Does nice matter?

Since the sudden ending to the Kobe Bryant criminal prosecution, I have been wondering if I can be an enthusiastic Lakers fan while Kobe Bryant is the star of the organization, and it turns out I'm not alone.

The L.A. Times writer Elizabeth Kaye wrote an article about the subject and concluded that "After watching him play in the preseason, it's a moot point. Watch him and you'll get caught up, even if you don't especially want to, and his game will overwhelm the question of "should we?" and its cool, detached considerations."

She asserts that the qualities that made him an accused rapist are the very qualities that make him a great basketball player. She puts forward the opinion that "to use those talents requires that your own needs are met first. It requires an unshakable belief in one's abilities that we diminish by labeling it conceit or arrogance. We forget that selfishness and arrogance are job qualifications for an artist. Without arrogance, the canvas never fills with images of the lowly sunflower, the high note is never struck. There is no leaping into the air in defiance of gravity." In one paragraph Ms. Kaye links Bryant's athletic prowess to Van Gogh's artistic ability and the grace of the lyric soprano reaching for high notes.

Balderdash. Nice matters.

Mr. Bryant brought himself down all by himself. There was no Ken Starr, no twenty million dollar investigation, no struggle with mental illness.

If Mr. Bryant needs to meet his needs first in order to use his talents, what sort of needs is Ms. Kaye referring to? The need to treat a teenage girl like a hooker?

Unbelievably, Ms. Kaye calls rape an "abortive tryst." A woman has to have unbelievable courage to come forward with a rape charge in a society where the women are even more brutal and less supportive than the men.

Since when are "selfish and arrogance" "job qualifications for an artist"?! Apologist bullshit.

If people want to like Kobe Bryant in spite of what he has done, that's their business. If people want to imagine that Kobe Bryant is the innocent victim in this saga, then let them sleep with their cloudy illusions. But don't try to tell me that none of this matters because an artist must be a monster to be great.

We are succombing to a warped cynicism as a society. People find it easier to believe that a nineteen year old girl from a loving, supportive, middle class family is some sort of brilliantly devious and deviant, money-grubbing whore, rather than believe that one of the world's most successfully aggressive athletes didn't take no for an answer. He's aggressive enough to get rid of Shaq and Phil Jackson, two stars of basketball, but he's just a poor victim when he runs up against a teenage girl. Right. Teenage girls from supportive familes and small town backgrounds are never naive, never too trusting. No, they are as coldly calculating, as materialistic and unscrupulous as Don King. And if you believe that I have a fine plot of land in the Gobi desert that I would like to sell you.

And as to the argument that Mr. Bryant is just a basketball player, then he shouldn't mind losing all those plush endorsement contracts that use his iconic image and hero status to push products to kids.