Is it time for Kobe Bryant to just keep his opinions to himself?
If there was one person in the NBA that seems to have the proverbial chip on their shoulder, it’s Kobe Bryant. All throughout his career, his lack of personality and smug demeanor not only played out on the court, but also during interviews.
In a recent interview in the New Yorker, Bryant not only rags on his former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal, but also expresses his sentiments about the Miami Heat’s sign of protest after Trayvon Martin’s murder. In 2012, shortly after Trayvon’s murder, Lebron James tweeted the following photo of his teammates [above].
Apparently that sign of solidarity didn’t sit well with Bryant:
“I won’t react to something just because I’m supposed to, because I’m an African-American,” he said. “That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, we’ve progressed as a society, then don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.”
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The irony, is that people jumped to Trayvon’s defense, because he was murdered by a trigger happy asshole and it showed just how invaluable a black child’s life is. But it’s obvious that Bryant forgot how quick people jumped to his defense during his rape case. But of course Rapey Bryant didn’t mention any of that.
Bryant loves to brag about how he was raised in Italy and the suburbs of Philly, as if it sets him apart from other black men in this country. But what he fails to realize is that no matter how many rings he has, thanks in part to Shaq, in certain people’s eyes, he’s just a n-word that can shoot a ball in a basket. He needs to keep his social commentary to himself.
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Originally appeared at Clutch Magazine. Reprinted with permission.