I saw this topic on another message board and it made pretty good discussion so I'll try it out here. The issue of street cred has made a lot appearances in the media because of the recent Kobe trial and the clueless media members saying that this will raise his street cred. The whole idea of street cred is stupid. The white people that live in suburbia and the white middle class people buy as much of the product as any black guy in the urban areas. Heck now you have white surburbians trying to act like black people from urban areas. I think what sells is originality. Iverson is one of the top selling players all around (shoes, jerseys, and whatnot) because he is original. Small guy, playing out of position, dominating the league with his heart and will to win. Kobe was the number one seller in jerseys without this so called street cred, for some reason media members fail to see that because all they concentrate on are shoes. Kobe's shoes were just plain ugly. While they were comfortable people usually buy shoes on looks first then feel. Any thoughts?
everybody seems to forget what iverson looked his first year in the L and in his days at georgetown hes totally gotten more "gangsta" over time. honestly...i sometimes get the feeling hes trying to project the image we see...i mean, he clearly TRIED to make a rap album with "hard" lyrics. i love his game...but i dont really love what i see sometimes. just play ball, no need to convince the world how hard you are and sexual assult only adds "street cred" in the eyes of a middle aged white business man...the whole media aspect of the kobe incident is a joke, some of the things they say is laughable.
Yea with his tatoos and such he seems more have embraced his image that the media bestowed upon him. I just think the whole urban image thing started to hit the NBA with the explosion of the And1 Mixtapes also. They see the urban playground style of play along the clothes they wear on the court and they see how quickly everyone started to imitate and copy that image. Also the explosion of the Fab Five's long shorts, trash talking type of game brought more media attention on the so called "bad boys".
Iam so sick of hearing about how certain players don't have any street cred, who cares? I don't think athletes ability are based on if they have street cred, it's based on how good they are. If you ask me street cred is overrated.
kobe is kinda looked as a good boy,but this rape will be with him forever and raise his respect in the hood
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dj_premium_plus:</div><div class="quote_post">everybody seems to forget what iverson looked his first year in the L and in his days at georgetown hes totally gotten more "gangsta" over time. honestly...i sometimes get the feeling hes trying to project the image we see...i mean, he clearly TRIED to make a rap album with "hard" lyrics. i love his game...but i dont really love what i see sometimes. just play ball, no need to convince the world how hard you are and sexual assult only adds "street cred" in the eyes of a middle aged white business man...the whole media aspect of the kobe incident is a joke, some of the things they say is laughable.</div> He added on tatoos because now he was allowed to, coach Thompson took him on in Georgetown to straighten him out, and because he had mad skills. He said he would drop him if he were to return to his orginal ways, that included getting tatoos. He himself was afraid that many teams would pass on him because of his image, his mother even didn't want him getting tatoos before he got into the NBA. That is all in his book, "Only the Strong Survive."
whoa, i didnt know he had a book. teams dont care as much about image anymore. if they did, it'd be awfully hard to sign players
'Street Cred' comes if you actually played in the parkes before you hit the NBA... Iverson is from DC... KG played in Chicago... and Marbs def played some street ball... Kobe is gay, thus he doesnt get street cred... it really doesnt matter... I read an article a couple months ago about this and whoever wrote it doesnt have much insight on the NBA...
dear slamduncan21 and skip who said he raped anyone,thus innocent till proven guilty..........my point is getting charged and getinng in trouble makes you more gangsta which in turn makes you more popular and idolized e.g iverson
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Kobe is gay, thus he doesnt get street cred</div> Ok then. Because he had a dad in the NBA, and didn't grow up poor he is gay? <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">'Street Cred' comes if you actually played in the parkes before you hit the NBA... Iverson is from DC... KG played in Chicago... and Marbs def played some street ball... </div> Thats part of it. It maybe because Kobe didn't grow up poor, and doesn't have tats up his arm, or doesn't have a million dollar chain (he might, I don't really care)...or whatever...he did play in the parks also
^i agree with the last part of STCBball's post <div class="quote_poster">Quoting purehoops:</div><div class="quote_post">I read an article a couple months ago about this and whoever wrote it doesnt have much insight on the NBA...</div> i did too. the articles seemed kind of pointless
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">i agree. no one's gonna respect him more for raping someone</div> Whoa...the case was decided already!?! Where have I been!? None of us know if Kobe did it, lets just leave it at that. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">my point is getting charged and getinng in trouble makes you more gangsta which in turn makes you more popular and idolized e.g iverson</div> That may make you more popular with some, but alot of people love the way AI plays, and I think alot of people like him because of his size and it shows kids if your 6'0 (cough 5'10" cough) that you can be a great player. I don't know. Iverson may be the most popular player in the NBA, and it has A LOT more to do with just getting charged for a crime.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">my point is getting charged and getinng in trouble makes you more gangsta which in turn makes you more popular and idolized e.g iverson</div> I made my point disputing the fact of that's why he has "street cred." Iverson is one of the players in the NBA people in the streets can relate too. Undersized, blown off by everybody growing up, playing with heart each and every game. Those are things people in the streets can relate to. It isn't being a part of a crime. Iverson's image is original, not made up like Kobe's image sometimes seems to be. For that people will give Iverson more respect on the streets.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting sunsfan1357:</div><div class="quote_post">I made my point disputing the fact of that's why he has "street cred." Iverson is one of the players in the NBA people in the streets can relate too. Undersized, blown off by everybody growing up, playing with heart each and every game. Those are things people in the streets can relate to. It isn't being a part of a crime. Iverson's image is original, not made up like Kobe's image sometimes seems to be. For that people will give Iverson more respect on the streets.</div> yep,i smell what your cooking ,that people relate cause of his struggles and how he made it to league along with what you said "Undersized, blown off by everybody growing up, playing with heart each and every game." its just that ,getting in trouble off the court and all kind of things like that popularizes a player among fans . the so called 'bad boy' image has popularized players in the past.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Love It Live:</div><div class="quote_post">He added on tatoos because now he was allowed to, coach Thompson took him on in Georgetown to straighten him out, and because he had mad skills. He said he would drop him if he were to return to his orginal ways, that included getting tatoos. He himself was afraid that many teams would pass on him because of his image, his mother even didn't want him getting tatoos before he got into the NBA. That is all in his book, "Only the Strong Survive."</div> ok..then why didnt he have tattoos before he went to college? and why was it a couple seasons in the L that got them...why not right away, if thats his REAL person, trying to get out? and since when do straight up gangstas not get tattoos because they have to obey the coach? i dunno...not trying to be argumentative, i just think iverson's tatts are as much about image as anything
