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At some point, ESPN will seriously have to explore the idea of limiting Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith’s scope of discussion topics to Tim Tebow and Tony Romo because this is getting a little ridiculous.
In the above clip, presumed marketing expert and sneaker enthusiast Skip Bayless equates a rape allegation with “sizzle” and says that people weren’t buying Kobe’s shoes because his image was too clean, pre-Eagle, Colorado.
Yes, Skip Bayless actually thinks that the reason that people started buying Kobe’s sneakers was because he became involved in a sexual assault case – a well-known phenomena seen in such other cases as… yeah, drawing a blank right now. Don’t think that MJ, LeBron or Kevin Durant needed “an edge” to help sell sneakers.
Why, it’s almost like Kobe’s move from adidas to Nike (right before the sexual assault case) had a lot more to do with Kobe moving sneakers off the shelves than anything else. Although he trailed far behind LeBron and KD in sneaker sales last year (likely partly due to the fact that Kobe missed most of last season due to injury), Kobe still managed to move $50 million worth of sneakers last year.
For the record, LeBron’s sneaker line made $300 million last year and Durant’s made $175 million. Neither needed Bayless’ so-called “sizzle” either.
