Who Is the Real Kobe?

Newsweek ^ | Monday, July 21, 2003 | Allison Samuels

[mabelkitty]

July 28 issue — When Kobe Bryant was arrested two weeks ago after a 19-year-old Colorado woman accused him of sexual assault, the reaction from friends and fans was almost universal: that’s just not like Kobe.

[mabelkitty]

So now they are trashing the wife. Nice. Seems she's half-white and half-Hispanic. Newsweek felt it was very important to tell everyone about her ethnicity, even though she has refused to go there herself.

[SoCal Pubbie]

"So now they are trashing the wife."

You mean like the FR poster here who called his wife a "pig"?

[BushCountry]

He brought this upon himself, I can not work up the energy to feel sorry for him. Even if he didn't rape her, he is a major league idiot.

1. He had unprotected sex with a stranger he just met. He did this in front of his three body guards.
2. He exposed his wife to several STDs or maybe even a death sentence through AIDS.
3. He exposed the girl to a possible pregency.
4. He gamble his future earnings, just getting caught in the act of infidelity and tarnishing his reputation without the rape allegation could cost him millions of dollars.

Actually the list goes on... Just so you know where I stand, I have a slight feeling that he did rape her, but no proof (his conduct in the cab leaving the hospital and his crying statement on TV rings false).

[Naspino]

His wife is no pig -- of that I'm certain.

[Fitzcarraldo]

"He did this in front of his three body guards. "

then it's not just a 'he said, she said' case.

[Wright is right!]

"2. He exposed his wife to several STDs or maybe even a death sentence through AIDS."

The first part is somewhat possible, the latter almost certainly not. AIDS does not - as some pipple seem to think - just spontaneously occur when pipple have sex. It requires that one of the two HAS the virus already. If KOBE had it, so would his wife - in all likelihood. It would be almost a dead certainty that the girl didn't have the virus, given her environment. And KOBE is historically known not to engage in the high-risk sort of behavior that transmits AIDS.

You have made the statement that the sex was unprotected, which is not alleged and, unless you were there, you couldn't possibly know. As for pregnancy, a gal active in that community was almost certainly on birth control, so I doubt that pregnancy is a potential factor.

Your last point, however, is 100% spot-on. Committing adultery in his situation is professional and monetary suicide. His actions were stupid and imbecilic, and from THAT standpoint, he deserves the consequences of failing to live up to his image. That's not to say that he deserves a conviction of rape if the sex was consensual.

Michael

[Wright is right!]

The bodyguards' rooms were two floors up. I doubt they were witnesses to very much at all.

Michael

[50sDad]

I am amazed at the "concerned Liberal women" who are now pulling a "nuts and s]uts" arguement on this case.

[BushCountry]

Everything that I read, states that the bodyguards were in the room when room service was called. In fact, room service was for the four of them. They all had to give police statements.

[dennisw]

"He was so whipped he didn't get a pre-nup" Hahhahahhaha

(whipped being short for ....)

[dennisw]

EXCERPT:

Kobe’s friends say race was small part of the family’s problem: Kobe’s wife, Vanessa, is half Hispanic and half white. But mostly “they thought she had too much control over him and that he was way too wrapped up in her,” the friend says. “He didn’t even get a prenup. That’s how whipped he was. Other guys in the business tried to tell him, but that’s how Kobe is, stubborn to a fault and never listening to anybody about anything, even his family.” When Bryant went home to Philadelphia for last year’s All-Star Game and took home the MVP award, his family was nowhere in attendance, and the local crowd booed him for disloyalty to their city. “I guess I never realized how people felt about me,” he told NEWSWEEK at the time. “I never saw a problem with the way I handled things. I was trying to be me.”

[BushCountry]

It would be almost a dead certainty that the girl didn't have the virus, given her environment.

Based on this assumption, he gambles his and his wife life. For all he knew about her, she could have been a hooker in some large city servicing every man in a twenty block area, then returned to her home town to recuperate.

[BushCountry]

I would almost bet that race was the whole problem. I have seen this mentioned on from several other sources. It is a dirty little secret that blacks are human and subject to prejudices just like the rest of us mortals.

[meandog]

Who's the real Kobe?

Answer: Just a glitzier version of Mike Tyson!

[meandog]

Who's the real Kobe?

Answer: Just a glitzier version of Mike Tyson!

[ravinson]

Everything that I read, states that the bodyguards were in the room when room service was called. In fact, room service was for the four of them.

He was probably staying in a suite and had the body guards in the other room if he was trying to seduce/rape a woman.

[dennisw]

I would almost bet that race was the whole problem.........

You mean between Kobe and his accuser?