Kolbe has survived and prospered in this country. He has honed his basketball skills and has been treated fairly in court. Because of his life, his beliefs, his mistakes and his accomplishments, he knows he lives in the greatest country ever. And he says it like it is. Box score:

Kolbe 1 Collingsworth 0

Collinsworth was expressing a “fake” argument in order to give Bryant a chance to come back even more strongly with the patriotic theme. Guys like Collinsworth are *not* NYT reporters.

Calm down staclu.

I would like to think that Collinsworth was asking in a friendly way what, sadly, too many left-leaning Americans would ask of any patriotic American if given the opportunity (but which they would ask with far less finesse and far greater vehemence).

I, personally, am not a member of the professional press corp. HOWEVER, I am often called upon to get people’s direct and real opinions on different subjects. And I have found one of the best techniques to elicit passionate and heartfelt comments is to ask questions in a somewhat adversarial tone–even if and as I may fully agree with the speaker.

If I merely nod my head and agree, I get no passionate statement from my interviewee. If, however, I “come at them” a bit and feign some form of mild astonishment or shock at what they say, I elicit a much more robust and passionate statement–exactly what Mr. Collinsworth elicited from Mr. Bryant.

******

By the way: Successful marketers and salespeople, as you may or may not have heard, have found that when people publicly affirm a certain position, they will then usually act more in line with their affirmations.

Now that Collinsworth has elicited such a strong affirmation of patriotism from Bryant, I expect we can see Bryant actually acting in a rather patriotic manner!