Kobe Bryant’s last game was on April 13, 2016. A spectacular 20-year career was brought to an end in stellar fashion. Kobe scored 60 points and moved as if he was still in his prime. He even capped off a win after a six-game losing streak. The entire night was a homage to his outstanding career as a dedicated Los Angeles Laker. As he said himself, his last day as a professional basketball player could not have been scripted any better.
After watching the intense game, reliving childhood memories of watching the Lakers win three championships in a row, I went straight to Facebook to publicly thank the original No. 8 for all his years entertaining me. I wrote that he had me proud to be an Angeleno, and that this city loved him—we loved him.
I also wrote that I had always supported him. That I had seen his career go through the peaks and valleys as any other. He had championship years, and disappointing seasons. There were issues with teammates and constant criticisms of his playing style. But the one thing I couldn’t support Kobe Bryant through came from off the court.
In 2003, Kobe Bryant was arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old hotel employee while staying in Colorado. The case brought against him included vaginal trauma consistent with forced penetration. The survivor also had bruising around her neck indicating she had been choked. While the alleged assault only lasted five minutes, the court of public opinion attacked this young woman through the entire legal process.
After the news got out that Mr. Bryant was being charged with sexual assault, the media rushed to a very insidious conclusion; that the assault survivor was a money and fame-hungry woman. The media tore that young woman’s reputation to shreds by citing her sexual history. They brought up her two suicide attempts to show that she was emotionally unstable. They also made it public record that she had been hospitalized for a mental illness. This young woman who was brave enough to make such a serious accusation now found herself being viewed as the person who had perpetrated a crime.
Upon questioning, Mr. Bryant initially lied to the police. He said there had been no sexual contact between the two, yet the blood on the woman’s skirt and his shirt stated otherwise. It’s safe to assume that he feared his wife would be furious to learn he had been unfaithful. I guess that gigantic ring he bought her was enough to let that slide. But no matter how big the compressed piece of carbon, Mr. Bryant bought his wife, the facts of the case were posing a real threat.
It didn’t matter though. The young woman refused to testify when they were going to trial. This solidified in people’s minds that their beloved Kobe was innocent. “Why would someone who was raped not want to go to trial to testify against their attacker? That means she was lying. She just wanted his money.”
Her hesitation, and then outright refusal, to testify came after having had her personal life made public. The media critiqued her past sexual history, her mental instability and the fact that she had tried out for American Idol. They stated that she had been so excited to meet Mr. Bryant that it seemed what happened could not have been forced. But, just because a lot of people believe the same thing doesn’t make it true.
People of high social status, such as politicians, celebrities, musicians or professional athletes, are in a very special position in society. They wield a very special power. It is not uncommon for these people to have many sexual partners based just on their social status. Is it too crazy to believe that Kobe Bryant, who had admitting to cheating on his wife before, would be above using his fame to seduce a young woman who caught his eye, ask her to meet him in his hotel room later on that night, and then force himself on her once she was there? The answer is no.
I don’t buy for one second that Kobe Bryant had just been unfaithful. That young woman showed physical signs of rape. She suffered through public and unabashed victim-blaming from the media and the court itself. Her life had become such a circus that it isn’t surprising she would want to just stop all legal proceedings and move on with her life. Her past should not have been a factor in determining whether or not she had been raped. She was not in control of what happened to her.
Sadly, the Kobe Bryant rape case showed us that, at least in the early 2000s, rape survivors had a slim chance of having their attackers put in jail. The media circus surrounding that young woman made it clear that people were more willing to believe that she was lying instead of believing her story. They couldn’t imagine their hero committing such a heinous crime. There’s always a first time for everything.
In the wake of Peyton Manning’s last Super Bowl win, a few reports came out that he had a hidden past. Mr. Manning had exposed himself and laid his penis on a female trainer who was attending to him in the locker room. When she complained, the school as a whole defended him, and tried to pin the incident on a black teammate. Very few people know about this incident because it was hushed.
And so we have become a nation of hushed citizens. Our celebrities reach a godlike status in society and anything they do wrong is inconsequential. We believe every word that drips from their mouths as if they were perfect beings.
That has to change.
I don’t know if Kobe Bryant raped that young woman. I wasn’t in that room. I do know that Kobe Bryant lied to police when he was first interviewed. I know that the young woman had physical injuries consistent with rape victims. I know that Mr. Bryant made a reference to Shaquille O’Neal saying that he should have done what Shaq had done: buy his women things to keep them quiet.
Kobe Bryant went out a legend his final game, and I am not trying to belittle his athletic accomplishments. But the fact of the matter is that he was a part of something horrible where he was accused of doing something horrible, yet he walked out of it unscathed with the other person going through horrible things the entire time. His personal life is separate from his career, I understand, but when I look at him I can’t help but wonder if this had happened now, would we still feel the same way?
Would Twitter or Facebook, or a hacker, have revealed crucial info that could have changed the course of the legal proceedings? We will never know. I admit that watching Kobe Bryant play his heart out his final game was exciting. I was yelling and screaming and was on the verge of having a heart attack out of joy every time he sunk a three. But as a human, I see a man who enjoys social privileges that very few have, that allowed him to walk out of the fire unburned. I see a man who could break ankles on the court to throw off a defender, and who could also use his vast resources to discredit his accuser. The rape case may not even be mentioned when he is inducted into the Hall of Fame, but that woman will have to watch her alleged attacker be publicly honored one more time and be reminded that she never even had a chance to make her case against the Black Mamba.
