Kobe Bryant Was Not Impressed by the Miami Heat’s Trayvon Martin Protest

[Lakerman0834]

Posts like these are why black issues should be kept in house. Got posters without a trace of melanin chiming in on how black people should feel.

So you want to turn this to us vs them without arguing facts looks like bean was onto something

 

[OG Talk]

by Dr Boyce Watkins

Like the rest of the world, I was stunned to hear Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant argue that it was somehow an unecessary burden for a black man to stand in support of the late Trayvon Martin. If anything, the Trayvon Martin case brought black people together in ways that we haven’t seen since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The case was clear cut: Trayvon had no weapon. He wasn’t bothering anybody. He was stalked out and murdered for appearing to look like a “thug.” George Zimmerman is a free man and later showed that he is every bit as violent as the world believed him to be. Case closed.


Even NBA athletes, many of whom have been intimidated to sleep by a world that has become obsessed with empty materialism, stood in unity with Trayvon. The biggest stars in the league, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, gave touching tributes to the young teen who didn’t deserve to die. Their leadership helped to inspire a nation, and I applaud them for it.

But Kobe is a bit different. He wants to be a replica of Michael Jordan, the man he could never quite match up to on the court. He inherited nearly all of Jordan’s personality traits, both good and bad, as if he’d been studying him since he was a child. Unlike LeBron James, who’s been able to win championships without becoming a clone of someone else, Kobe has become every bit as aloof, as disrespectful, as robotic, as simple-minded, as disconnected as the original Air Jordan himself.

This makes me sad, since Kobe could have been so much more than the empty, unhappy man he is today.

Here are five disturbing realizations about Kobe Bryant that we should keep in mind. It might help put his sloppy words about Trayvon Martin into their proper context:

1) He, quite frankly, appears to be a selfish a**hole: I won’t even go into the oddities of Kobe’s sexual assault case many years ago, where he was revealed to be the married man having unprotected sex with a woman he’d met an hour earlier just a few years after Magic Johnson announced that he had HIV. If sleeping with random women unprotected and risking your wife’s health isn’t the root of selfishness, I don’t know what is.

We can also talk about the way Kobe’s spent his career jacking up ill-advised shots and attacking his teammates in public. I’ve always loved Kobe’s game when he’s playing well, but I’ve never wanted to meet him. Kobe is like the 14th century astronomers who thought that the sun revolved around the earth. But instead, Kobe believes that the universe revolves about himself and won’t hear anything different.

2) He’s one-dimensional: For LeBron James, life appears to be a mixture of possibilities, with as much meaning to be found off the court as on it. Dwyane Wade is every bit as committed to fatherhood as he is to dribbling and shooting. For Kobe, there is nothing but basketball, basketball, basketball and more basketball. He drives his teammates insane with his “win or die” mentality, and it probably makes him very difficult to play with. While this might be what it takes for him to win NBA titles, it can also make you into a horrible person. Once again, I ask you to take a look at Michael Jordan’s hurtful, nasty Hall of Fame speech as a great case-in-point.

3) He’s arrogant: Kobe’s confidence has served him well throughout the years, helping him rise to some of the most significant achievements in his sport. But arrogance can also rob you of your ability to empathize with others. Kobe’s decision to engage in ad hoc social commentary on an issue so important to so many people is reflective of a man who simply doesn’t give a damn. I was hurt by Kobe’s remarks, since it’s sad to see one of our most prominent black men have more commitment to making McDonald’s commercials than he has to saving the lives of young black men like himself. Kobe could have just said, “no comment.”

4) He’s materialistic: If a corporation were to pay Kobe to say something, he’d say it without hesitation. Men like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan would buckdance for chicken if there is enough money involved. But the mere idea that standing up for your community is the right thing to do seems to escape them, like trying to teach a ballerina to shoot an AK-47. Maybe black people just aren’t as profitable as the white ones.

5) He’s disconnected: Jim Brown made compelling points about Kobe’s lack of connection to the black community during a recent interview on the Arsenio Hall Show. Brown, like Muhammad Ali, is one of the greatest athletes of all time (as good or better than Kobe himself), and it wasn’t just because he dominated men on the field. Brown is one of the greatest because he understood the importance of using his power to elevate the circumstances of the community that had given him so much. Kobe’s inability to commit himself to something greater than himself makes him an extraordinary athlete, but a pathetic human being.

I hope that Kobe retracts his statements and keeps his social commentary to himself. It’s ironic that a man who begged for sympathy after cheating on his wife with no protection can’t provide a lick of understanding for an unarmed teenager who had his future stolen by a deranged, racist, vigilante. People didn’t support Trayvon just because he was black. They supported him because it was the right thing to do.

I also find it ironic that a man like Bryant will remain completely silent when it comes to speaking up for black America, but becomes bold and vocal when given an incentive to trash us. Sitting on the bench in the fight for racial justice is bad enough, but it’s even worse when you work with our enemies to deliberately sabotage progress that is being made. This turns us into Django and turns Kobe into Samuel L. Jackson’s character, who got shot in his a** at the end of the movie. It’s a myth to believe that a racist has to be white…there are black racists all around us.

Kobe, grow up brother, it’s not always about you. This one is about the black community.

