This is what I wrote for work yesterday (a big part of my job is a weekly preview article) regarding Lakers-Clippers tomorrow:
"This rivalry match will take on extra meaning following the tragic death of Kobe Bryant on Sunday. Bryant was not only a career Laker, but a player whose talent, dominance and attitude affected the whole league. …
This is what I wrote for work yesterday (a big part of my job is a weekly preview article) regarding Lakers-Clippers tomorrow:
"This rivalry match will take on extra meaning following the tragic death of Kobe Bryant on Sunday. Bryant was not only a career Laker, but a player whose talent, dominance and attitude affected the whole league. As the Lakers take the court tonight, they will all be carrying the memory of Kobe in their hearts. The game was already a vital one. The Lakers need a win to extend their lead at the top of the conference. Meanwhile, the third-place Clippers can continue to close the gap with a victory. But for 48 minutes tonight, the implications of the result won’t be anyone's primary focus. The place where Kobe became a legend will honour him with the thing he dedicated his life to - basketball."
But this what I didn't get to say:
I respect Kobe's talent. He was an undeniable generational talent who left his mark on the league in more ways that we could ever list. But just watching everything go down, from the war against SA survivors to the writer invoking 9/11, it scares me how quickly we get forget that Kobe was human. Cards on the table- I didn't "like" Kobe. I can look past the ego and all the stuff that makes juicy fodder for video essays about the Lakers dynasty etc. That's just such a part of sports that if I disliked every athlete who was a bit of an ass, there'd be very few athletes for me to like. But as someone who has survived multiple SAs, I can never look past the sexual assault trial and how he, the fans, and the media really just showed that being a big name athlete 100% gets you a pass on doing that sort of thing. And then how, no matter how genuine his interest was, I can't help but feel a chill in my heart as the media turned his support of women's sport into a redemption arc.
I know Kobe means a lot of different things to a lot of different people; I would never want to take away someone's good memories of him. But when people hold him up as this unblemished Superman, I can't help but remind myself that superheroes aren't real. Everyone has flaws and those flaws need to be discussed in a retrospective of someone's life. When we blind ourselves to flaws completely, all we do is revise history and silence the victims.
This is so well said -- the hero worship he got when he was alive is part of what made it easy when he was alive to victim shame his survivor and let him move on from that so quickly, so it's hard to see in his death, too. I think what you said, that "superheroes aren't real" is so important to remember. Thank you for this, Litty.
Thank you for giving us this space to freely share our thoughts, Lindsay. And thank you for the kind words, it means a lot coming from someone whose work I look up to.
This is what I wrote for work yesterday (a big part of my job is a weekly preview article) regarding Lakers-Clippers tomorrow:
"This rivalry match will take on extra meaning following the tragic death of Kobe Bryant on Sunday. Bryant was not only a career Laker, but a player whose talent, dominance and attitude affected the whole league. As the Lakers take the court tonight, they will all be carrying the memory of Kobe in their hearts. The game was already a vital one. The Lakers need a win to extend their lead at the top of the conference. Meanwhile, the third-place Clippers can continue to close the gap with a victory. But for 48 minutes tonight, the implications of the result won’t be anyone's primary focus. The place where Kobe became a legend will honour him with the thing he dedicated his life to - basketball."
But this what I didn't get to say:
I respect Kobe's talent. He was an undeniable generational talent who left his mark on the league in more ways that we could ever list. But just watching everything go down, from the war against SA survivors to the writer invoking 9/11, it scares me how quickly we get forget that Kobe was human. Cards on the table- I didn't "like" Kobe. I can look past the ego and all the stuff that makes juicy fodder for video essays about the Lakers dynasty etc. That's just such a part of sports that if I disliked every athlete who was a bit of an ass, there'd be very few athletes for me to like. But as someone who has survived multiple SAs, I can never look past the sexual assault trial and how he, the fans, and the media really just showed that being a big name athlete 100% gets you a pass on doing that sort of thing. And then how, no matter how genuine his interest was, I can't help but feel a chill in my heart as the media turned his support of women's sport into a redemption arc.
I know Kobe means a lot of different things to a lot of different people; I would never want to take away someone's good memories of him. But when people hold him up as this unblemished Superman, I can't help but remind myself that superheroes aren't real. Everyone has flaws and those flaws need to be discussed in a retrospective of someone's life. When we blind ourselves to flaws completely, all we do is revise history and silence the victims.
This is so well said -- the hero worship he got when he was alive is part of what made it easy when he was alive to victim shame his survivor and let him move on from that so quickly, so it's hard to see in his death, too. I think what you said, that "superheroes aren't real" is so important to remember. Thank you for this, Litty.
Thank you for giving us this space to freely share our thoughts, Lindsay. And thank you for the kind words, it means a lot coming from someone whose work I look up to.