Kobe Bryant: “I Wouldn’t Mind Being Jewish”

kobe bryantWell, isn’t that nice, but maybe I mind.

As reported by the JPost, after the Lakers’ victory over the Kings last Thursday, a television reporter tried to engage Kobe in an offhand locker room discussion about the “dearth of Jewish athletes in professional sports,” a claim to which Bryant responded with skepticism.

“Not too many Jews in professional sports? Hmmm,” Bryant said. “That sounds kind of weird to me. Who did your research?”

After several other reporters chimed in with Jewish names in sports (though none in the NBA, of course), Kobe said “I don’t know if I’m converting, but if I do, you can definitely add another athlete to the pool.”

Me, if we’re having a fantasy draft here, I’d rather have Yao Ming, because there just aren’t enough Chinese Jews who kick ass on the court.

Joe Eskenazi at j. votes for Warriors’ center Adonal Foyle, ’cause “he’s the smartest and most humantarian player in the league.” (Foyle’s official site includes a poetry corner and political action links.)

If you could have any pro athlete convert to the Tribe, who’d be your first pick?

6 thoughts on “Kobe Bryant: “I Wouldn’t Mind Being Jewish”

  1. fyi: It makes sense for Kobe to be suprised to hear about the lack of yids in the NBA – afterall he grew up and went high school in one of the most Jewish neighborhoods in suburban Philadelphia (Lower Merion, PA), half of his public highschool was Jewish, most if not all of hs bb teammates were Jewish, and his dad coached at the jewish highschool Akiba – throughout his life there’s always been someone Jewish…
    why not in the NBA?

  2. Along the lines of athletes we would want to see Jewish so that they could kick some serious ass would have to be the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time: Alexandr Alexandrovich Karelin. Really, his oponents sometimes used to throw themselves on the mat rather than have their bones broken by this guy.

  3. I always heard that Rony Seikaly was a Greek Jew… but I never did the research to find out if that was true. Now I might google it.

  4. I would want the entire Denver Broncos football team to be Jewish. If I am gonna pick, I’m gonna pick big. Why not have an entire team of us? Broncos are our favorite, have been for generations. The whole “tradition thing” ya know?! Denver Broncolah’s? Denver Boychiks? The stadium could be renamed “Mile Chai” and the fans could yell out “Mazel Tov” in response to touchdowns…

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