There’s a line in a documentary about Prohibition-era America that I’ve found some new meaning in, in light of Kobe’s tragic death. “Very little good has been done by the absolute shall.” 

Kobe has been venerated in the past few days, a blameless hero for the ages. Because that’s how we treat our heroes and heroines; either as paragon or pariah, with any in-betweens being a mushy, tender spot we’d most rather avoid. We measure our sporting heroes with an absolute shall: we shall either worship or condemn, and they shall either be canonized or condemned. 

But in the in-between is where we complete our picture of the Laker star. In the in-between are sexual assault survivors watching all of this; watching anyone with the gall to bring up the 2003 rape case be attacked or silenced. They themselves have experienced being silenced, and part of the change that movements want to see is victims not being afraid to speak out. 


A man paints his own mural of Kobe Bryant on the wall of the House of Kobe. Photo by Jire Carreon/Rappler

Kobe’s accuser herself currently cannot speak to anyone because of a non-disclosure agreement she has with the former NBA player. The Washington Post in 2018 attempted to interview her (for a Kobe piece that would eventually be called "The Revisionist") but was declined because of said agreement. 

That narrative – of a victim being silenced – is highlighted in the Kobe case, but it’s also undergoing changes as we speak. Survivors are watching, according to a Slate podcast transcripted into a piece titled “It’s Not ‘Too Soon’ to Talk About the Kobe Bryant Rape Case.” 

“Survivors in your life right now are listening to this and reading this and hearing all the dismissals,” writer Lindsay Gibbs said. 

“And ignoring it doesn’t help. I think ignoring it just makes survivors from all communities feel more shame, feel more confused, and feel like they’re not a part of our culture, our society,” she also said. 

Kobe has expertly redeemed himself in the eyes of many. But the reckoning with that part of his past has been non-existent. He’s had a chance. In 2018, he was dropped from an animation festival jury after a petition regarding the rape case. There was a story to tell here but his response to the dropping was a cut-and-dried PR response that made no further mention of the case. 

Beyond the well-publicized support for the WNBA and the shoutouts to game-winner-hitting female NCAA players, this could’ve been his story to tell, and maybe he could’ve in the future if what happened didn’t happen.

He’s gone but there is a chance yet for another reckoning: one between us, and how we remember the people we learn to idolize. 

Particularly in Kobe’s case, he can be the great hero but there needs to be more acknowledgement and acceptance of a silent minority, the sexual assault survivors, who are observing how society and the media itself reacts to such an issue. 

From the most loyal fans, there can’t be an imposition of an absolute shall because clearly there are two halves to the Kobe story – and these two halves will just have to learn how to co-exist.

– Gelo