Posted on 04/01/2014 1:33:17 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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 Bryant 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 Kobe Bryant 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 Bryant 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 Bryant’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 Bryant’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 Bryant 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 Bryant 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 Bryant 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 Bryant, grow up brother, it’s not always about you. This one is about the black community.
Strong in this one the crack is.
BARF what a load of crap
Negro spat for attempted exit of the plantation.
Again, it’s all about the color of skin.
“This one is about the black community.”
What about it?
It always is with the race pimps.
I just posted a lengthy comment on the “Dr.’s” website. I used my real name. It’s gonna get the natives going...
Man, I have never heard anything quite so succinct AND wrong.
Can they point to even one George Zimmerman conviction for anything beyond speeding? I thought arrests don’t equal convictions, or is that just for their group? BTW, George is blacker than Mr. Obama, not that that should matter in any way.
This was my comment on the site:
I’ve read some utter falsehood crap drivel in my time, but this about takes the cake.
Bryant merely took the honorable position that character is what matters, NOT color. The inferior fraud who wrote this garbage article is as mentally and morally depraved as Trayvon Martin, Benjamin Crump, Al Sharpton, and the rest of the race-hustling liars involved.
Trayvon would be alive if not for the politically-correct school police policy of suspending black criminals and covering up their felonies(such as the burglary Trayvon was involved in) instead of sending them to jail, in order to falsely reduce the statistical disparity with white kids who commit far less offenses. Freedom of Information Act research revealed that is exactly what happened. The Miami-Dade school police and administration didn’t want the numbers to look even worse, so they merely suspended the violent criminal thug Trayvon instead of charging him with vandalism, assault, battery, burglary, etc. Then Trayvon stalked and almost murdered Zimmerman for daring to interrupt his casing of his next burglary target.
The police were called to the Retreat at Twin Lakes over 400 times in the 13 months leading up to the night Zimmerman interrupted Trayvon, and the community was under seige from YOUNG BLACK CRIMINALS.
Zimmerman is innocent, and has also been completely exonerated despite the ensuing hysterics and lies of female shrews in domestic situations afterward. He saved a family from a burning, overturned vehicle.
The hysterics and lies of the “Dr.” who wrote this pile of crap article should be assigned the same status as those of Zimmerman’s other screeching shrew accusers.
The overseers be mad about this one.
I find it curious that the article is attributed to “staff writers” yet conspicuously and frequently peppers the narrative with “I, me, etc.”
What’s the matter “The Black Man?” Are you afraid to put your racist spew down under your own name(s)? Journalistic cowardism that hides the true face of duplicitous black racism.
No, this article came from the pen of Dr. Boyce Watkins. Look at the bottom of the column.
The black community is hampered by their lack of differing political viewpoints. If you’re not on the liberal plantation then you’re not a real black man is in essence what this so called, self proclaimed “scholar” is saying. Shame on Kobe for not following the herd mentality. He’s thinking independently and we all know what he’s being called for doing that.
So let me get this straight:
K. Bryant makes a statement that almost mirrors the famous statements of MLK, and for that he is subjected to insults from writers like this?
As a black man, I am so proud to say that I am NOT part of this community or this mindset.
I should also note for the readers that the author of this article (Ms. Snarky) does not necessarily represent the views of the entire black population - just the ones who are allow to write commentary.
The fact that the "murderer" could be classified as black himself (due to having a black great-grandparent) is beside the point. Deep down, the race-baiters were glad for another chance to revive their contemptible careers over the body of another young, black male most likely headed for prison.
Bylines (writers) are usually at the top. However, it was attributed so I was wrong.
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.
The writer’s description of Trayvon is the opposite of the young Trayvon’s true nature. The premise is as fake as AlGores climate hoax. The myth of Trayvon is as fake as 0bama’s identity
So, the author thinks black people were brought together to support Trayvon?
Trayvon was attempting murder, murder of a white man. Is that what induced blacks to come together, the failed murder of a white man
Apparently so.
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