Kobe Diem: Bryant Says He'll Stay

Today the Los Angeles Lakers held their championship parade to commemorate 2009's Larry O'Brien. They took the Lakers court floor and transported it to the LA Coliseum. Near to 100,000 fans came to see. No riots, just a little gate crashing. As a Lakers fan, I'm all thumbs (up) for this. But it is an occasion to think about parades past and give some first thoughts on this one. I think the Coliseum worked well in terms of giving the fans somewhere to sit. But the stage being beneath the fans instead of above felt a little anticlimactic. For the record, Ariza got the biggest cheer coming out of Staples to get on the buses, though Kobe caused more of an awed hush. Kobe was amped up to address the fans, that's for sure. In our first vid we get Stu Lantz screaming hoarsely at Kobe to come back. Kobe agreed to and said LA's his home. Yay. Can't help feeling leery at the duress, but you can't help the propaganda that goes with the tone of excitement.

Our second vid gives you Kobe's introduction. It's good to see him hop up and down, giddy at his introduction, after years of him coming out that tunnel somewhere between sullen and serious. The claims that Garnett's joy was a bit feigned last year have been somewhat extended to Kobe this year (and throughout his career), but you gotta like seeeing someone so happy, especially someone who's worked so hard for this. He ended the first vid by bringing the fans in on the whole hands in thing, which feels a little high school-ish. Watching all these celebrations, all the players with hats tipped back (or hair blown out as in Josh Powell, if you weren't sure who that big haired hanger on was), you really realize how young these guys are. Bynum's 21. Ariza's 23. Pau has braces, for crying out loud. Speaking of which...

With that faint lisp, he really runs the Spaniard stereotypes up the wall. I'm no Spanish expert, but I felt Mark Madsen's Spanish in previous parades was more felt, less affected. But you gotta cater to the fan base, right? This team is so incredibly international. Gasol from Spain (Was he texting Rudy Fernandez? Did text messaging technology just reach Spain? I keed, I keed). Sasha from Slovenia. Sun Yue from China. Kobe growing up in Italy. Farmar, the Jewish baller, and Ariza, both LA born. Here are some highlights from recent Lakers parades. Shaq's "CAN YOU DIG IT!?!?" in 2000. Mark Madsen's "Who let the dogs out!" and crazy, honors-student-at-Stanford Spanish in 2001, or his exhorting the Latino crowd to chant "Qua-tro!" before he did the infamous dance. Of course, who can forget Slava Medvedenko's simple "I love L.A." (Love the Chick Hearn on those old highlights)?

Posted in: Kobe Bryant,Los Angeles Lakers,NBA Champs,Pau Gasol