The Mystery That Is Kobe Bryant

I first became aware of Kobe Bean Bryant some years ago, when he was still a teenager and attending Lower Merion High School, which is located in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

I knew that he was the son of former Philadelphia 76er, Joe "Jellybean "Bryant and I knew that he was something special on the court...

A friend and I saw him play in the Sonny Hill League...a local basketball league here in the Philadelphia area where many legends have been spawn...It's akin to the Rucker League in New York City....He was incredible, out playing grown men....His basketball IQ was off the chain...

Nobody here was surprised when he led his High school,Lower Merion to it's only state championship and then passed on college and went to the Charlotte Hornets in the first round, only to be almost immediately traded to the Los Angelas Lakers, where he would go on to win 5 NBA Championships...

Kobe used to be loved and adored by the Philadelphia fans....That is until his Lakers played our Sixers in the NBA championship and he made some rather cruel and insensitive comments about the Sixers...The home team....Pretty bad, considering that he's a Philadelphia Native and his father did used to play for this team.

The fans never forgave him and booed him everytime he came to Philly to play against the Sixers...They booed him at the All Star game...

Fast Forward some years and some of the Kobe hatred had died down.....Some of it...He just has this habit of putting his foot in his mouth..Making statements that he doesn't have to make...

Check this out-

Kobe Bryant, in an upcoming issue of the New Yorker magazine, apparently reiterates his questions as to whether the actions of Miami Heat players, including Lebron James, who showed support for Trayvon Martin in 2012 following the 17 year old's death at the hands of George Zimmerman, was some form of racial solidarity or jumping to conclusions based solely upon Trayvon's race. 

He said "I won’t react to something just because I’m supposed to, because I’m an African-American,” he said. “That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, we’ve progressed as a society, then don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.”

  Okay, fine...In my estimation, most blacks ,including myself did not support Trayvon's case solely because of race, but most did and do understand that race in many instances still matters in the criminal justice system.
A young black kid goes to buy some skittles and an ice tea during half time of the superbowl...He is visiting his father ,who lives in a gated community....He is stopped and questioned by a self appointed community town watch guy named George Zimmerman with an itchy trigger finger who is following him, who has already decided that because he has on a hoodie...He looks suspicious...Oh and he just happens to be African-American!  Something happens...a fight or struggle of some kind...Trayvon is shot and killed and this mofo walks around free, with his gun for close to a month before he is arrested and charged with murder.. Need anymore facts Kobe? 

 Oddly, I seem to remember many blacks,including myself supporting Kobe Bryant when he was accused of raping a white girl in Denver several years back.,  and I do not recall Kobe Bryant asking black folks to exercise such caution back then... I don't recall him asking us to just "sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation."back then!

I'm just saying!