Who Would Have Thought It? It's Now Time To Defend Kobe Bryant

Never in a million years would defending Kobe Bryant come to mind, but after a ridiculous firestorm from the media last week and the substantial fined handed out by the NBA, Bryant need to be defended. The firestorm itself shows exactly why PC culture is going to destroy the United States.

Bryant was caught on camera yelling at Bennie Adams a homphobic slur and the video went viral within minutes. This of course sprung the NBA into action as David Stern didn't want to be slammed by the LGBT for not punishing Bryant and a day later a fine of $100,000 was handed out.

The media pressure did not stop there and he issued this statement "What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration in the heat of the game period!"

Since the video is so easily accessible it does not make sense to include it, but it's easy to see that Bryant was visibly frustrated when he went to the bench and yelled at Adams. What also didn't help is the fact that the camera was fixated on Bryant going to the bench instead of the action on the court.

Now the question becomes if Bryant had used a different word and those will not be uttered would this be a story? The answer is clearly no and it's just another example of the media making a mountain out of a molehill.

What's even more sad is John Ameachi's comments in regards to comment's by Bryant. He had stated in a blog with the New York Times that "right now in America young people are being killed and killing themselves simply because of the words and behaviors they are subjected to for being perceived as lesbian or gay, or frankly just different. This is not an indictment of the individuals suffocated by their mistreatment, it is an indication of the power of that word, and others like it, to brutalize and dehumanize.”

Ameachi is speaking out on something that he has no business commenting on. Again as mentioned before if Bryant had used a different word this would be a non-issue.

Then to equate that with people being murdered or committing suicide is beyond belief. Right now the media's attention has been on what was said, but did not concern itself with the why. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to matter to the media or Ameachi for that matter.


Now, Bryant definitely deserved to be punished. It however should not have been done so publicly regardless of how the NBA or David Stern wanted it to be perceived by the media and again Bryant should be appealing the fine.

Obviously NBA players get frustrated with referees and are known at times to use inappropriate language towards them. There's clips on Youtube of Shaquille O'Neal and Steve Francis cussing and yet there's no media firestorm over it.

Also, there's a question of if this was any other player in the league would the camera have been still fixed on them as they went to the bench? Would the commentators be talking about the visible frustration of the player going to the bench and leaving it at that and explain why the player got a technical?

So, in the end Byrant did deserve to be punish for his actions for verbally abusing Adams, what Bryant didn't deserve was the media attention that was brought on by what he said.

In addition as of today the Lakers came out with a PSA announcement about accepting others. That just puts the icing on the cake of how much hysteria was created over words Bryant muttered out of frustration.

By Steven Resnick