Remembering Kobe Bryant, China’s American Idol
On Sunday, January 26th, the world tragically lost one of its greatest basketball players in history to a helicopter crash that killed a total of 9 in Calabasas, California. Kobe Bean Bryant has a resume few athletes can match: winner of 5 NBA titles, 18 All-Star selections and 2 Olympic gold medals, and he spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the NBA’s most iconic franchises. But what is arguably even more impressive is his astounding popularity across the globe. Bryant was a globalizing force, and a powerful ambassador for his country - especially with regards to China.
One needs only to look at the countless tributes following his passing that the NBA superstar transcended sports into popular consciousness. Bryant’s death was mourned worldwide, by everyone from Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka to US President Trump. His passing especially shook China, the world’s most populous country, to its core. The morning after the tragedy, the news hit one billion searches on Weibo, a major Chinese microblogging platform, more than doubling searches for the next most-searched term, confirmed coronavirus cases. A Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, notably also chose to comment, saying: “His fearless spirit of fighting, both on the court and in real life, is worth remembering.”
In many ways, the People’s Daily’s tribute perfectly captures the source of Kobe Bryant’s global impact. Bryant played his first minutes on an NBA court in 1996, just four years after the famous Dream Team led the USA to glory at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. A star-studded team featuring the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, their average margin of victory was an incredible 44 points. It was at these Olympics that basketball started to become a global phenomenon - two short years after the Dream Team’s run, China’s CCTV aired the NBA finals for the first time, and in 2002 Yao Ming became the first number-one overall pick in the NBA draft to not play college basketball in the US. Bryant was the perfect figure to lead basketball’s globalization movement. Growing up in Italy to a father who had himself played in the US before continuing his career in Europe, he was one of the more worldly stars in the history of the NBA, comfortably able to conduct interviews in Italian and Spanish in addition to his native English.
Above all, however, it was Bryant’s persona that fueled his popularity. This popularity is certainly somewhat ironic, because Bryant was notoriously difficult to work with; he fell out with a number of teammates, most notably superstar center Shaquille O’Neal. More seriously, Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in 2003. Although the prosecutors dropped the case before the criminal trial started, the lawsuit did end in a private settlement. It was after the incident, undoubtedly the lowest moment of his career, that Bryant named himself “the Black Mamba”, in attempt to seperate himself from the sexual assault trial. The moniker quickly grew into a symbol for the competitive spirit and will to succeed that Bryant became synonymous with. One of Bryant’s most memorable moments on an NBA court is not a high-flying dunk or game winning shot, but limping to the foul line and making two free throws, only moments after tearing his Achillis tendon. The Mamba Mentality continues to inspire not only athletes but people from all walks of life, pushing themselves to work hard and trust in their practice. Bryant finished his farewell speech following his record-breaking 60 point performance in his final game by saying “Mamba out”. Following his death more than 3.7 million people sent their condolences through a vigil named “Mamba Never Out” on Tencent Sports, a major Chinese media platform.
From a foreign affairs perspective, Kobe Bryant’s celebrity status symbolizes American soft power. The idea of soft power, coined by Joseph Nye in the late 1980s, allows us to think about the significance of millions of fans around the world yelling ‘Kobe!’ as they toss a scrap bit of paper into the bin. Nye defined the term as the ability of a country to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion, and suggests that culture, ideals and values are instrumental to helping states and other international actors attract partners and supporters. The logic of the argument in this case is as follows: Bryant has been able to make Chinese people more familiar with and sympathetic to American culture, which in turns allows the US to promote its economic interests with less resistance.
Basketball, the game through which Bryant grew his popularity, is quintessentially American, and embedded in popular culture, especially hip hop music. The New Yorker’s Sam Riches writes that sports is a vehicle for nationalism, and as it is sufficiently different to rugby, football or cricket basketball is uniquely marketable as an American sport. Kobe Bryant, with his exquisite talent and supreme confidence, was the perfect salesman.
It is above all in China, where his death was so widely mourned, that we can see Bryant’s real impact. Bryant reached an almost mythical status in China — his ‘second home’ — there are numerous stories of events being cancelled due to the sheer number of fans greeting him at every turn. He even surpassed China’s own Yao Ming in jersey sales for much of the last decade. This popularity manifested itself in more official ways also - Bryant became a cultural ambassador for the Asia Society in 2009 and started the Kobe Bryant China Fund, which raises money for youth programs in partnership with the Chinese government.
Kobe Bryant’s popularity helped fuel China’s obsession with basketball, a soft power that has opened the Chinese market to American brands. One of the best examples to demonstrate this is the sportswear company Nike, who Bryant’s trips to China. China now ranks as their second largest market outside the US, with a $6 billion business there. Similarly, NBA China, launched a mere 10 years ago, is worth $4 billion, and the league extended its broadcasting deal with internet giant Tencent in a $1.5 billion deal. More than 500 million people watched at least one NBA game last season, which is larger than the entire population of the US. The market exposure enjoyed by other brands with NBA sponsorships as part of these broadcasting deals can not be underestimated.
The Hong Kong protests in October have sparked questions about the responsibilities the NBA and its stars hold in the face of Chinese political pressure. The NBA is currently still navigating the fall-out from Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, the most popular team in China. Morey tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protests in October. It was an incident which demonstrated China’s economic leverage, as many NBA players were noticeable quiet about the issue, in fear of damaging their financial interests. Bryant also remained silent. However, even if relations between the US and China continue to deteriorate, Bryant’s popularity will remain. In doing so, he will continue to shape the future of the sport of basketball and all of the business that it generates. Kobe Bryant’s death represents much more than the loss of a sports hero. It is also the loss of a great ambassador of the United States.
