Don’t shy away from Bryant’s complicated lasting legacy
That Kobe Bryant was a transcendent player, one of the best to ever play the game of basketball, is without question. So, too, that he inspired hundreds of thousands of kids to reach beyond themselves, be it on the basketball court or, in the last few years of his life, the creative arts.
But contrary to the almost universal praise and adoration being lavished upon him after his death in a helicopter crash, Bryant was not perfect. Like all of us, he was flawed and made mistakes – one in particular that cannot be ignored when considering his legacy.
In 2003, Bryant was charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment. He did not admit guilt but his statement when the case was dropped was a stunning admission of culpability, and he later settled a lawsuit with the woman.
“I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did,” he said in the statement. “After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.”
A proud father of four daughters, a man who became perhaps the biggest champion of women’s sports and female athletes, also allegedly raped a woman. Abused her in a hotel room, then stood by while his attorneys and fans brutalized her all over again during the legal proceedings.
That episode is part of his legacy, too, and the horror of what he did and who he was needs to be acknowledged along with the wonders.
Had Bryant owned this part of his history, had he taken his experience and used it to teach others about respecting women, or spoke publicly of how he explained what happened in Colorado to his daughters, the impact would have been immense. Bryant’s power and influence in our society was so vast that he no doubt would have changed the way our country looks at sexual abuse.
But he didn’t. In fact, he went out of his way to bury that part of his history.
So we are left with this flawed god, whose complicated legacy includes so much more than his five NBA titles, his fierce competitive nature or his bright and whimsical mind.
There will be those who will say it is disrespectful to even raise this now. That his family, friends and fans are grieving and should be left in peace. But there are those of us who have been struggling for almost 17 years now, trying to reconcile
M. SPENCER GREEN/AP our admiration and respect for Bryant first as an athlete, and then as a father and a champion of female athletes, with the man who years ago was so careless with a young woman’s life.
As devastating as the news of Bryant’s death was for his fans and those who loved him, it had to be equally devastating for sexual assault survivors – but for wholly different reasons. Seeing the reverence and respect with which Bryant was remembered, with little if any recognition that he was once involved in a rape case, is a reminder that survivors’ pain is too often ignored, their experience almost always dismissed.
All of this – the good and the bad, the public face and the private darkness – is part of who Kobe Bryant was. To ignore that, or shout down those who won’t, puts Bryant in a neat little box where he doesn’t fit. Cannot fit.
That we might not want to see Bryant for all of who he was is hardly a surprise. Our society’s fawning treatment of celebrities, athletes in particular, turns them into otherworldly characters who are not of the human realm. We excuse the inexcusable and forgive their mistakes as the price to pay for being witness to their greatness.
But in doing so, we diminish the very people we revere. Turn them into a one-dimensional version of themselves that reduces them to nothing more than their athletic talent. Bryant might have recognized this more than anyone, what would turn out be the last act of his life a total departure from his previous act.
Bryant was neither a god nor a demon, though at times he resembled both. He was flawed and complicated, and it’s OK to acknowledge that.