A funny thing happened on the way to gluing myself to the TV every time Kobe Bryant took the court in an NBA game. I unglued myself, and it didn't even hurt.

Yes, that was my theory, espoused in blog, podcast and print (in that order, starting a week ago this morning), that after he scored 81 points in a game, no one would be able to resist watching him, just in case. No one, whether one loved or hated him, and there really isn't any in-between. Kobe is to individual athletes what the Cowboys, Yankees and Notre Dame are to team sports.

Genius theory, right? Early Sunday evening, after the second of three nationally-televised NBA games ended, I did some channel-flipping, on my way to ESPN for the Lakers-Pistons game, and came upon the Buick Invitational, which I had been checking in on from time to time. The playoff was just starting, with three players - including Tiger. I'm like most people with golf, particularly non-major golf: if Tiger ain't around the last day, I'm tuned in somewhere else. But if he is, I'm getting up early (the British Open, the year he won the Tiger Slam) and staying up fairly late (including some of those dumb exhibition Battle of the Bridges on the lighted courses, which sucked me in against my will). So, I stayed on the playoff, although I didn't see the end because a phone call distracted me.

And it wasn't until it was over (and 60 Minutes had started) that I realized I'd completely forgotten about the most-talked-about, most-debated, most-beloved-and-reviled athlete today. I picked up the Lakers game halfway through the second quarter. By the third quarter, the Pistons were blowing them out. By the fourth, Kobe was in the 30, heaving it at every opportunity, piling up points, and the Pistons were coasting. Please disperse, nothing else to see here, folks.

The moral: Tiger's lure is amazingly strong, considering he makes me watch a sport I otherwise don't care to watch. In Kobe's sport, there are lots of options (LeBron, for instance, who went off yesterday on an excellent Suns team that you almost forget didn't even make the Finals last year and don't have their most dangerous player). Plus, I hung through that excruciating game Friday night against the Warriors, the first post-81 game, in which at times, Kobe appeared to be refusing to shoot. He had five points going into the fourth quarter, then put on his cape and scored 25 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. It's like he can't help being a big pain.

Anyway, I may be kicking the Kobe habit already. Of course, if he goes to Madison Square Garden tomorrow and drops 60 on the Knicks, I'll get that itch again.