Kobe Bryant killed in helicopter crash (per TMZ)
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Anonymous
Raping someone is a vile behaviour. Cheating on a wife is a vile behaviour. No one is saying that his death is not a profound loss to his family and fans. His wife is struggling with the death of a spouse and an offspring. There are other families that have been impacted too and one mom has left behind three little kids. From a human perspective it is heart breaking. |
Anonymous
| He is a celebrity, rich and famous person and a sports superstar. Yes, we all feel like we know him because he is one of the most beloved athletes. |
Anonymous
You toss around that label very easily for someone that was not there and has no idea what really happened. Would you condone people bringing up MLK's adultery mere hours after he died? |
Anonymous
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A Lasting Friendship: Kobe Bryant and His High School English Teacher
Jeanne Mastriano was on leave from her teaching job, caring for her new daughter, when she walked out of her home in the Philadelphia suburbs one day to find a mysterious package sitting on her porch. The label said it had come from California. She guessed that it was a maternity gift from a relative out west. But when she opened it, she found a red Radio Flyer wagon filled with baby-related gifts and a simple message: “Love, Kobe.” The moment was one of many that anchored an enduring connection between Mastriano, an English teacher at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and Kobe Bryant, the NBA star she had taught years before. Their remarkable friendship, developed with impromptu visits and email exchanges over more than two decades, came to an abrupt fracture this week when Bryant, 41, was killed in a helicopter crash, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people. “That trust developed, and it never faltered,” Mastriano said in a telephone interview. “We managed to get through lots of years and really were there for each other.” “He has left such a void behind,” she added, emphasizing his role as a father to four daughters. “It’s going to be rough.” Mastriano, 67, has been teaching at Lower Merion for more than 30 years. She had Bryant in her sophomore English class and again in an elective class he took in 12th grade. She admits to being a bit of a “bandwagon” fan when it came to basketball early on, showing up to cheer on the varsity team when the young Bryant helped guide the Aces to a state championship in 1996. He then leapt from high school straight to the NBA and a 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. His jersey number in high school was 33, so Lower Merion High School held 33 seconds of silence Monday. An impromptu memorial appeared outside the gymnasium that bears his name as stunned fans brought basketballs, bouquets and Bryant jerseys. But Bryant remembered his high school experience for more than just basketball. He stayed in touch with the community, including Mastriano, whom he once called his “muse.” In high school, she taught him the works of Joseph Campbell and the mythology of the hero’s journey, a concept that Bryant would return to in media interviews over the years. After his basketball career began to take off, Mastriano recalled, he returned to the school to visit at times, slipping quietly onto campus and knocking on her classroom door. No matter how much time had passed, Bryant, who lived in Italy for part of his childhood while his father played professional basketball there, greeted his teacher the same way. “He always called me Mrs. Mastriano,” she said, and not by her first name. “He actually put a really nice Italian spin on it.” In one of his last interviews, Bryant credited Mastriano for planting a seed for his post-NBA interest in the written word. In 2015, he announced his impending retirement in a poem titled “Dear Basketball” and later won an Academy Award for an animated short film created around his reading of the poem. He was also getting ready to introduce a new book. “She was so good and so passionate about what she was teaching about writing and storytelling,” Bryant told USA Today in an interview published last week. “She firmly believed that storytelling could change the world. And she opened my eyes to this passion I didn’t know existed.” Mastriano said that Bryant had emailed her a copy of the poem after it was published, asking what she thought. She told him, “I wouldn’t change a thing.” She even shared it with her students. “I said, ‘See? This is what happens when you free write.’” The two did not always see eye to eye. Near the end of Bryant’s playing career, Mastriano said, she got a message asking her to meet him in New York City. She drove up from Philadelphia and joined him at a coffee shop. He told her he was planning to retire from the NBA but did not want to announce it publicly. He wasn’t sure he wanted a retirement tour, with its standing ovations and joke gifts of rocking chairs. She said she suggested that he at least consider going public — which he ultimately did. “It was important for him to give people a chance to celebrate him,” she said. “It was also important for people to have an opportunity to say goodbye.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. |
Anonymous
Duh, he was a sports superstar and a rich and connected celebrity. People rush to take pictures with Kim Kardashian too, but you can rest assured when she dies her sex tape, her short marriage to Kris humphries and her plastic surgeries and nudes would be fully discussed. Regardless of if she became a world class lawyer and worked with Amal Clooney for Human Rights. |
Anonymous
How wonderful!!!! He was all of this. Also the other things. |
Anonymous
In this day and age? It would be absolutely be discussed I n the same manner as Kobe is being discussed. And guess what? I am sure Kobe knew that he carried this blight forever. |
Anonymous
I asked if YOU would condone it. You did not answer. |
Anonymous
Ha ha. So what would he have told his daughters about protecting themselves from sexual assault? I am sure that conversation had to happen sometime sooner than college, right? Victim was 19 year old woman. His oldest daughter is a 17 year old woman now, and was 5 months old when this happened. |
Anonymous
You do realize that the conversation and norms around consent have changed pretty dramatically since 2003 don't you? I'm pretty sure "no means no" was en vogue and now it's "yes means yes" and enthusiastic, continuous consent, I think. I can't even keep up. Kobe himself has evolved as a person since then, as well. |
Anonymous
Oh, absolutely. Those who think that MLK was to be judged for his adultry (which at least have two consenting adults) should be allowed to discuss it and think about it after his death. If it was already public knowledge, what is the point of trying to close the stable door once the horse is bolted? |
Anonymous
Within hours of his assassination? Well, God bless you and keep you then. That's all I will say. |
Anonymous
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I think it was the immediacy and need to only focus on that one thing that was so offputting.
Of course it will come up but within minutes of the news breaking of his death there were people attempting to discredit his life and define him solely by the one event. |
Anonymous
I don’t understand why people keep bringing race into this. I could understand why he should be given the benefit of the doubt if the evidence against him was less credible. However, the forensic evidence is against him and he himself even admitted in his apology statement that although he believed at the time it was consensual, he now understands why she doesn’t see it that way. He did it, he raped her. Most thinking people do not disagree on that. But because he was black, we shouldn’t bring that up? |
Anonymous
There are many men I know of all age groups who have not been accused of rape, ever. He was accused of rape when it happened, according to the mores of that time. Today, he would have been rotting behind bars. He was one lucky guy who had a narrow escape from the jaws of justice, and his life went on with all the accolades, fame, wealth and blessings that was promised by his amazing talent. I think he was very, very blessed and had an amazing life. The sadness is truly for the survivors. |