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Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

41Forever Jan 26 2020 12:48 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jan 26 2020 12:52 PM

Seeing a bunch of tweets saying Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash. TMZ reporting. Very sad.

G-Fafif Jan 26 2020 12:51 PM

He was 41.

Frayed Knot Jan 26 2020 02:50 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

=41Forever post_id=30499 time=1580068119 user_id=69] Seeing a bunch of tweets saying Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash. TMZ reporting. Very sad.

With his teenage daughter apparently. Almost certainly others as well.

stevejrogers Jan 26 2020 04:14 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020") Edited 4 time(s), most recently on Jan 28 2020 12:40 PM

. Posted about John Altobelli in Baseball Passings.

whippoorwill Jan 26 2020 05:16 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

Separate thread please. Huge.

Edgy MD Jan 26 2020 07:07 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

Not to take away from this tragedy, but WTF? [YOUTUBE]wWoLyxRl_2Q[/YOUTUBE] OE: In her apology, she says she accidentally fused "Knicks" and "Lakers."

stevejrogers Jan 26 2020 07:09 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020") Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Jan 28 2020 12:42 PM

. OE: was just a request to move a post, I posted it in the appropriate thread.

whippoorwill Jan 26 2020 07:54 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

Edgy MD wrote: Not to take away from this tragedy, but WTF? [YOUTUBE]wWoLyxRl_2Q[/YOUTUBE] OE: In her apology, she says she accidentally fused "Knicks" and "Lakers." Such BS. Even a person that would regularly use that word would not purposely say it in this context. Can they not start obsessing over media gaffes immediately just this once?

Edgy MD Jan 26 2020 08:15 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

Yeah, I'm sorry to give it more wind than it deserves.

Centerfield Jan 27 2020 09:33 AM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

Raises the question of how proper it is to raise the allegations of rape. On the one hand, it is an unspeakable tragedy, and he has done great things in his life. Do we have to focus on his darkest moment? A case can be made that everyone could be villianized if we they were remembered for their worst act. And certainly his 13 year old girl deserves better than that, as well as other members of his family and the other victims of the crash. But whitewashing his history and nominating him for sainthood is an injustice to the victim of the alleged rape, provided it was a credible allegation. Eventually the case was dropped when the victim declined to testify, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. And it also doesn't mean that it did. I have no idea here. Maybe there isn't a right answer.

LWFS Jan 27 2020 09:38 AM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

The criminal charge was dropped. The civil case was settled. There were also several other, ultimately unsubstantiated allegations at the time. It's worth mentioning among the many other things about his life worth mentioning (as NPR-- BLESS NPR-- did this morning). As I said in the Mets-rape thread, if you're going to remember a man, remember the man in full, or as close to it as you can.

batmagadanleadoff Jan 27 2020 10:10 AM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

So what? They have the votes in the Senate. They have the courts. They have the Atty General. Every system that has humans deciding things will always be flawed and corruptible. I'm beginning to think that the GOP is scared of Trump, not for the sake of their political careers, but for their lives because with Putin behind Trump, this is like the KGB Soviet Union where the enemies get taken out, maybe.

whippoorwill Jan 27 2020 11:13 AM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

If they want to bring it up someday, fine. Well no, it isn't. It's past. But not the day he, his daughter, and most likely seven close friends were incinerated. Just utter BS again

LWFS Jan 27 2020 08:08 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

I can't believe we didn't focus on John Wayne Gacy's above-average children's-party clowning on his passing. What a damn shame. Listen, I'm certainly not saying that he was not worth mourning because of this. And I'm also not advocating that you show up at the funeral with bullhorns, Westboro-style, and remind everyone of his lowest public moment. But if you're going to love the guy and mourn the guy, then you mourn the man in full. Actively not mentioning something unpleasant about a decedent simply because it's past-- and heaping opprobrium on anyone who does-- is a terrible argument, looks-wise and substance-wise, and I hope you don't actually buy it. (It's worth noting that Kobe gave an interview years later, post-settlement, in which he acknowledged fault; IIRC, it was something along the lines of his thinking it was consensual at the time, but realizing in retrospect that he had likely done something awful. He also worked his ass off for various women's causes-- including sports-- in relatively quiet fashion.)

dgwphotography Jan 29 2020 12:41 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

A couple of thoughts regarding this as a few days have gone by: When it was announced the he was killed in the crash, I could see that it was sad, and the ramifications, but as I wasn't a big fan, so it didn't affect me that much. But then when it was announced that his daughter was killed too, that hit me like a ton of bricks. That TMZ published this before his family was even notified, is just disgusting.

