The World Loves Kobe (Even his Teammates!)

Let me preface this by saying that I am biased when it comes to the Lakers. JA Adande of ESPN is supposed to be an unbiased reporter, but he clearly favors the Lakers and just wrote an article on how Kobe is the best crunch time scorer of all time (I hate MJ but even I have to admit that MJ may be better than Kobe) http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/11256/kobe-bryant-making-the-best-of-bad-situations. I love JA's work, but he needs to be like Bill Simmons and admit he is a Lakers fan (as Simmons does with the Celtics) and his opinion is not objective. That being said, take my opinion with a grain of salt as it is hard for me to think objectively about anything Lakers related.

Last night's shot embodied how Kobe Bryant has changed. I finally believe that his teammates truly like him. 5 and a half years ago, this happened:

Although those shots went in, his teammates seem like they are happy they won, but wish someone else mad the shots who was not Kobe. This was the last year Kobe and Shaq played together and was probably the lowest point of Kobe's popularity (flying back and forth between rape trials in Colorado, fighting publicly with Shaq). None of us know the real story: did he rape the girl, did he force the Shaq trade or was Shaq a big baby (Shaq has been traded 3 more times since leaving teams in bad situations) and did he alienate himself from his teammates.

I can't think of another athlete who has reinvented his image with the public and his peers. Its always one or the other, but not both. Watching his shot last night, you could tell that his teammates legitimately liked him (take that Bill Simmons!):

Just look at Bynum jumping around or Artest's quote: “They were trying to deny him [Kobe], and I knew it was impossible, This is the Black Mamba, you know what I mean?” You would never hear or see that."

Here are my most vivid Kobe Bryant memories (in chronological order):

-Seeing Kobe at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles at A Tribe Called Quest/Fugees concert two weeks after he was drafted in the summer of 1996. Few people noticed him and he spoke for 5 min with my friend Sheldon and I. He told us how much he loved LA and was getting excited for summer league

-The 1997 slam dunk contest, when no contestant did anything impressive, but Kobe won because he was the young darling of the NBA

-The Kobe-MJ faceoff, where the Lakers lost by 20 but both players put up over 30.

-Kobe waving of a Karl Malone pick during the 1998 all-star game. Kobe was voted a starter by the fans although he was not a starter on his own team

-The Eddie Jones trade: much more about making room for Kobe than actually bringing in Glen Rice

-Game 4 of the 2000 NBA finals when Shaq fouled out and Kobe beat the Pacers on a gimpy ankle by himself

-The summer of 2004. I will never forget where I was when Kobe had been accused of rape. I watched the press conference from my hotel room after my first week of training in investment banking. 2 days prior, the Lakers had signed Payton and Malone. I had the same dreadful feeling when Magic announced he had HIV

-81 points.

-Bill Simmons admitting that Kobe should be MVP. For some reason this seemed more validating than him actually winning the MVP because of how much I respect Simmons and how much he hates the lakers: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060414

-The Lakers losing to the Celtics in the 2008 finals and Kobe doing nothing in the entire series. I was really mad then because people close to me and around me had all jumped on the Celtics bandwagon (even though they could not even name the Celtics starters from the year before). One new "Celtics Fan" particularly pissed me off. I will leave it at that. My close friends know exactly what I am talking about.

-Kobe redeeming himself in 2009

-December 4th, 2009-the night that Kobe's teammates showed to the world that they genuinely liked him. The turnaround was complete in every aspect.

TIGER WOODS! IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU TOO. THE PUBLIC IS FORGIVING.

Linkedin Profiles

Post business school, I have found myself using Linkedin more than ever. Navigating through any large corporation, before I have any meeting with someone internally or externally, I always look at Linkedin profiles. It has become an informal resume that I use to shape the way my conversation is going to go. People inevitably feel a sense of respect when you know something about them, and also, it helps bringing up points of familiarity (or people for that matter). Clearly the company has been doing well (apparently people pay for premium services) because rumors of an IPO in the near future continue. My headhunter friend Anthony Sandrik (oops, I think I am supposed to call him recruiter but he does not care) swears by it, and says he spends more time on the site than anywhere else. I guess the days of calling up phone directories of investment firms to find recruits are over.

The one thing I wish is that there is a way to validate if someone worked somewhere or did something. For example, next to every job, a check mark could appear for validation. Its so hard to differentiate between what is true and what is exaggerated. Further, I would love to see people beyond traditional business jobs fill information in more frequently. In the ideal world, before I go to a lawyer or a doctor, I could look up their credentials. Also, is there any way to integrate Yelp with Linkedin and link people who work at certain places or establishments? The potential is limitless if Linkedin opened its platform (ala Facebook connect).

Also, we should establish some Linkedin etiquette. Only add someone if you have met them at least three times for periods of 30 min or more. Theoretically people are going to notice you are their connection to this person and ask for an intro/opinion. Nothing is more annoying than the person who has met you once or never met you yet adds you as a friend right away. Limit the other places you work to at the same time unless you really have more than one job. If you work at a venture firm and are a board member, dont list it as two positions. It is one position and the board positions should be included in the description of your venture job. Activities should be listed as activities not jobs (they have a space for that). Unless you spend 9 to 5 at job A and 6 to midnight at job B that both pay a salary or wage, you do not have two jobs.

Feel free to add me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/sergekass

Only if I know you of course......

