The NBA has wide discretion to do what they feel they need to do to keep the game marketable - and I'm not really interested in it.
That Kobe said that particular word is not really more or less interesting than if he said any other offensive words - as someone said KG drops N Bombs galore - which is the sine qua non of epitaphs, yet it's allowed. Is it because he's black? Or because the NBA doesn't fear losing the black audience? So if Kobe were gay would we overlook it?
Personally I don't care if language offends you until the standard is universally applied - if rappers are allowed to use the N word, then I'm not going to get worked up when anyone does. And if that word is allowed, I don't see why the much more mild (in my opinion) words shouldn't be as well. (Side note - depending on when you use that word, I may immediately think you are a dumb donkey or hate filled turd, but really your usage of that word just saved me the time of finding that out the long way.)
And yes I think everyone gets offended too easily, there are far too many victim classes, and too many ideas and thoughts that get censored - but it's too far O/T to go into.