Centerfield Jan 29 2020 12:46 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

=dgwphotography post_id=30729 time=1580326913 user_id=78] A couple of thoughts regarding this as a few days have gone by: When it was announced the he was killed in the crash, I could see that it was sad, and the ramifications, but as I wasn't a big fan, so it didn't affect me that much. But then when it was announced that his daughter was killed too, that hit me like a ton of bricks. That TMZ published this before his family was even notified, is just disgusting.

Yup.



The thought that his wife has to mourn her husband and her daughter is just unthinkable. And he died doing what we all do all the time. Taking our kids to practice.

Frayed Knot Feb 06 2020 06:36 PM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

So now it's apparently too much for some if Kobe Bryant's past rape charge is mentioned during this period of the still-ongoing deification of the recently deceased basketball star. Gayle King -- I know, who cares, right? -- but she recently did an interview with basketball star (retired, I think) Lisa Leslie in which she asked if that incident from Kobe's past tainted her image of him. Well this apparently has social media all up in arms (again, I know, who cares?) where the prevailing theme seems to be that this is just another example of King and her ongoing crusade against black men. Included in the backlash are such female-positive people as Snoop Dogg: "Respect the family bitch before we come and get you" and "Why you all attacking us, we your people ... I get sick of you all … Funky, dog-haired bitch, how dare you try and tarnish my motherf–king homeboy's reputation, punk motherf–ker". Also serving as a voice of the oppressed, live from a prison near someone, is Bill Cosby whose condemnation made sure to include the hashtag #stoptearingdownblackmen. Lisa Leslie, btw, said to Gayle King that Kobe's past did not tarnish her image of him, but the fact that this was even included as part of a longer interview is too much for some, celebs and ordinary folk alike. King herself has now gone out of her way to blast her network (CBS) for highlighting that part of the interview saying that it was only a small part of the whole and thus lacks context which, while possibly true, doesn't make it an untouchable topic. She'd also do well, IMO, to stop acting shocked, SHOCKED! to find that focusing on juicier or more controversial parts of upcoming TV pieces is what networks do when pimping their shows and your appearances. Not that I find what was said to be particularly controversial or juicy, but it does suck when the mentioning of flaws gets in the way of a pop-culture icon's canonization.

Edgy MD Feb 07 2020 08:47 AM Re: Kobe Bryant, 1978–2020 (split from "Guess Who Died in 2020")

Brace for a double dose of it as there's a pot boiling over on the back burner over whether it's OK to bring up past rape accusations against Kirk Douglas. It lacks the racial theme, and the early-death context (far from it), but that just simmers everything down to the raw issue. There's an old joke/tale/thought experiment about the two priests who get in an argument because over whether it's OK to pray and smoke at the same time. They both agree to let the bishop settle it, but when they reconvene, they both claim victory, each claiming to have been vindicated by the blessing of the bishop. It turns out one guy asked the bishop if it was OK to smoke while praying, and the bishop answered that, prayer is serious business, and it shouldn't be approached with cavalier distractions. And the other asked if it was OK to pray while smoking, and the bishop replied that, of course, it's always appropriate to pray. Heck, it might even draw you out of your cavalier distractions. The bishop was sincere both times, but it depended on how you constructed the question. No decent person disagrees that it's important to talk about sexual assault, that silence perpetuates the pain and empowers the assailant. No decent person disagrees that it's small to indict somebody after they are dead and can no longer defend themselves, particularly immediately after they are dead and those who love that person are too busy mourning to confront the situation. But when these two hard-to-dispute ethics butt up against each other, well, it depends on how you construct the question.