His ex-teammate Shaquille O’Neal tweeted this:
The irony I’m seeing on Twitter is the same people who claim virtue signaling doesn’t exist are now claiming people bringing up his rape right now are virtue signaling.
Watching the Lakers with Kobe & Shaq brought me a lot of exciting entertainment. I have so many memories of the championship games.
Thank you Kobe for all you brought to the basketball court. You were the face of the Lakers for so many years.
My heart goes out to all the victims families.
RIP
There is no evidence that he actually raped her.
There is evidence he lied to investigators, which is a crime and could have been prosecuted - maybe it should have been.
There is evidence that the two had sex. There is evidence that the woman bled, but it’s not clear whether that was caused by force. There is other circumstantial evidence.
One major piece of evidence that calls the case into question is the fact that the woman brought underwear to investigators that had another man’s semen on it. The woman also apparently had sex with another man within a very short period of time after Kobe’s alleged rape took place. There is also circumstantial evidence that casts doubt on the accuser.
I want to be clear: I can’t say that the accuser falsely accused Kobe Bryant, but there is no compelling evidence pointing toward Kobe’s guilt. It’s an accusation. And not all accusation carry the same weight. I agree that Kobe was no angel, and he wasn’t even my favorite basketball player - and in terms of his on-the-court personality, he had a tendency to be conceited at the expense of his teammates.
But I don’t think that Kobe can be defined by that one alleged incident, nor do I think he can be defined by his occasional narcissism, which I think he more or less grew out of over time. This is a tragedy, not just for the 8 others who perished but for a long life cut short and a family that loved Kobe Bryant.
I’m not trying to junior mod but I’m hoping we can keep the rest of the discussion focused on a somewhat elevated tone.
Well put, asahi. FWIW, it seems that Bill Russell had an important role in teaching Kobe to take the “I” out of “team.”
I’d be good with that. There are better places to do this. I do apologize for darkening the thread, and it is a good point that he may have grown away from what he was. But still, it didn’t sit well with me that he (in my mind at least) represented a failure in the legal system, and its susceptibility to monetary power for special citizens.
Jesus, if you add up all of the misinformation posted on the first page of this thread, it seems that too many members of the media are more interested in being first than in being right when they report on an incident like this.
I’m not in any way a basketball fan, but I know of Kobe.
I’m wondering how his death would compare in other sports. Is this compareble to say, Mario Lemieux? That’s the closet I can think of in hockey.
What about baseball, soccer, etc.
BTW: Someone of Mario’s stature would devastate me; but I don’t know basketball.,
Yes, Lemieux is a good analogy, I think, with Gretzky as Jordan, and Crosby as James (?).
I wasn’t alive then, but the immediate comparison that I think of is Roberto Clemente, who played baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was actually still an active player, IIRC. I think one thing that’s really cool is how Pittsburgh has honored Clemente with a statue outside PNC Park and hell, even a bridge.
Another superstar who died shortly after retirement was Reggie White of the Eagles and then Packers.
pretty thorough and our crew chief(mechanic) flew with us.
in the Army we all were instrument rated. No idea on civilians.
Also, the Baseball Hall of Fame selection committee voted Clemente into the Hall in 1973, shortly after his death, waiving the customary five-year waiting period for eligibility.
I don’t read twitter except when it’s quoted in news articles and then usually skip over that part if it’s not a public figure’s tweet. But virtue signalling via stating certain political/social opinions absolutely exists in media and internet generally, on a massive scale, so whoever claims it doesn’t exist is full of shit, simple as that.
On second part, the relevance of the rape accusation against Bryant seems to me to depend what it’s responding to. If somebody is getting carried away lionizing Bryant as an example all young people should emulate, then I can see bringing it up. There’s at least serious doubt he was that. But, if somebody is just saying it’s a terrible situation, thinking of someone’s final moments during such an event, a wife and mother losing husband and a daughter at once, then not so relevant IMO to bring it up. And in that case bringing it up might be motivated by the desire to appear righteous, which is again obviously very important to a lot people posting on the internet, rather than them just not being bright enough to think through that it’s not so relevant to the particular statement they’re responding to. Though the latter is also possible.
The other ‘hypocrisy’ issue about this would be why people are emotionally moved by terrible situations involving a celebrity more than when it’s an ordinary person. Or the ordinary people on the same helicopter in this case. Because we feel we know celebrities. We don’t, most of us, but it’s just a natural reaction in the moment. I don’t see a reason to beat ourselves up over that, or criticize others for it too much.
Of course, because the victim saying he raped her doesn’t count as “evidence”.
By all accounts, he committed infidelity, not rape. YMMV, of course; we weren’t there, nor were any of us part of his marriage.
Now, Vanessa will have to forge on without him AND one of their children. 
There is one very important account that disputes that.
I’m not sure ALL accounts agree.
It appears flying conditions were marginal: low ceilings, with hilltops obscured. The helicopter was flying “special VFR” - which is requested when a pilot is unable to maintain the visibility requirements specified for normal Visual Flight Rules.