Kobe's popularity soaring in Beijing

August 16, 12:06 AMLA Sports ExaminerBrian Milne

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The first week of the 2008 Olympic Games are in the rearview mirror, and looking back there was only one thing that surprised me more than Michael Phelps’ dominance or the Spain men’s basketball team’s stupidity.

Kobe Bryant’s popularity overseas totally blindsided me.

I always thought the general public couldn’t stand Bryant outside of L.A., but man was I wrong.

Bryant is a superstar in China, where I thought the U.S. team might be jeered rather than cheered because of political differences and everything else that comes along with having multi-millionaires come to town and put the hurt on Yao and your favorite Chinese basketball players.

But the reception has been anything but, and Kobe has been easily the most popular of all the U.S. players.

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Speaking of basketball being played overseas, how about Bryant admitting he’d bail for Italy for $50 million. Where has all the commitment gone? Atta boy Brian Giles. Just say no to those Sox.

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Kobe and the U.S. Olympic team go up against Pau Gasol and Spain on Saturday at 7:15 a.m. Pacific in a battle of unbeatens that will be televised by USA, allegedly (is it just me, or has it been impossible to find highlights of these games thanks to NBC’s exclusive rights?). Don’t exactly know how that’s going to go over with the little one being that timeslot coincides with Sesame Street.

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Gasol found himself in hot water this week when the mainstream media outside of Spain caught wind of the advertisement photo of the Spain’s men’s basketball team making a racial slight toward the Chinese. This story has been beat to death this week, so I’m not going to say anything more than Gasol needs to come up with a sincere apology when the world is watching this weekend – I don’t care if he wasn’t behind the idea for the photo. He was in it and the whole it was “supposed to be funny or something” and “sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way” apology doesn’t cut it. That fact that nobody on that team stood up and said “wait a minute, this is wrong” is disgusting and there’s no excuse for it.