Forgettable Apologia

The instance that first came to mind when we were given this assignment was one involving a very popular and successful NBA player.  Many people have forgotten about this whole situation or may have never known about it in the first place, and that is why it was so intriguing to me.  The occurrence that I’m referring to is obviously the one involving Kobe Bryant.  Back in 2003 he was implicated in an incident in which he was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl.  This is obviously a huge crime to be accused of, and it has the possible sentence of life in prison.  Yet, we as fans seem to have totally forgotten about it.  That is the angle I will be looking at in this blog.

First of all, Bryant utilized denial as his resolution strategy.  He wanted to change the meaning/connotation of the accusation.  So, he denied the fact that the events of the night were against the will of the girl.  However, he did not ever deny (in fact he confirmed) the fact that he did have relations with the girl.  It’s not surprising that he chose that strategy, but I’m here to analyze the fans reaction to this instance.

I’ve read several comments and articles reacting to the accusations and the aftermath.  I’ve deduced that there are about three categories you can group the reactions into: Support, Forgive and Forget, and Disgust/Disbelief.  At the time of the accusations including the ensuing year or two, the majority of fans reacted in a way that showed disgust/disbelief.  An article written by MSNBC states, “Bryant was loudly booed in Milwaukee and San Antonio before getting a less-severe treatment in New Orleans and Memphis.”  It should be noted that he played almost every game in 2003-04 even while having various hearings he had to be at, so naturally the ‘boos’ were going to be raining down on him.  Remarkably, there was still some support during those first couple years, mostly from Laker fans.  This was not the overall feeling of fans throughout the country though.

However, we saw a shift in the fans treatment of Bryant by 2006.  This is when the comments and reactions started to lean toward the “Forgive and Forget” ideal.  A couple things happened, for one, he changed his number.  I feel that he was trying to start fresh by getting rid of all the negative associations brought forth by his old number, 8.  Secondly, in those few years from 2003-06 he won many games with the Lakers (no championships, but a lot of wins still).  I think time and winning have a huge impact on what fans choose to remember about an athlete.  This was reflected in the comments I found attached to one article from Pro Basketball Talk.  The comment was from joshm5683 and it said, “It is crazy how winning and time changes people’s perceptions.”  Seemingly, from 2006 to present day the majority of fans have totally forgotten that anything even happened.  We love and idolize Bryant even more than we did before.

This whole situation reminds me of one other athlete who previously faced criminal charges many years ago but is now held in high regard: Ray Lewis.  He faced murder charges back in 2000!  However, we seem to forget all about that now since he’s won a Super Bowl and has had an amazing career.  I say ‘we’ in the most general sense (excluding Pittsburghers) because most of us Pittsburghers will always think of him as a criminal simply because we are rivals.  The fans reaction is eerily similar in both Lewis’ and Bryant’s cases.

All this just means one thing; Bryant’s apologia was successful.  Some might argue that it wasn’t his apology that worked, but it was simply time that healed the wounds.  I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that, but there is one important thing tied to that and it is the fact that it all started with his apology.  We were able to forget about the whole situation for three reasons.  1) He apologized.  2) The case was ultimately dismissed.  3) Time healed all the wounds.  Maybe a fourth reason, the fact that he was a superstar on the court, could be considered as well.  In any case, I feel his apologia was successful.  It made the majority of us forget it even happened and that’s amazing that could even happen.