I was all prepared to hate Kobe Bryant today. He is fresh off beating the C's for a title (ugh, still hurts) and he made me wake up way too early to cover his event. So I was looking forward to just flat out hating on him all morning long.
And I couldn't do it.
He showed up at Rucker Park around 9:30 for the Chainlink Fundamentals clinic (part of Nike's World Basketball Festival which is going on this weekend in New York). He spent time observing... talking to the kids... and then going from station to station and giving individual instruction. He was getting involved, talking to the kids, and doing it with passion.
Son of a bitch... he actually cared about getting involved with these kids. Hell, he even invoked the name of Larry Bird while he was teaching (3:30 mark in the video below).
But don't worry. I still hate Kobe Bryant. He made me like him today... how can I not hate him for that?
Here's the video I shot of the clinic:
And here are some of his post-clinic comments. This was a staged Q&A, and no questions were taken from the media. Sorry for the low audio... they had a bad speaker set up.