youve obviously never been to oakland, my friend
nope. but i am from a really crappy part of cleveland. and the minute poor people smell money, they look for an angle, and they kiss ass. You ever see how polite the most crass people will be when they're trying to convince a guy with a tie that they are worthy of welfare benefits? Multiply that times 10,000. They know that if they can get 5 min alone with Kobe, read him some sob story about some trick that set them up (kobe can relate), that kobe might break the guy off $10k for some good karma.
seriously, if they saw kobe on the street or at mcD, theyd ask for an autograph and try to kiss his ass.