December 19, 2011 | 9:01 am

Kobe Bryant: The Player vs. The Player

Posted by Ilana Angel

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Kobe and Vanessa Bryant

I remember when Bryant came to play for the Lakers.  The city was excited and even someone like me, who is missing the sports gene, was looking forward to seeing this kid play.  He was the future of the game and we were thrilled he was in Los Angeles.  We all felt proud of him.

He was young and exciting and watching him grow up was fun, both on the court and off.  I’m not a huge basketball fan, but I appreciate the game and took a certain pride in Kobe playing in my city.  He was the king, could do no wrong, and brought a lot of joy to a lot of people, basketball fan or not.

When Kobe ran into legal trouble in 2003 with sexual assault charges, my support of this man ended.  I am of the opinion that Kobe Bryant raped the young woman in Colorado.  I believe it was the fear of a case that made that charge go away.  Her refusal to testify came from fear in my opinion.

Even though the rape charge went away, I was surprised back in 2003 that Vanessa Bryant did not leave her husband.  She is young and beautiful and I truly felt she would file for divorce then.  She loved him and stuck by her husband, so good for her, but it was still a little shocking to me.

We have heard for years that Kobe has been unfaithful to his wife.  I’ve never understood the choice to stay with a cheater.  I was faced with this decision once and I left.  I was in love, my life was wrapped around this man, and when he cheated I was done.  I could not recover from it.

I cannot imagine what it must feel like for your spouse to cheat repeatedly. I also cannot imagine why someone would stay in that relationship.  That said, this is California and Vanessa Bryant hung on for 10 years, which means she put her pride aside for a ticket to the Promised Land.

Vanessa is entitled to half of Kobe’s fortune and at 29 is now a multimillionaire, with 2 beautiful children, and a bright future.  She has dumped her cheating husband and I am happy for her.  Sad that a marriage has ended, but happy that she can now hold her head high and move on.

Kobe Bryant is a world class player, both on the court and off.  He will now be able to openly pursue the whores who want to screw him in an attempt to get a piece of the pie.  I feel for him from the perspective that no matter how many women he sleeps with, he will ultimately be alone.

He will not tuck his young daughters in every night and he will not have the same presence in their life.  That is sad for all of them.  I wonder if it was all worth it.  Is having sex with people outside of your marriage worth the risk of losing your family?  Kobe will have a lot of time to think about that.

It is a shame that such a gifted man was unable to be as successful off the court as he was on.  I feel bad for his wife and his kids. Surprisingly, I also feel bad for Kobe.  He is a pig and a rapist, but at the end of the day seeing the pictures of him post divorce announcement, show sadness.

Even douchelords can feel sadness I guess.  It’s hard to know if he is sad because he got caught, or because his marriage is over.  We don’t know what went on in his marriage, and we all have opinions about who he is and what he’s done.  In the end, I wish Vanessa peace and hope she keeps the faith.

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