Kobe Bryant drawing heat from some over role in
Call of Duty advertisement
Kobe Bryant’s cameo in the new commercial for the first-person shooter game
Call of Duty: Black Ops lasts only a few seconds. But it’s long enough to draw some disapproving comments from Todd Walker, a youth football coach and a funeral home director in Berkeley, California.
Walker, who fights against a pervasive gun culture in the U.S., has seen several youngsters lose their lives because of guns, including one of his ex-players, a 14-year-old boy shot in
the head at a friend’s house, as well as his 13-year-old nephew, shot in Oakland earlier this year.
And Walker, after seeing Bryant brandish an assault weapon with MAMBA written on it in the TV spot, wondered whether it was the kind of message he wants to send to his fans. The commercial,
which also stars late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, involves numerous characters shooting assault weapons and rocket launchers in an urban warfare setting. Walker couldn’t believe it when he saw it.
"I couldn't believe it was him," Walker told ESPN recently. "What's wrong with him?"
"This is exactly what we're trying to fight. I'm looking at a 14-year-old boy right now who got shot in the head, and then I see Kobe get on TV looking like a damned fool, holding an assault
weapon and wearing the same stuff the kids are wearing when they kill somebody. The look on his face -- all smiling and happy. This is the attitude we're trying to get away from."
Walker said Bryant’s appearance in the minute-long ad shows his ignorance about the issue of gun violence.
“It's OK for him, though, because he's never had to worry about going home to the ghetto. That ain't his world."
Walker said he was surprised the NBA, who suspended Washington Wizard Gilbert Arenas for 50 games last year when he brought guns into the locker room, didn’t intervene.
"Where's the NBA on this one? What the h**l is this guy doing? He needs to explain his reasons for that."
Walker gives tours of his funeral home to all his players to teach them of the permanency of death and of the danger of guns. He would love for Bryant to take the same tour, even extending
an invite to the five-time NBA champion.
"I'd like him to come in here and see what I see," said Walker. "The bodies, the tools, the chemicals -he needs to see it and smell it. He damned sure needs to see it."
Meanwhile, the Lakers, when asked about the ad, said it was “not a Laker issue.” Bryant’s agents also refused to comment.
Tags: