Just an article about Kobe
I read this earlier on azcentral.com this article. It seems the people who used to know Kobe when he was in high school are really surprised about this recent news.
Associated Press
Jul. 24, 2003 03:22 PM
ARDMORE, Pa. - Lower Merion High School waited just six years to retire the number Kobe Bryant wore when he led the Aces to the 1996 state championship. Bryant was still only 24 then, but it seemed like there was no better role model for students.
"This is one of the most remarkable young people I've ever seen," said David Magill, the school district's superintendent when Bryant attended Lower Merion. "He had a work ethic that was just incomparable ... He had this incredible gentleness with young children. He was just exceptional."
Now, the high-achieving school on Philadelphia's wealthy Main Line faces the possibility that the number hanging in its gym might someday belong to a felon.
It's a prospect many in Bryant's suburban hometown find hard to believe, and few are ready to take down the banners and photographs celebrating Bryant's career. But the case has many stepping gingerly around questions they never thought they'd have to answer.
"Yeah, sure he was a great guy then, and he's probably a great guy now. But I knew the guy when he was 17 years old. People change," said Evan Monsky, a former high school teammate. "This is so beyond high school teammates. It's a rape case."
Bryant, now a Los Angeles Lakers superstar, is charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a resort in Colorado. He says his sexual encounter with the woman was consensual.
The Kobe Bryant many in this community knew had the poise of a diplomat by age 17. He eschewed after-school partying for late nights alone in the gym. For an English project his senior year, he wrote a children's book about how his gym clothes came alive at night, and read it to a group of young students.
"Any violence of the type that has now at least been alleged is just so uncharacteristic of him," Magill said. "I'm just sick about this. I'm sick for what his family is going through."
Linda Jackson, the director of the Ardmore Avenue Community Center, where Bryant once shot baskets, said she keeps a scrap book of his triumphs, but has been careful not to hold him up as a role model for the children the center serves.
"We don't look at athletes as role models. We look at doctors and lawyers," she said. "The kids here are either too young to understand, or old enough to form opinions on their own."
Philadelphia youth basketball guru Sonny Hill, who knew Bryant from birth, said that while his former summer league standout "has always been one who has carried himself in an exemplary fashion," he has stayed away from talking about the case.
"I'm too close to the situation. I just want to leave it alone," he said. "Hopefully, from my point of view, this will all be resolved and we will be standing at the end with smiles on our faces."
Whether the case will permanently tarnish Bryant's image in Philadelphia remains to be seen.
The city has long had a love-hate relationship with Bryant. Some people here haven't forgiven him for turning pro after high school instead of going to Villanova or Temple or La Salle, where his dad was an assistant coach.
Philadelphians also haven't forgotten that he helped lead the Lakers to a championship over the 76ers in 2001. Fans booed Bryant relentlessly when he played in he NBA All-Star game in Philadelphia in 2002.
Even in Lower Merion, there are those who have their doubts about Bryant's squeaky-clean image. Many of them are young women.
"I think the situation is a little shady, actually," said Christine Wallingford, 15, who was hanging out in downtown Ardmore. "He's probably done this before, and this is just the first time he's been caught."
Susan Vanderhei, 15, said she thinks Bryant probably is guilty too, but, like others here, can't imagine that he'll be held accountable.
"Hasn't this happened with other celebrities? Nothing ever happens to them. It just gets written about in the newspapers, and that's all," she said.
Summer school students streaming out of Lower Merion High this week said classrooms have been abuzz with talk of the case, and many of them say they believe Bryant was falsely accused by a girl possibly out for fame or fortune.
"They think the woman's out for money," said Colin Peters, 16, who was on the school's freshman basketball team last winter. "I think they'll find him innocent. I can't see him being taken away from basketball.
