Click to viewHey there! Are you a busy person on-the-go and don't have time to get stupider? ESPN has a six-minute solution: Gasbag Skip Bayless, opining that Kobe Bryant should be disciplined for appearing in that Call of Duty: Black Ops ad.
Bayless, who seems to relish his role as ESPN's go-to asshole on any every subject, is Disturbed that Kobe Bryant would appear in an advertisement in a video game wielding an assault rifle. When this panel, to its credit, doesn't buy his very gravely delivered (and obviously rehearsed in the makeup chair) line of crap that NBA commissioner David Stern must Act, he drops into the usual unassailable position that, well, this is incredibly disrespectful when we have an actual war going on. Skip Bayless, folks. A walking Reader's Digest clip job.
"Because it's a video game about war, does this mean because we are involved in a war we take all video games about war off the shelves?" asks host Dana Jacobson. Bayless does not address that counterargument either, insisting only that "[Stern] can stop his most popular player from participating in an ad with an assault rifle."
That ship has sailed, Skip. This ad's two weeks old, as Bomani Jones points out, and he more reasonably assesses the situation: Sure, this may send a controversial message about gun violence. But it's not the kind of gun violence that scares NBA patrons. "War violence is OK, that doesn't scare people," he says. "Street violence does."
"Well, I'm offended by it and I'm pretty sure a bunch of NBA fans will be offended by it," Bayless says. So what if you are Skip? Another classic line of Bayless reasoning: "Because I am [something] millions more are [something], too." And we're done! Just because you've shed that unsightly unwanted thought and intelligence, you can still carry yourself like a smart person. Skip's shown us how!
Does Kobe Cross Line In New Ad? [ESPN, via Deadspin]