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Kobe, We Thought We Knew You

"No other athlete ever had that aura, that perfect mystique around them."

By Mike Oseroff

Mike Oseroff is Youth Radio’s resident sports commentator and columnist. Keep checking this space for his weekly updates! You can email him at sports@youthradio.org.

Image is everything, or so they say. Have a bad rep, and your career will forever be on a downslide. No matter if you’re an actor, a CEO, a therapist, or an athlete, the importance of being perceived as clean, is as valuable as anything. Right.

Funny then, how there are more pro athletes with criminal charges on their records then there are pro athletes in the hall-of-fame.

Let’s face it. Athletes are only humans. They make mistakes, and their records get tainted. And yet most of it all blows over, no matter how serious the charge. Until now. For the first time in a long time, it looks like something is gonna stick. And it’s only because it’s Kobe.

Kobe Bryant the sex offender. A little over a year ago, while he and Shaq were raising their third straight NBA Title trophy, those words would’ve cracked up everyone in a room. “Not our Kobe,” loyals would boast, and chuckle at the ridiculousness of the statement. Now, as we travel back to the present day, people are saying the same thing, only now it’s being said with a lot less confidence and in a meek whimpering tone.
The very thought of it throws us all for a loop. It’s inconceivable. It’s like being told to forget everything you know, and everything you’ve learned your whole life, because it’s wrong. How could Kobe, the kid that could do no wrong, be facing prison time?

This is the same Kobe we know right? The smart, dedicated, hardworking Kobe we’ve all come to know and love? The kid who was drafted out of high school onto a team with players twice his age, and given the message: you’re gonna run this team. The same guy, who while his teammates went out partying and invited him along, chose to stay behind and study tapes of himself because he was underage? Kobe with his flashy confident smile, his unbelievable work ethic, his wholesome, family first image, his sheer dominant game, his three championship rings, his promise to be one of the greatest of all time? The number eight that millions of little boys and girls all around the world sport on their backs with pride? It can’t be.

As we look around, we see player upon player with taints in their records. We travel to Portland, where another “Blazer” is being arrested for marijuana possession. Cross the country to Philadelphia, home of bad boy Iverson and his domestic violence charges. Head south to Orlando where Darrell Armstrong is dealing with his assault of a police officer. Roll back to Sacramento where Chris Webber is still in heat over his dealings with a Michigan booster from his college days. Even stay home and check out recently departed Warrior Gilbert Arenas, who was found with a handgun in his car.

Enough NBA? Try Major League Baseball. Down in Miami, the great Jose Canseco is facing charges for violating his parole. Enough MLB? Let’s slide down to the NFL. Everyone remember Eugene Robinson, the Atlanta Falcon who was arrested for soliciting sex to an undercover police officer the night before the 1999 Super Bowl? Or surely Ray Lewis the Baltimore Ravens LB who was caught up in the murder trial of two men in 2000, and ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice. The list could go on and on. But what all these players have in common, is that for all of them the smoke will clear, and in time, most of us will forget all about their run ins with the law. Some will go on to be hall of famers, win championships, and be adored just the same.

But they aren’t Kobe. None of them ever had that aura, that perfect mystique around them. None of them worked to hard to maintain such a wholesome image their entire careers. None of them exposed the very fabric of who they were. We didn’t know them, no matter how long we had followed their careers. There was still that tiny hole that made us, for whatever reason, still not completely shocked when we heard their charges, when we learned they were capable of criminal acts. We knew Kobe. Our Kobe couldn’t do something like this, because it went against everything we believed in. The Kobe story truly shocked us.

So now Nike, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s, as corporations have a choice with Kobe, and they as fans are faced with the same dilemma we are. Should we support Kobe, and should they keep their endorsement deals with him, or should we abandon him in his time of need? Looking back, Reebok International profited by sticking with Allen Iverson, in his troubled times, and continuing their deal with him. As it turned out, the charges only added flair to the already heavily tattooed and proclaimed “bad-boy” of basketball. Reebok and EA Sports also benefited the same way by signing Ray Lewis to endorsement deals, and having him act intimidating on their ads. As if the hardest hitting linebacker in the game wasn’t scary enough, the “accessory to murder,” hard-hitting linebacker’s popularity was boosted tremendously after it all blew over.

However Kobe was never a bad boy. He’s never acted that way, and there was nothing in his character to believe he would change, until now. By committing adultery and possibly sexually assaulting that girl, he threw everything into jeopardy: his spotless image, his marriage, everything he had worked so hard for, and now everything will change. If I were a betting man, I’d bet the constant outpour of television ads in which Kobe is shown studying his game, playing with little kids, and working out will be gone. Instead, Kobe will be found in the more traditional, dark-lit, ghetto, streetball backdrop ads that so many not so perfect athletes grace these days. As far as fan support, no one will refuse to forgive Kobe for what he has done, although he will be greeted next season with more jeers and boos then he perhaps has ever faced, and if he is anything like the Kobe we know, he will rise above it.

It is sad however to see the end of a legacy so pure, in such a shameless and dirty way. Since he first burst onto the scene in 1996 we wondered how long something so great could last. Now we know. Seven years. Good luck Kobe, and may the next seven be just as memorable.

Check out more of Mike's columns!