Kobe and Gigi Bryant killed in helicopter crash

[KenAdams]

This is incredibly sad. Gigi had a promising basketball career ahead of her too

This came up in my NPR email today

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2020/01/27/kobe-bryant-dont-shy-away-nba-legends-legacy/4584605002/?utmsource=SFMC&utmmmedium=email&utmcampaign=DailyyNewsletterDaily-Rundownn_20200127

Let’s hope when you or a loved one has gone, your lives are so blameless that nobody immediately drags up crap about you.

If I or a loved one died having raped someone I would have absolutely no issue with anyone bringing it up. If it was a loved one that had passed I would be one of the ones bringing it up.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jan/27/kobe-bryant-death-legacy-nba-basketball-sexual-assault-allegations
(mourn Koby Bryant or don't but mourn the whole flawed man)

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/27/posts-misguided-suspension-felicia-sonmez-over-kobe-bryant-tweets/
(The Post's misguided suspension over Felicia Sonmez's tweets)

theoutline.com/post/8602/kobe-bryant-dead-social-media-rape-sexual-assault?zd=1&zi=p5oillas
(Two things can be true but one is always mentioned first)

www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a30668419/kobe-bryant-dead-at-41-obituary/
(Obit: It's a terrible irony that Kobe Bryant should fall from the sky)

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/27/worst-way-handle-kobe-bryant-rape-case/
(The worst way to handle the Kobe Bryant rape case)

Nancy Armour's (Don't shy away from Kobe Bryant's complicated legacy) twitterfeed reflects this thread: some saying the article is balanced, some denouncing the alleged victim, and some calling her a cunt.
The backlash against Evan Rachel Wood continues.
Meanwhile Mike Tyson gets 37 000 likes for expressing his grief and in advance of his own untimely demise which I suspect, in spite of him actually having been convicted for rape, may also divide opinion in two when it happens.

If Kobe Bryant had been a taxi driver like John Worboys, noone on this thread would even begin to try and defend him against allegations which he later admitted to.

It's very sad that ALL the people on the helicopter died. Kobe Bryant accepted that he had raped a women and was therefore a rapist. Kobe Bryant was excellent at basketball. Kobe Bryant did a lot in the community.

All of those things can be simultaneously true. But the good bits don't negate the bad, and you do a disservice to all rape victims, and also to the concept of thinking, to imagine that they do.

What I don't get is the outpouring of grief from those who didn't know him. Of course anyone who dies will be mourned by friends and family but strangers? Just cos he was good at throwing basketballs into a net?

Did you know Princess Diana?

I didn’t and I wasn’t particularly sad when she died, other than feeling for her children. I found the national reaction fascinating though.

For those who see Kobe Bryant as a great sportsman and ambassador, and an inspiration to young African Americans, Princess Diana probably isn’t far off the mark. Similar profile in the US. I was in Boston in 1993 when Reggie Lewis died on court and the public reaction was similar - another young(er) basketball star.

The reaction to Diana's death was bizarre and like some form of mass hysteria that fortunately seemed to pass me, my family and all my friends by and we all stood on incredulous. Even at work at the time, there was one woman in her 30s who kept bursting into tears about it and everyone else (mostly women) were like "wtf?"

He was a rapist.

Desperately sad at the loss of the other passengers, in particular his daughter, and for what his surviving children are going through right now.

Outonthetiles Did I know Princess Diana?

No, what an odd question. Of course not. And I thought the same when she died (in fact think the same when anyone dies). I felt very sorry for her children and it was a shock of course, as it is when anyone dies suddenly and you find out about it. But I wasn't sad or upset. I was sad her boys had to go through life with no mum but in the same way I feel desperately sorry for the mum I didn't know at my kids primary school who recently died.

My heroes are not usually in the public eye.

I also unsurprisingly didn't know Princess Diana, although I met her once.
I was shocked when she died and felt very sorry for her sons.
I found the public reaction very interesting but DH and I didn't share the general mass grief.
Like Shatner we were looking around with some astonishment.

Interesting to see more and more articles emerging giving the fuller picture rather than blandly pumping out hero headlines...

Just this.

Fair point...

MrsArchchancellorRidcully

Not an odd question at all. ShatnersWig equated the reaction to Diana’s death as “mass hysteria,” which is an adequate portrayal and exactly why I asked.

Different people have different reactions to celebrity deaths, of course. I personally have no use for the majority of celebrities, particularly when people like Paris Hilton become famous for doing nothing. I can, however, understand why others indulge in hero worship. Who am I to judge?

In this case, as in the case of Princess Diana, both died quite young, under unexpected and terrible circumstances, and both left young children behind. The deaths of children in the helicopter crash made the circumstances surrounding Bryant’s death even more shocking.

One reason I think that celebrity deaths hit so hard is because it forces us to confront our own mortality. If this person, with his / her millions, fame, adoration and security, isn’t safe from the inevitable, then who among us is?