Will He Stay Or Will He Go?

Kobe Bryant in a matter of hours, publicly announced that he wanted to be traded from the Lakers and then publicly announced that he wanted to stay with the Lakers - of course, both on ESPN Radio. ESPN, who I think by their overbearing, overhyping of any and everything sports related, is turning more and more into the entertainment/gossip type programming. Similar to MTV slowly dropping the element that made it popular with everyone, stopped playing music videos some time ago and realized that they can better market and manipulate their market by developing their own shows that have nothing pertaining to music at all. I see the same progression in ESPN, that ESPN will be nothing but Sportscenter - filled with plenty of opinion and commentary - and 'sports talk' and/or original programming. They will develop their other networks to show the petty items such as actual sporting events.

Kobe wanting to leave or stay with the Lakers might be big news for ESPN to hype until further notice - at least to fill their Sportscenter shows rather than show Stanley Cup highlights - but I think is a non-story for most everyone else, including Laker fans.