Yeah, We know Kobe is GQ

by Peter Stenson

Kobe Bryant returned to the spotlight Tuesday after a grueling two-week stretch of relatively Kobe-free media. Thank god. No, he wasn’t back on the court, his ankle still not feeling great. And much to the dismay of sketchy Dallas club-going enthusiasts, it wasn’t at the topless SHOW party he was rumored to be hosting. No, Kobe returned to our attention in a feature article written by J.R. Moehringer in GQ.

All in all, Moehringer, author of The Tender Bar, wrote a darn good piece. At first, I was a little worried that Moehringer was positioning himself to maybe get a little something on the down-low from Bryant with phrases like, “Even if Kobe Bryant weren’t runway-model handsome,” and “He looks like an ad for a product – any product – called Swagger.” But unlike many journalists who fear the cold shoulder of legendary athletes, to be shutout of future interviews by bringing up anything off the script, Moehringer goes there.

Yes, there. To Colorado. To the allegations. To the settlement. And it works well, giving the article a depth that many features do not contain.

So thank you Mr. Moehringer. Thank you for not droning on and on about how good Kobe is, how he is a changed man, a family man, a do-gooder for humanity. Thank you for bringing in some critical journalism that has all but vanished from modern sports reporting.

Oh, and thank you for getting Kobe back in the spotlight. The Nike commercials of his puppet just weren’t cutting it for me anymore.