STAGE IS SET KOBE'S 1ST COURT DATE ENDS QUICKLY, MERELY A MEDIA DRESS REHEARSAL FOR IMPENDING DRAMA.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

Well now, wasn't that insightful?

An amazing observation, if you have an unflagging fascination with the back of Kobe Bryant's head.

As to any better understanding of what's going on inside his head, forget it.

A breathless media and public watched Kobe in a courtroom for the first time since being charged last month for raping a 19-year-old Colorado woman.

In its haste to switch to this humongous event, ESPN left its regular programming and misidentified his attorney as his wife as they entered the court.

His court appearance took fewer than eight minutes. He uttered two words. It was a hearing treated as a mega-media happening, and you'd better get used to it.

``This is a very fast event for so much attention,'' said Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett, in the most astute comment of the day.

But as to being able to discern Kobe's mental state, to gain the slightest perception as to what he's thinking or how he will handle his ordeal, not the flimsiest clue was presented.

The lone pool camera in the small rural courthouse was in the back of the room. The only time you could really see his face was a profile shot when he turned to his attorney, Pamela Mackey.

They waived having the charges read against him, so there would be no Kobe facial reaction to hearing a judge use harsh words such as ``felony sexual assault'' against him.

For the record, he passed on a tie and wore a pale-beige silk suit over a polo shirt. He helped Mackey out of their SUV. He stood motionless in court as the judge briefly addressed him. He was not asked to enter a plea. He waived the right to a preliminary hearing within 30 days and it was set for Oct. 9. He left without a single microphone being stuck in his face.

And that was about it.

There was no additional insight into the ``real Kobe Bryant.'' No new revelations. No real news, really.

Just Kobe in a court for a legal proceeding, in one of the most sensational stories of our time.

That's how it's going to be now. Kobe is the topic. He dominates the public curiosity. Dominates TV newscasts, sports shows, sports-talk shows, sports sections, celebrity magazines and tabloids. Little old ladies who barely could tell you what team he plays for are suddenly caught up in the scandal of the year.

If the day was lacking in new dramatics, it did set the stage for coming events.

Kobe and the Lakers now have a better idea of some immediate questions and can better address how to handle them.

The preliminary hearing will come just as the Lakers' training camp is winding down in Hawaii. Kobe might have to miss the Lakers' first two exhibition games there.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson has to formulate a game plan, knowing Bryant will miss part of the preseason. The season itself starts just three weeks after his preliminary hearing. He then has the right to a jury trial within six months. Six months would put the trial in April and the beginning of the playoff season. It could last months.

While a case is being prepared that could send Kobe to prison for life, he will have to make an honest decision whether he can concentrate on basketball during this national focus on his trial. He will have to decide whether it will prove too large a distraction to teammates.

He will have to decide whether it isn't best for him and his team for him to take a leave of absence until his trial is completed.

Meanwhile, prepare for more of this riveting drama to be played out before us, a landslide we have no hope of containing until it runs its course.

Ideally, we would all sit back and keep our little opinions to ourselves while the legal process is played out. But it's all-Kobe, all the time these days, and will be until the outcome is resolved.

Judge Gannett inadvertently gave credence to reports with his overzealous interest in keeping court files from the public, when he assigned an investigator Wednesday to search out leaks. He said the reports ``appear to address issues not generally available to the public.''

That will just feed further speculation, further connection between the words ``media'' and ``circus.'' Innuendo and rumors and false reports, mixed in with a few accurate ones, will rule the day.

There is too much mass appeal to be reigned in. Sex and wealth and celebrity and race and sports and scandal.

It has a life of its own and now has to be lived out. And will continue as big news, even if it's just the back of Kobe's head.

UP NEXT

What: Preliminary hearing

When: Oct. 9, noon PDT 

Where: Eagle (Colo.) County Courthouse

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Mostly youthful supporters of Kobe Bryant cheer as the Lakers' guard leaves the Eagle County Courthouse in Eagle, Colo., after his first court appearance Wednesday.

Glenn Asakawa/The Denver Post

(2 -- color) Kobe Bryant appeared Wednesday in court, where he was officially told of the sexual-assault charges against him and given a date for a preliminary hearing.

M. Spencer Green/Associated Press