KOBE’S WIFE: I’M SACRIFICING, TOO
wants you to know she’s not as bad a person as it sounds in a recent New York Magazine article.
She has been married to Kobe Bryant since April 2001, a few months before the Los Angeles Lakers star won the second of his five NBA titles. And in case you thought championships were only good for legacies and ring collections, Vanessa says not so fast.
‘‘I certainly would not want to be married to somebody that can’t win championships,’’ she tells the magazine in an article about NBA wives. ‘‘If you’re sacrificing time away from my family and myself for the benefit of winning championships, then winning a championship should happen every single year.’’
That comes off as quite obnoxious. But Vanessa now is clarifying the statement and playing the ol’ out-ofcontext card.
‘‘I’m sad to hear that comments in my New York Magazine interview are being misconstrued and taken out of context,’’ she told the website TMZ. ‘‘I have and will continue to support my husband’s dreams. . . . I have been with Kobe for 13 years. I accepted his marriage proposal [in May 2000] PRIOR to him winning any of his 5 championships with his teammates. . . . For anyone to think otherwise is wrong. It is not about being married to a ‘winner’; it is about our sacrifice as a family.’’
Here’s hoping Dwight Howard and Steve Nash can help Bryant bring home trophy No. 6 — for the sake of the family.