You’ll have to excuse me for taking all the sweet-natured tributes to Kobe Bryant with a few tablespoons of salt. I hate to rain on the parade of good vibes, but almost none of the coverage I’ve seen of the Los Angeles Lakers legend has gone near the black spot on Bryant’s record. Now, I’m willing to concede that this may be the only bad thing the Black Mamba has ever done, but holy shit. This is way too much of a mark to simply ignore.
I’ve made no secret in the past of the fact that I don’t really care how much of an ass professional athletes can be off the field, but once more, there are lines that they can still cross. And in 2003, Kobe Bryant was credibly accused of crossing that line. That year, Kobe was accused of allegedly raping a 19-year-old woman at a spa in Colorado. The accuser was a white woman from a wealthy family, and she eventually refused to testify after spending the preceding year being dragged by the media. Her and Bryant settled out of court, and Kobe gave his wife a giant apology diamond. Furthermore, the scenario was played and replayed continuously by the media in the immediate aftermath. Kobe was a giant punchline on late night TV. But the media, as it tends to do, got to the point where making fun and attacking Kobe Bryant wasn’t much fun anymore. References to the case dropped off in the ensuing couple of years, and after Kobe hung 81 points on the Toronto Raptors in 2006, it was all but forgotten. Anyone who dared bring it up was automatically written off as the bad guy.
Now its been a week since Kobe’s unexpected and tragic death, and everyone is hell-bent on canonizing the man. It was at least a day before I finally heard something about this rape case in the media at all. And by “media,” I mean ANY media. I mean strictly online news sources that have to be sought out. The mainstream won’t go anywhere near it. In fact, the Washington Post fired a reporter who brought it up. And now everyone wants to make nice with Kobe Bryant, which means talking about what a wonderful person he was. Bring up the rape case from 2003, and it usually gets buried. At best, it gets written off as something about his life which gives his character depth and complexity. Or as the beginning of one of those big redemption stories sports fans all love so much.
You want to know something about depth and complexity, though? Neither concept requires a man to sexually assault another human being. If this case is to be taken as is, it isn’t a two-way street; what Kobe Bryant did in 2003 was wrong. And it was also something he got away with because he was rich, powerful, proper, and an upstanding citizen. Yes, the victim refused to testify, but it should be remembered that she was also pressured into giving up her testimony and settling out of court in exchange for a payoff and an apology. Bryant was very, very lucky. He was also well-behaved and decent enough for the public to give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s a remarkable testament to his character that Kobe Bryant was able to totally bury the entire case. Other black athletes haven’t gotten that same courtesy. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was found not guilty of a murder charge and the team’s fans still give him shit about it.
That begs the question of whether that makes Kobe Bryant good or bad. And if he’s bad, it asks HOW bad. We know there may be a real person out there who was traumatized by Kobe’s actions. We also know that if that was the case, Kobe managed to get out of jail free for the crime. We also know that the sports media doesn’t want to acknowledge that this entire sad episode was even a thing at all. The media has been glossing over it and forgetting it. If it gets acknowledged, it gets written off as something that happened in the life of a “complex” person. But there’s not a whole lot of complexity about this. Rape is wrong. It’s also traumatizing to the victims. And Kobe Bryant, no matter how good of a person he may or may not have been, was credibly accused of it and dealt with the case in a manner which sure as hell made him look guilty. As for the idea of complexity, I’m not buying it. Complexity has a broad range of meanings and ideas. But none of them necessarily involve sexual assault. If Kobe was indeed a rapist, it can’t be forgotten. Kobe Bryant was a significant figure in the histories of the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA, and the world sports stage. Soccer legend Christiano Ronaldo was one of the more prominent people to voice his sorrows after Kobe’s death. Kobe was a larger than life guy, and by trying to bury his personal history, we’re doing a great disservice.
Ultimately, Kobe Bryant was an example of why professional athletes shouldn’t be idolized. Yes, everyone is allowed a few fuckups, but rape is one hell of a fuckup. It is monumentally wrong no matter the context. It involves innumerable violations of personal space and right to consent. Kobe Bryant may have conducted himself in the greatest manner possible, loved his fans, been an upstanding man in the community, and been just one hell of a great guy overall, but it’s difficult to reconcile that image of him with an image of this same guy being a possible rapist. And to be honest, there’s not much of a need to reconcile it. Hell, good people have been known to commit bad deeds. Those bad deeds become justifiable stains on their reputations. Kobe Bryant may be a good person, but there’s still a chance he committed a terrible crime, and that’s something that shouldn’t be forgotten.
The Windy Nickel 