Previous thoughts on the Kobego
The Kobego stretched over China&nbsp;recently. Originally, Kobe-as-Panopticon-Tower (those thoughts are the first link in this post) was a way to explain the Kobego as the mediating figure of the NBA, but it&amp;#8217;s made two high-profile forays into international basketball recently and it&amp;#8217;s probably necessary now to situate it in Basketball rather than just the NBA.&nbsp;
First of course there was the Gold in the Olympics (a broader topic that I tackled for HoopSpeak recently). Then there was the Chinese charity game. The Kobego wore a black jersey&amp;#8212;the Chinese celebrities wore green or yellow uniforms. It played half-speed and scored 68 in 15 minutes. The Kobego picked up poor #18 fullcourt and got at least one breakaway out of it. (Poor, poor #18&amp;#8212;he didn&amp;#8217;t know what hit him. He was a trooper, but he wore long pants to a game against the Kobego, so what did he expect?)&nbsp;
It&amp;#8217;s often said that Kobe (the man, not the force-of-nature) is pathologically competitive, somewhat like Jordan, although within the usual discourse there are real distinctions between both men&amp;#8217;s forms of&nbsp;competitiveness. It&amp;#8217;s indisputable that Kobe Bryant runs on competition. The Kobego, thoug