Some Facts Would Be Nice Before We All Start Labeling Kobe Bryant a Homophobe

The news from Beijing: Kobe Bryant doesn’t like gay people. That’s right, John Amaechi is in town doing broadcast work for the BBC (inspired choice, by the way), and Kobe’s one of several Team USA members who has been less than cordial toward him. Denver Nuggets 24/7 reports that the openly-gay Amaechi has encountered “tension” in Beijing, and singles out one star to illustrate his point:↵↵⇥“I ran into Kobe, and he was surprised to see me,” Amaechi said. “It didn’t go well.”↵↵KA-BOOM!!! WHOOMP, THERE IT IS!!!! See, Amaechi’s not being catty, or demure, or refusing to elaborate when doing so borders on irresponsible. He’s just stating, plain as day, that Kobe’s got a problem with his sexual orientation. God forbid that he, or the reporter who got this quote (because we could be seeing a over-dramatic edit) explain what went wrong. Or give us the facts and allow us to judge for ourselves. No, what’s important is that this meme is rolling, and now it will not be stopped.↵
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The sad thing is that, on his own blog, Amaechi does paint a vivid picture of just what he’s having to deal with in Beijing:↵↵⇥I had passed some of the coaches in the MPC (Main Press Center) the day before, catching only the trailing end a statement of the coach who saw me, “... isn’t that Amaechi? What the hell is he doing (here),” Amaechi writes in his blog. “I was a little irritated. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the way they would have reacted to another former NBA player they recognized passing shoulder to shoulder a world away. Even an average one.”↵↵See, that sounds decidedly rough, or at least uncomfortable. The important part is, it allows the reader to at least do a little bit of the judging himself. The Kobe thing, though, is a firestarter that barely passes the gossip smell test. And since it’s Bryant, people will now let their negative imaginations run wild and and assume the worst. I’m not sure what the objective was here -- all signs suggest that Amaechi wanted to protect some of his and Kobe’s privacy in what could be a touchy situation. But with a celebrity like Kobe, it’s almost better to know the facts. Because otherwise, people are going to make them up for themselves, or proceed as if facts don’t matter.↵
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↵And what’s more, the less you say, the less chance there is you’ll reach reasonable, rational people who live in a fact-based universe and are in fact open to being convinced. Rather than those just waiting for a chance to smear a superstar. Or wait, are those people all homophobes already? Never mind, this is all a Nike-based conspiracy to help Kobe’s popularity online.↵