Kobe Bryant is in the toughest spot of his life. He can’t shoot a miracle three at the buzzer or bust a move to break a double team. He can’t mouth off about how Shaq is stealing his touches or blame his lot on the referees. He had sex with a woman who was not his wife and now he stands accused of rape.
Kobe is not just another athlete accused of a felony; he is an iconic sports superstar at the top of his game. He is the next coming of Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, if he can beat the charges against him.
The public is drawn to the spectacle, ready to consume gossip about both the alleged victim and Kobe Bryant. So will the Kobe case play out as an updated version of the O.J. Simpson soap opera?
Washington University political science professor Lester Spence does not think so. He believes that people missed the whole point ofthe O.J. trial.
“There are some aspects of the O.J. case that most people studying the issue routinely ignore. You find someone lying on the stand and you are going to lose,” Spence said. “That is what happened with O.J. It is really simple, but because of a number of issues, the case was not interpreted that way by the media.”
The Kobe case is much different. While professor Spence thinks that it is possible a routine issue could be blown out of proportion because Kobe is black and the alleged victim is white, he does not see that happening.
“I think the media is more sophisticated, but I could be wrong,” Spence said.
Since the charges were announced, the case has taken on a life of its own and become larger than just another rape case.
“You don’t just have a woman accusing a man of rape, you have a woman accusing a wealthy individual of rape,” Spence said. “At the same time, you have a white woman accusing a black man of rape.”
While friends of the victim have spewed information to the press and others have leaked the alleged victim’s identity on the internet, the details of the case have remained under wraps. Neither side seems comfortable trying this case in the court of public opinion, and with good reason. However, professor Spence believes that the prosecution will argue that consensual sex took place and then it will be withdrawn.
How will Kobe’s legal team counter that claim?
“One route they are going to take would be to severely impugn the character of the alleged victim and it is going to be really ugly and tragic,” Spence said.
A pure attack on the alleged victim’s character most likely will not yield an acquittal by itself.
“If someone says that they agreed to have sex and then they took it away, I have no idea how you can disprove that,” Spence said. “It seems like a notion that is non-falsifiable.”
If the argument works and Kobe beats the charges, he will still be a marked man-the guy who cheated on his wife; the guy who was accused of rape. In this sense will he be another O.J.? Will he be a pariah in society?
Again, professor Spence downplays any similarity to the O.J. scenario. He sees two dynamics taking shape if Bryant is found not guilty: the fly-by-night nature of the media and the ideal of justice itself.
“Particularly given Kobe’s success in his field, it won’t take that long for a significant portion of the media to forget…and a significant number of fans to forget,” Spence said. “As long as he can make that jumper, right? This is problematic.”
At the same time if Bryant is truly innocent and he is found not guilty, justice will be served.
“If you are not proven guilty, theoretically you are supposed to revert to your original state-innocence,” Spence said. “Now usually if you are tainted with a crime, particularly if you are a black male, you’re tainted whether you are convicted or not.”
“But in this case, if he is found not guilty he will revert back to innocence. And that is cool, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be, right? If you’re innocent and you get found innocent, it’s supposed to be like the event never happened in the first place.”
However, Spence cautions that these dynamics must be tempered with an understanding that Bryant could be guilty of the crime.
“At the same time there is the very real chance that he did it, which brings another angle totally into play,” Spence said.
However, if Bryant is guilty but gets off, then he is just another example of a rich athlete who got off because he was famous. Still, the Bryant case will not be a replay of O.J. It will be its own sad human tragedy.