Did anyone actually think retirement would stop Kobe from winning? The soon to be hall of famer added to his legacy this weekend at the Oscars. Bryant took home the Oscar for “Best Animated Short” for his writing role in “Dear Basketball”. A shiny new Oscar will now find its home on Kobe’s mantel next to his five NBA Championships, a season MVP, a pair of Finals’ MVPs and four All-Star Game MVPs just to name a few. Disney animator Glen Keane shared the award as he brought Kobe’s poem to life. The poem was written in 2015 and served as part of Kobe’s retirement announcement. The poem tells the story of Bryant’s love affair with the game and the struggle to let it go. One line reads, “This season is all I have left to give. My heart can take the pounding, my mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.” Kobe cites his 11 year old daughter Gianna as one of the driving forces behind turning the poem into a film. She told him, “Dad, you always tell us to go after our dreams, so man up”. Bryant seems to be settling into retirement just fine as he has found a new passion in writing. He is currently working on a series of novels and said, “I wake up in the morning, I can’t wait to write, I can’t wait to get to the studio”. People doubted him at first but he said that this Oscar was just the validation he needed to dive head first into his second career. And if Kobe brings the same passion and obsession we saw in his basketball life to writing, I see nothing but success in his future.
Others were not so thrilled with Kobe’s win. Hollywood is going through a transformative period in which sexual harassment and assault is being brought to light and hopefully eliminated from the industry. Bryant is infamous for an incident in June of 2003 when a 19 year old hotel employee accused Bryant of raping her. The case never made it to court after a whirlwind of media attention led the woman to decide not to testify. This Oscar win for Kobe seems to fly directly in the face of movements like Time’s Up and #MeToo. While I do not condone or encourage such behavior, I just do not see the connection to this film. What Kobe did was wrong, and he has since apologized and settled the case in civil court. This incident was almost 15 years ago and has nothing to do with the film being recognized. While this definitely wasn’t a win for the anti-sexual harassment movements, I wouldn’t call it a loss either. These movements are focused on making workplaces and life in general safer for women and free of discrimination and abuse. Tarnishing a film for something that happened and was publicly acknowledged 15 years ago does not help accomplish these goals. Should we forget what Kobe did and what happened to the woman involved? Absolutely not. But we also should not let a single event define an entire lifetime.
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