Kobe Bryant was undoubtedly one of the best basketball players of his generation, if not of all time. His untimely death at the age of 41, as well as that of his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, was a shock to the basketball community.
Along with an outpouring of sadness about Bryant’s death, there was adulation for the life he lived, including from women athletes and women’s sports journalists, who saw Bryant as a champion of women’s sports.
After all, it was Bryant who personally welcomed arguably the best women’s soccer player in history, Brazil’s Marta, on the roster of Los Angeles Sol in 2009. He publicly supported the WNBA on numerous occasions, such as when he said that three of its players—Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Elena Delle Donne—could play in the NBA. Bryant appreciated the fundamentals of women’s basketball players, evidenced by his breakdowns of the games of Delle Donne and Stewart.
However, away from court, Bryant allegedly committed an act that casts a shadow on his legacy as an advocate for women’s sports. On June 30, 2003 in a hotel in Colorado, a 25-year-old Bryant was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel intern. Our own Cat Ariail asked four years ago if Kobe’s status as…
