The State Press comes out just once a week during the summer, so every point that I might have made about Kobe Bryant and the sexual assault charges filed against him have already been said.
Kobe Bryant would never do that...You never really know someone as well as you think...This proves that all pro athletes are scumbags...and so on.
While Bryant admits to having sex out of wedlock with a 19-year-old woman in Colorado, he strongly denies that he raped her.
Instead of weighing in with my personal thoughts, I've decided to compare this case with others involving famous sports figures, specifically the O.J. Simpson trial.
On a June afternoon in 1994 when The Juice was suppose to turn himself into police on charges of murdering his wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman, Simpson instead put himself in the middle of one of the most memorable television moments of all time - the infamous low-speed chase.
Everyone knows where they were when Al Cowlings escorted Simpson at about 50 mph in a white Ford Bronco through Los Angeles' freeways while half of the city's police followed.
And if that wasn't crazy enough, the proud citizens of Los Angeles stopped traffic on overpasses and crowded around by the thousands to cheer on Simpson as if he was still at USC and racing for a touchdown.
But not Kobe. He's too cool. He had to be boring and actually turn himself in to police and do everything the cops told him. Why not run away and have Shaq or Rick Fox drive you around while news choppers follow closely overhead?
Or what about basketball broadcaster Marv Albert? In a sodomy and assault and battery case against the "YES" man six years ago, evidence during his trial revealed that Albert liked to be a little kinky. It was learned that Albert left some teeth marks on the back of his accuser, and that he also liked to make himself look sexy by wearing women's lingerie. And if things couldn't be funnier, his wig fell off during the encounter.
The facts in Bryant's case aren't public yet, but I doubt he trounced around in a garter belt and I don't think he wears a wig.
I can stroll down to the Phoenix courthouse if I want to watch any ordinary case. But when it comes to celebrities on trial, only the wacky and far-fetched catch my interest.
Reach the reporter at andrew.bernick@asu.edu.
