Here's a column from USA Today that raises some of the questions we've dicussed:
Real world envelops Kobe Bryant
Now, it's serious.
Now, there is a reputation at stake. A legacy. A career. Maybe his freedom. Perhaps his marriage.
Kobe Bryant has won three championships. But the stakes have never been this high before. He has never, ever had this much to lose.
Now there's a charge next to his name.
Felony sexual assault.
Ugly words for one of the NBA's presumed solid citizens.
We thought him a Laker and a gentleman, and now he stands accused of rape. We knew the image. Time will tell if we knew the man at all. It would not be the first time the public has been fooled.
But this is still only a charge. The talk shows need to remember that.
This sort of thing is not supposed to happen to a member of the club of the Truly Famous, where only a first name is needed. A guy needs more than great talent or numbers to do that. He needs an aura. He is above getting in trouble in a hotel room at night. The Mike Tysons of the world do that.
Kobe. Even some of the newscasters were referring to him that way on Friday. As they mentioned, he could face four years to life, if convicted.
Now everything is in question. His past, present, future. The shock waves stretch to the corporate marketers, who now rush to assess what a rape charge does to a product endorsement.
And if there is any truth to the theory that a charge like this will somehow increase his "street credibility," then the street is depraved.
Bryant was seen smiling at the ESPY Awards the other evening. He and the wife. Some guessed it might be a sign, that he might be off the hook, back to business as usual, where his biggest worries were the San Antonio Spurs and the Sacramento Kings.
Now, we know different. The circus is coming to town, with all the trappings — television trucks next to the courthouse, commentator overload, headline hyperbole.
"We'll treat this case like any other case," the district attorney in Colorado said in his announcement Friday. "I'm saying that as I look at 20 cameras here."
Surely, he knows what it coming. So does Bryant. He is about to live a tabloid life.
His team held a press conference Thursday, officially welcoming old opponents as new Lakers. Karl Malone and Gary Payton have joined the cause, and there was happy talk of winning championships.
Just a day later, the subjects were possible jail terms and court dates. A central figure was no longer a point guard or power forward, but a 19-year old hotel worker.
Did he or didn't he? Now, there is officially a reason to ask.
There is no proof yet of guilt. But there are already costs. In his own statement, Bryant admitted to sex with the young woman. Adultery is not exactly a rare disease in professional sport, but it is nonetheless a chip off a persona. He is already stained. Already lost a little of what he was.
Kobe Bryant, by the way, is still only 24 years old, far too young to be a finished project. It is a delusion to make someone that age an icon. And it is a mistake to think we know him, just because we can count his rings or watch his commercials or recite his scoring average.
And will we really understand what happened in the end? At best, maybe.
Celebrity justice is the foggiest of all, for it is often hard to decide if someone is being persecuted because of a name, or coddled. Plus, in many star athlete cases, the issue of race is never far away.
This could get very, very messy.
