“He had his girls. His relationship with Gianna and her emergence as a basketball player brought him back to the game in a new way.”
Back around the time of the rape allegations, Kobe Bryant was still a fairly young and naive NBA basketball player at age 24. He was too blinded by his NBA stardom, coming off 3 championships, which only further fueled his ego. Combined with the fact that the NBA was willing to defend him thick and thin, Kobe couldn’t see the injustice in his actions. It was merely an obstacle on his path to glory.
Kobe grew older and wiser, especially after his retirement, where he focused on helping others with his foundation. The past still stained him though, but it was as if the stain was slowly fading. But, although we could not personally have known Kobe 100%, there was still a noticeable shift in his behavior, which I believe could only be attributed to one thing: the birth of his daughter, Gigi.
Now while he had already had a daughter, it was the birth of Gigi that really nailed the hammer on the head, and told Kobe the truth of the reality. He had messed up badly, and while the media for the most part took it lightly, it still weighed down on him. Gigi brought another important person into his life, more specifically, another woman.
Now I think I can speak for most of us here if not all of us that we don’t yet realize the full capabilities of parenthood. But after Kobe became a father to two daughters was he to start on a path of redemption. He became extremely loving and supportive of his daughters, including his future pair, and you could see that energy within him; whenever he was asked about wanting to have a son, he would deny that disappointment and uncover the blessings out of fathering daughters. He grew closer with his wife, who he had so badly scarred during the whole ordeal. And his relationship with women turned into one of support and change during his later years when in charge of his daughter’s all women’s basketball team. It was as if it were a reaction to his past mistakes.
What Kobe did wasn’t justified, and I think that down the line he came to know that, given his attitude towards women, especially young, changed drastically. Of course, we won’t ever know how he truly felt, or if he did indeed feel a personal sense of responsibility. But given time, anyone could change, just like Kobe.
I remember this case as rather confusing, and Kobe Bryant was not eventually convicted. But the important thing is not whether the public forgave him or not, but whether he was aware of his mistake and tried to correct it. Some forgive him while others oppose him in this matter, but those who support him cannot erase the objective facts. Similarly, those who oppose him cannot deprive him of his determination to get things right again.
Hi,
I think your analysis is very insightful. I agree that fame and fortune at an early age can change a person drastically, and no one, not the NBA, the agents, the managers nor his family, can fully prepare someone for that kind of lifestyle. However, this does not excuse any sense of entitlement over someone else. Although he can’t change the past, or the narrative in which that incident is recounted, I personally feel he could have done more to speak out against sexual assault after the whole thing blew over, seeing that he began working with young women in basketball. While his hard work as a father, a coach, and the head of the Mamba Foundation helps to ensure that women, like his daughters, will have a place in basketball, it overlooks how other women in unrelated fields are looked at or treated by men with higher status, such as himself.