Economy
Kobe Bryant is on a tour of Asia to promote a new shoe brand in about half a dozen places. He said in an interview that he doesn’t think that the economy will affect the NBA very much. It wont depress ticket sales or sponsorship very much, in his eyes. More important to him is that the quality of the product remains strong, and he says that the fact that people are less likely to come again makes him play harder. He said, essentially, that because it could be a family’s first or last time coming to the game, he is inspired to play harder and better for the benefit of the fans. No sleepwalking there. It’s rather surprising coming from a guy who sleepwalked through a rather large part of the season and postseason this year. But it will be interesting to see if he’s changed as a result of this year’s playoffs and the changes that his team had.
