Kobe Bryant is hugely popular in the mainland even outdoing Yao Ming
The Lakers superstar is adored by fans across the mainland, so much so that even the great Yao Ming has to take a backseat
You don't have to go far around this town to understand the wanton lust for brand labels among mainlanders. Hermes, Gucci, Louis Vuitton - it's basically all mainland money that allows those top labels to pay the criminally high retail rent they do in areas like Central and Canton Road. It's the ultimate irony that while "made in China" is now OK for most of the world, it's not OK for the people who are actually made in China. They want the top foreign labels and nothing but.
It's no different with sports, where even Versace and Prada take a back seat to Brand Kobe. The maniacal devotion among mainlanders towards Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is a bit perplexing on the surface. Sure, he's an all-time great. But so, too, are LeBron James and Michael Jordan.
And yet when they visit China, it's a big deal but it's not even remotely close to the pandemonium of Kobemania. Bryant has more or less been making annual pilgrimages to China since the late 1990s and has endeared himself to the populace like no other western athlete or entertainer.
As his Lakers prepared to play the Golden State Warriors in exhibition games in Beijing and Shanghai (both won by the Warriors), the reasons for Bryant's immense popularity was a prominent topic. It was left to the country's true king of basketball to perfectly sum it all up. "He's handsome," said Yao Ming. "That helps."
As a basketball player, Yao is a national icon revered just as much for his groundbreaking career as his enduring class. But while Yao's appearances are popular, Bryant's are a wild stampede. When the China games were announced in March, tickets were snapped up immediately. One month later, Bryant was in the midst of driving his struggling Lakers team to the eighth and final play-off spot by playing an absurd amount of minutes every game when a torn Achilles tendon ended his, and basically the Lakers, season. The prognosis for recovery was anywhere from six to nine months and that is why the most popular player in China was not on the court this past week. He was sitting on the bench in Beijing and Shanghai looking handsome in a suit, much to the chagrin of his legion of mainland fans.
Once the youngest player to ever appear in an NBA game, Bryant is now an ancient 35. He has played almost 1,500 NBA games over the last 17 years, more than anyone. Regardless of his fanatical training regimen it has to take its toll at some point.
The severity of his Achilles injury will probably rob him of his superior leaping ability and explosiveness. While he is stubborn, obstinate and ferociously determined, the best of Bryant would seem to be behind him. If that is the case then he can take solace in the fact that no one has ever been better than him on the basketball court. Jordan was just as good; he just was not better.
All of this brings us back to today and tomorrow, where the future is clearly Brand Kobe. Long after he has retired, his face will still plaster billboards on the mainland while his car commercials run on a non-stop loop. Brand Kobe, in concert with Nike, will make cash registers hum in China for a long, long time.
Bryant stated this week that in the US they seem to be past hero marketing. "They kind of lived through that in the 1980s with Michael [Jordan] and Magic [Johnson] and having the fanaticism of fans," he said. "With so many US media outlets, I think it's evolved to something beyond that, where we're a little bit more desensitised by celebrities. Out here, not so much. It's something that's kind of relatively new."
They are certainly not as cynical as US sports fans and a large part of that may have to do with the flow of information, or lack thereof, in China. Ten years ago, Brand Kobe became totally toxic in the US when he was charged with sexual assault. The charges were eventually dropped but the fallout lingered as he lost a number of endorsement deals and it took Bryant years to rehabilitate his image.
But in China, where Bryant's trial was not the lead story every day, his popularity never wavered. That alone has to be a reason he so enjoys his frequent mainland visits. He gets to be himself and despite the madness surrounding him, he gets to relax. He gets to be Brand Kobe, still the hottest label in China.