 

[NYC Rebel]

So I see African Americans are mad at Kobe for not blindly sticking up for them while other races appreciate the fact he likes to know the facts before coming to a conclusion.

So blacks were "blindly" sticking up for something wrong in wanting a man that shot an unarmed black teen arrested?

 

[dtownreppin214]

So I see African Americans are mad at Kobe for not blindly sticking up for them while other races appreciate the fact he likes to know the facts before coming to a conclusion.

go look in a mirror and say SWAGGY P to yourself a hundred times you a corny cac. your racist troll opinion is not needed here.

 

[CantStop]

awful article

1) She chastises Kobe for having unprotected sex and being an adulterer and that makes him an a$$hole but praises Wade who also had unprotected sex and had a baby from it.

2) She claims Kobe is unhappy. Where is the proof?

3) He's arrogant? No shyt he's arrogant. So is 99.9% of the NBA

4) He's materialistic. If Kobe is materialistic, what is Wade and Lebron?

Did you even read the article before you posted? The fact that you posted it makes me think you agree with it.

 

[Ronnie Lott]

Bro I agree 1,0000000000000000000000% this would've been the PERFECT way to answer it. If a perfect answer is 100 / 100, this is 110 / 100... It gets extra credit.


Only thing is bro, Kobe didn't have time to think about the question for a long time like we did and analyze it.. He was asked it off the cuff.


And, not that it's an excuse, but Kobe always wants to sound smart and intelligent... So he poured a little extra spice on it that probably wasn't needed at the time.


And if I'm going to be real and psycho analyze a little further, Kobe being the competitor that he is, probably got a LITTLE "offended" ( i don't really mean offended)... but he got a LITTLE put on his toes by the mention of Lebron's name, and someone even INSINUATING in the SLIGHTEST that Lebron did something he SHOULD'VE done.... So the natural competitive nature in Kobe just made him go a little overboard, so he could seem like the "smart one" and Lebron the "dumb one." (either that, and / or the Jim Brown comments were still in the back of his mind, and he was subconsciously defending himself from those comments)


Just think about it bro, you know Kobe like I know him....


All that said, after reading Kobe's comments, I really don't think the main point behind what he was saying was aimed at Trayvon... I think he was speaking in general, with a Trayvon example as the reference point. We need the entire interview for context, because what if the guy asked him other questions about race BEFORE he asked the Trayvon shyt? What if Jim Brown's comments got mentioned BEFORE the Trayvon question?


I'd love to hear Kobe's FULL THOUGHTS on the Trayvon Martin situation as it stands RIGHT NOW, NOT how it was after a heat photo 2 years ago.


As big a Kobe stan as I am, I was depressed for a week or 2 after the Trayvon verdict... I've never been that depressed after a Lakers loss.. So I'd never ride with Kobe in this situation if he's in the wrong.. At THIS TIME, I just don't see what he did too wrong bro.

Kobe could step out in a klan outfit and some of you nikkaz would find some way to justify it simply being fashion

 

[MsBigHead]

No coincidence that most of the people excusing his actions are Kobe/laker fans or white

 

[Primetime21]

So you want to turn this to us vs them without arguing facts looks like bean was onto something

You don't meet the qualifications for this discussion

 

[MoneyTron]

Dr. Boyce is off base with those comments. Way overreacting.

 

[GreatestLaker]

I hope that dude doesn't read his twitter or emails for the next 3 months. Kobe fans are going to kill that dude.

 

[IGSaint12]

Kobe could step out in a klan outfit and some of you nikkaz would find some way to justify it simply being fashion

The people in this thread who have been equating what kobe said to the same thing a klansman would say or worst are ridiculous. He didn't say black people aren't shyt, or that trayvon martin deserved it or something. All he said was that he wasn't the type of person to choose a side based on race without the facts.

 

[GoogleMe]

Thank god I'm not African American. Being born in Canada has allowed me to understand logic.

Kobe da gawd said nothing wrong.

What kind of an ignorant statement is that? Your "logic" is flawed based on the idiotic premise that being an African-American means you're absent of logic. Fukk off canada dry ass cac..

 

[thatrapsfan]

Funniest thing about this is that he's showing his level of intellect is about the same as the average contrarian Coli poster on race. Saddest thing about this is that he actually thought/ still thinks he's saying something profound here.

 

[NYC Rebel]

The people in this thread who have been equating what kobe said to the same thing a klansman would say or worst are ridiculous. He didn't say black people aren't shyt, or that trayvon martin deserved it or something. All he said was that he wasn't the type of person to choose a side based on race without the facts.

Trayvon's shooter was walking free and wasn't arrested. What other FACTS were needed? Those were the FACTS


Why is a "side" needed for something that should be viewed as UNIVERSALLY WRONG?

 

[Greenstrings]

The people in this thread who have been equating what kobe said to the same thing a klansman would say or worst are ridiculous. He didn't say black people aren't shyt, or that trayvon martin deserved it or something. All he said was that he wasn't the type of person to choose a side based on race without the facts.

Stop playing dumb.
In saying that he's all but asserting that every black person that reacted negatively to the events of the Trayvon Martin case did not take into account the facts which is hugely insulting.

If he truly believed that Trayvon was wronged he would have said so there and then and not waited until after the backlash.