It is the end of the NBA season and the end of the line for “Black Mamba,” Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, the recipient of a generation’s worth of hate, not always because of basketball.
But this commercial — The Conductor — released by Nike today, is an instant classic, featuring the music of Otis Redding and Phil Jackson.
Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.
Bob Collins