my lack of research on this one, because there are MANY other "before that" items.) The point, though, is that the function of sport in the United States has taken on a socio-cultural pervasiveness that speaks to both the hunger of people to really know each other in American society, and the willingness we all have to dissect and denigrate things we either don't understand or don't want to.

Kobe is a great athlete. The question, though, isn't athleticism in the sport of basketball. It's team play. The critics are right in saying that what Kobe is doing to the game of basketball (should we call it a religion? an institution at least?) is to lower it to a "gimme the ball" rite of passage that coaches beginning in middle-school are trying to get kids to unlearn. C.S. Lewis called pride and an overemphasis on self one of the most pervasive and difficult problems in society. He was right. Kobe should read Mere Christianity.