The Lessons of KOBE BRYANT

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The Lessons of KOBE BRYANT

By Richard Curry

Kobe Bryant in action

If I hear the word 'role model' and Kobe Bryant in the same sentence any time soon, I do believe I'm going to scream. Some people say he was just having consensual sex and it's no big deal. Putting aside a possible rape of a 19-year old girl, Kobe has got to be flat stupid.

The man is wealthy beyond reason as he makes $12,375,000 a season from the Lakers, $13 million in yearly endorsements, and has a $41 million Nike contract. Kobe has a loving pregnant wife, a six-month old daughter, he's good looking, and has the admiration of thousands of basketball fans.

When is enough, enough?

Using sports athletes for role models is not a good plan. They're just people with a lot of money who basically have egos bigger than a house. Too many athletes think the world revolves around them and way too many fans are convinced it does.

The list of the 'gone-to-dogs' athletes is endless: Baseball's Darryl
Strawberry has been in rehab more times than I've gotten prizes out of a
Cracker Jack box. Steve Howe had to reach seven drug violations before
major league baseball garnered up enough courage to unload him. Dwight
Gooden gets arrested yearly (you can set your clock by it), drinking and
riving too fast over the Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Yankees' David Wells, whose Mom rides with the San Diego Hells Angels,
pitched a perfect game with an extreme hangover. And Doc Ellis once threw a
no hitter on LSD.

Hockey's Sergei Federov recently said the Red Wings didn't appreciate him.
Detroit and Mr. Illitch had Sergei smuggled out of Communist Russia, took
care of his every financial need for 13 years, and he was married to Anna
Kournikova for twenty minutes. When it rained the Red Wing management would

send an attendant to the parking lot with an umbrella so Sergei wouldn't
get wet while leaving his Ferrari Enzo - a car he's still learning to
drive, as evidenced by the tree he ran into. Some of Sergei's cross-town
trips are as short as his marriage encounters.

Kobe Bryant

Boxing Mike Tyson bites ears off fighters and rapes and beats women to vent
out his aggression. In the NFL in 1997, of the 1500 players, 509 had
criminal histories and 109 were charged at one time or another with a
serious crime.

Ray Lewis was accused of murder, Lawrence Phillips pounded his girlfriend
senseless, and Ray Carruth had his pregnant girl friend literally whacked
to get her out of his life. In May of this year the Detroit Lions' Scotty
Anderson was stabbed outside a nightclub in Houston.

But Basketball is far and away the sport world's version of RollerBall, the
Cuckoo's Nest, and America's Most Wanted all rolled into one. Magic Johnson
and Wilt Chamberlain both claim to have had sex with half the young women
in North America, leaving Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Barry and Deion
Sanders with the rest.

A Baylor basketball player just killed his own teammate because he was
hearing voices.
Earlier, Allen Iverson tried to strangle his coach. Four of the University
of Michigan's Fab Five were found to have taken $616,000 under the table to
play college basketball.
Just last month, Chris Webber pleaded guilty to lying to the Grand Jury.
Jerry Stackhouse was charged with misdemeanor assault. Damon Stoudamire was
arrested for the third time on drug charges. Darrell Armstrong was charged
with battery of a police officer.
And even Saginaw's Jason Richardson got in the fray, being accused of using
his girlfriend's face to imprint a wall.

This is becoming an average month of NBA off court activity.

But the height of misplaced wisdom and self-absorbed arrogance occurred
following Kobe's press conference with his wife at his side to discuss rape
charges. Kobe promptly goes out and buys her a $4 million diamond ring. Ah
yes, get into trouble, buy your way out of trouble and get into trouble
again. No consequences, no problem.

I guess some of us shouldn't demand integrity and honesty from sports
heroes when we don't demand it from ourselves.

Here is a role model solution: Parents should give their children someone
to be proud of and children should give their parents someone to be proud
of.

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