By Alex Teerlinck | Community Contributors: Roxana Hernandez and Andrea Hinojosa
Content Warning: Mentions Sexual Assault and Rape
The world was shocked with the news of basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s passing this Sunday. Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on the way to attend a basketball game in Thousand Oaks (Source: Los Angeles Times). Sports fans or not, many took to social media to voice their sympathies for Kobe and his family. His contributions to basketball since 1996 made him both an American sports icon and a household name. While the news of Bryant’s passing is sad for many, a deeper examination of his life and legacy proved a complex topic for GW students to unpack.
Kobe and his wife, Vanessa, started the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation in 2007. The central focus of the foundation seeks to improve the lives of youth and families in need through participation in sports and education fostering social and cultural awareness. A great part of Kobe’s legacy lies in his philanthropic achievements, whether that be through his own foundation or his significant commitments to United Way, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Boys and Girls Club of America. Bryant was also an avid supporter of women’s sports; regularly seen at WNBA and USWNT games. Kobe’s dedication to empowering and improving the lives of those around him is admirable and we can all learn from his passion and dedication to what he loved.
However, there is another side to Kobe Bryant that very few, including myself, had heard about prior to Sunday. Several GW students posted about Kobe’s sexual assault accusation and consequent case that transpired in 2003. A 19-year-old hotel employee at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Colorado accused Bryant of sexual assault while he was staying at the hotel; reports of the incident claim that Bryant groped the employee, ignored her request to leave, physically blocked her from leaving the room, and forcibly penetrated her (Source: The Outline). Bryant claimed that the encounter was consensual and the case against him was dropped when his accuser refused to testify in court. The accusation against Kobe raises a serious dilemma in terms of how we will remember him. I believe that no matter the icon status that he has or the amount of charity work that he has done, women must be believed when they have the courage to speak up against sexual harassment or sexual assault. We cannot dismiss these actions; Bryant himself admitted that upon reflection, he understood how the employee considered the encounter non-consensual (Source: The Outline). Rape culture is real, and allowing athletes or other celebrity figures to get away with it only perpetuates the core existence of the problem.
To capture the complexity of this issue, I reached out to two GW students whose social media statements on Bryant’s passing captured my attention. Roxana Hernandez, a Public Health graduate of 2019, says that “Kobe Bryant set the example to the Latinx community and me, giving your all to reach your dreams, that any obstacle in life you will face to keep moving forward. Kobe endeared many of us on TV, speaking Spanish on Univision. [Kobe] is legendary.”
Andrea Hinojosa, an undergrad student in CCAS, emphasizes the point that Kobe had an “immoral past that he didn’t want to own up to.” She adds that Kobe convinced his accuser to drop the charges because he was a “man who couldn’t own up to the consequences…. just because he wasn’t trialed doesn’t mean that the incident never happened. Many rapists are never put into trial and many rapists never go to prison. But the least we can do is listen to the survivor’s story.” While Hinojosa considers the charges against Bryant in 2003 to be the most defining factor in who he was, she sends her deepest condolences to the Bryant family for losing part of their family in such an unfortunate accident.
The life and legacy of Kobe Bryant raise a serious moral question for us all to consider, and I encourage everyone to reflect on what they believe was the defining factor of who he was and how he will continue to be remembered. As GW students, we, like Bryant, seek to passionately change the world around us and inspire others. We are also in tune with issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault that affect millions of women under the larger umbrella of perpetuated rape culture. There is no right answer, but we have to acknowledge all of who Kobe was, whether we are comfortable with that or not.
News Outlets Consulted:
Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/sports/liveblog/kobe-bryant-dies-in-helicopter-crash-in-calabasas
The Outline: https://theoutline.com/post/8602/kobe-bryant-dead-social-media-rape-sexual-assault?zd=1&zi=plrgijfz
57 responses to “Kobe Bryant: Acknowledging the Positives and Negatives of a Complex Legacy”
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