February 11, 2020
I wanted to devote an entire attempt to apologizing to Judge Percy Anderson — but then I read a nasty piece on Kobe from two female Times contributors that motivated me to rather, write about their myopic article (which made the front page!).
So let me wrap up a quick apology to the Judge before I proceed. Percy, I apologize for questioning your ability to sit on the bench! A-few-years-back I attacked you for what I believed was an unfair sentencing of a former friend. I had been told (by this former friend) that all monies in the-hedge-fund-gone-bad had been returned to investors — and that this benevolent gesture hadn\’t dissuaded You, Your Honor, from giving him a 2+ year sentence (the Big Fish got 7 years I gathered).
What I subsequently learned was that my former friend (and his boss) never returned the monies! And that I had been duped into writing a nasty article about you for my former friend\’s lawyer to use in getting him a reduced sentence. I apologize. I am known for fiercely defending friends in need…but you obviously knew the truth of this case — whereas I was working with a redacted version…
With regards to Kobe — a number of contributors to my beloved Times beat-me-to-the-punch by taking on the authors who suggested that Kobe sexually molested (or even raped) a female hotel employee some-17-years-ago. I was going to eulogize Kobe in a separate essay — but this will have to do…
Some Times contributors lambasted an author with the surname of Disney (whose article I confess I did not read) — but who apparently suggested that Kobe had perpetrated a rape. I was particularly incensed by the article written by Laura Newberry and Maria L. La Ganga in which they also stated (not suggested) that Kobe was involved in a rape.
The entire incident was too murky to level any allegations of rape — and here\’s why:
The young lady in question had quite a dubious history. The female contributors did not come up with any logical reasons as to why the \”woman in question\” — whom they seem to think was a victim — didn\’t press charges and chose instead, to take an out-of-court monetary settlement.
The stories surrounding this young woman abound! I might have written on these stories in lurid detail a-few-years-ago — but I\’m a grandfather now — so I\’m tempering my prose. One story that-I-just-learned about regarding the WIQ (woman in question) — was that she was known to count coup; i.e., to see how many athletes she could successfully bed, er, fuck.
This recalled my Freshman year of college — where a fellow female Frosh had a chart on her wall on which she gave ratings to her conquests. When I saw the chart she\’d already had 10-guyz-listed and their screwing score — on a 10-point-scale. Always insecure in my youth — I did not wish to be assessed on this chart and avoided participation in it, er, her. Besides, she really wasn\’t that good looking.
So a 24-year-old Kobe gets a White girl who apparently made her way to his room — and somewhere in a particular position, she decides she\’s no longer up for IT and got bruised in-the-process. I didn\’t, and still don\’t, have a-whole-lotta-sympathy-for-her. Neither do any of the descriptions of their encounter sound like rape. Kobe was a horny 24-year-old whose cortical connections were not yet completed and…shades of Mike Tyson!!!
What I don\’t think many White Folk realize is that this incident probably cost the Lakers the NBA championship, and Kobe, his 6th ring. Any Black basketball aficionado will tell you that no way was a Black Man accused of rape going get a victory parade. The reffing in the championship series was hysterical: the most physical team in the NBA (the Pistons) went to the line some 160 times to one-of-the-least-physical team\’s 60 trips to the line in the 5-game series.
What I do call Kobe on-the-carpet-for was 6 years of Laker shittiness (his last 3 years and the following 3 years). I would have liked to have seen him mentoring the young Lakers and sitting by the Laker bench when he couldn\’t play — instead of sitting at home. Upon Kobe\’s retirement — the Lakers had nothing but a young team of unmanageables. No veteran wanted to play with Kobe: they avoided L.A. like the plague! This is all on Kobe! I often wonder — if he\’d played one year in college — how much greater the Mamba might have been…?
Oh, yeah — and before I forget — my readers will recall the recent posting of \”the 53.\” Well I don\’t know if anyone noticed — but the 53 rhymes with Romney!