Bubbles

Given all the news on Dubai and the debt situation, I wanted to take a look at three "bubbles" I had first hand experience seeing and was somehow tied:

1) 2000 tech bubble-I was at Stanford at the time, and in my fraternity alone there was some absurd number of start-ups (I think it was 15). Everyone on campus was trying to start a company. People were dropping out of school to start these companies. I remember steamtunnels, woosh, college411, afindz and the list goes on and on. Even at that time, everyone was talking about a bubble, before the market crashed.

2) When I was living in Los Angeles in 2004, real estate was out of control. People with no education were buying apartments and flipping them. I was in the market for an apartment at the time and everyone i knew kept telling me not to buy because of the "bubble." It was not until 2006 when real estate prices stopped growing and starting falling.

3) In December 2007, I visited Dubai and we were told that 20% of the world's cranes were there. They seemed to have an endless appetite to build unnecessary buildings in order to create a tourist attraction. From the two palms, to the Bourj, to the world, everything seemed over the top. Everyone on my trip kept talking about the "bubble." Dubai was justifying all the building by saying they would attract the toursits.

The lesson learned here is that if you are generally hearing there is a bubble, there is a bubble. Bubbles are created by overspeculation. When people are speculating about overspeculation, then it has happened. Get it?

Let me give you a clue what is next: its starts with "clean" and ends with "energy"....

My New Gig

Most people who know me know that I have three passions: basketball, technology and music. I am excited that in the next few weeks I will be starting a position that will be focused on using technology as a platform to solve many of the challenges that exist in the music industry. I am joining Sony Music Entertainment as a Director of Corporate Development in their Global Digital Business. My role will primarily focus on mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, joint ventures and partnerships on the digital side of the business. I am absolutely thrilled, and truly believe this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I will remain in New York City, a place that I have grown to love. As it has been well chronicled, the music industry is going through some huge changes. Obviously physical CD sales are declining, but the digital side of the business is growing tremendously and has huge potential beyond the pay per play iTunes model. Technology start-ups and partnerships with internet companies (Google, Yahoo) will be the key to alternate methods of monetization. Needless to say I am very excited!

My Favorite iPhone Aps

It seems like when my friends/family get an iPhone, I get the question, which aps should I download. Here is a quick list of some of my favorites.

Financial

•Mint-aggregates your bank accounts, etrade accounts, savings accounts into one easy interface and gives you tips on how to save money

•Paypal-manage your paypal account

•eTrade-manage your eTrade account

Music

•Last.fm-a little bit clunky and difficult to use, but creates an online radio station based on the artists you like and is usually the most accurate and descriptive of all online radio services

•Pandora-simplest online radio stream: put in a name of a song, artist or genre and you have a radio station

•Shazam-listens and identifies a song when you want to know what you are listening to

•Rhapsody-if you have a Rhapsody membership, mobile version of their service

Sports

I have not found a sports ap that I like or regularly use. The following three are the ones I have installed or tried:

•Fox Sports-difficult to navigate but is the most comprehensive sports ap I have found

•SportsTap-Easy to navigate but does not have all the sports info I am looking for

•ESPN Scoreboard-This crashes every time I launch it. Am I the only one who has this problem?

Social Networking

•Tweetdeck-Best twitter management application out there that integrates with Facebook status and a host of other twitter and non twitter applications/sites

•Facebook-a big social networking site, have you heard of it?

•Linkedin-professional social network

•Echofon-the old twitterfon that provides and easy to view twitter feeds

•Loopt-location based social network that will soon run in the background of your iPhone without needing to be launched

•Foursquare-location based network that takes on game aspects

Local Directories

•Flixster-Movie times and locations

•Yelp-restaurant reviews

•UrbanDaddy-suggestions on what to do based on where you are, what time it is, what you are trying to accomplish and who you are with. Check it out, it is very funny

•OpenTable-restaurant reservations

•UrbanSpoon-enter a couple of preferences (price, location, food type), shake your phone and get a suggestions

•Taxi-get local phone numbers for taxi services around you

•HopStop-public transportation directions

•City Transit-NYC transit information

News/Information

•Wikipanion-all content from Wikipedia

•Wall Street Journal-abridged WSJ articles

•NYTimes-abridged NYT articles

•Variety-all content from Variety

•What’s On-TV show schedules

•Yahoo Finance-all content from Yahoo finance

Calling/IM

•Skype-long distance calling services (use to need a wifi connection, not sure if that is the case anymore)

•Fring-Instant messaging that integrated free calling

Shopping/Renting

•Gilt-all content from Gilt Group

•Amazon-all content from Amazon

•PhoneFlicks-manage your NetFlix account

•Kayak-search and buy airline information

•ZipCar-rent cars by the hour

Recipes/Drinks

•Big Oven-a list of recipes

•Drinks Free-a list of drinks and how to make them

Other

•Google’s general ap-gmail, calendar, blogger, reader, etc.

•Tumblr-manage your blog

•Translator-translate other languages

•Remote-control your apple devices

•Flashlight-white screen that provides light in the dark

•Kindle-read Amazon ebooks

•MyWireless-manage your AT&T account

•TWSS-push a button and hear the word “that is what she said” repeated in different tones

•Flickr-manage your pictures

•Bump-exchange contact information from one phone to another

Also, I have a host of random games which I use occasionally on the subway going back and forth to work. Let me know if you have any interesting aps I should be adding.

My Reader

Met with some old friends from my Morgan Stanley days last night who were asking me about what sites/blogs I read. I get this question a lot so I figured I would share. Click on pic below to expand.