Kobe Bryant Discusses Miami Heat’s Support For Trayvon Martin


Kobe made the assumption that they were only defending TM because he was AA. That was a mistake on Kobe's part. IMO, there were two parts to this. The first was that TM was being attacked by the right-wing media complex. They dug up school discipline records, pictures on the web, anything they could find to paint the kid as a thug who deserved what he got...and also that wearing a hoody was what drew GZ to approach him. TM being AA fed into the stereotype. So, those who were more socially conscience stood up for the kid and said that wearing a hoody does not make you a criminal. It's rare that you find superstar athletes taking a stand on a social issue so I have to applaud them for this. You folks may recall that the NCAA has taken a social stand I believe (by not playing Bowl games in a certain state), the NFL took a stand against AZ by not allowing the Super Bowl to be played there until they passed the King Holiday. I wonder if Kobe wouldn't support that, being that MLK was AA?

The second part was the SYG law which allowed GZ not even to be charged until AA activists got involved. So, if you put the two together, if you're a certain type of kid wearing a hoodie who has had trouble in the past, you can be shot and killed for the way you're dressed and the SYG law will cover the shooter. I think records for the application of the law shows that it doesn't work the same for each social group though.
 



Kobe is still a chump.

My thing with Kobe is don't wait a whole year before flapping your gums. Say it when they did it.

GZ wound never get out of that car without that gun. COMMON sense would have told you to stay in the car and call the cops because if a group of black guys were robbing your neighborhood, you wouldn't get out of that car to follow one. Common Sense would have told you that might be more of them hiding.

If that was a white kid that he killed-you would not have seen that witch hunt to smear that boy's name. You would not see GZ's brother posing that white boy and comparing him to a killer in Chicago. You would have saw more information about how GZ was a mentor to those mystery 2 black boys we never saw.

People are reading way too much into what Kobe said.

All he said was think before defending stuff without getting the facts. Issue is he picked the WRONG topic.

Leave Trayvon out of this. Use that Duke team that accused of rape or call out these socalled black leaders that will defend career criminals to the death but can't be found when innocent black boys get killed by Pookie & Ray Ray. Or can't be found when white folks start a movement to remove PUBLIC education out of the black community-like they are trying in Texas. Or when colleges are flat out rejecting black kids from college for ANYTHING they post online but not doing the same for white kids.

How may black folks defend him because he was blacks? I can name a few. Same with Chris Brown, Boosie, Lil Wayne and others even to the point of going to jail for them. Do I even need to mention R. Kelly? Chad Holley in Houston? Deon Sanders and his messed up charter school that ruin a lot of guys lives. Or Tyler Perry? You will get shot if you say something about his stuff. Even if you state what you liked about it.

Kobe was actually right but he picked the wrong example.
 
I think we're giving a considerable amount of weight to one man's opinion. Kobe's opinion is no heavier than mines, and shouldn't matter to any of us, anymore than anybody else's.

Keep pushing
 
I think we're giving a considerable amount of weight to one man's opinion. Kobe's opinion is no heavier than mines, and shouldn't matter to any of us, anymore than anybody else's.

Keep pushing


But at the same we long for the days when black athletes spoke about social issues.

We can't have it both ways. We can't want them to give opinions on certain things, and then when they do (especially if we don't agree with it) say their opinion is no more important than anyone else's.
 
My thing with Kobe is don't wait a whole year before flapping your gums. Say it when they did it.

Exactly. Like I said originally, this was like pulling the scab off an old wound. You think someone as "smart" as Kobe is with his 'growing up overseas" would know someone with his voice that those comments would spark controversy (and it did. He wouldn't felt the need to further explain them once he started get lit up on social media)
 
D-Wade response:

"It was our backyard, and being in our backyard, being something that a lot of guys on this team—not only growing up in the kind of environment that Trayvon was in—but also having young boys," Wade told Bleacher Report. "Knowing that he is a big fan of the Miami Heat. That is something that we got behind. As a team. I can't even say the organization. It was as a team. We got behind it. And it was more so that than the color of his skin."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...martin_n_5078614.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices.
 
D-Wade response:

"It was our backyard, and being in our backyard, being something that a lot of guys on this team—not only growing up in the kind of environment that Trayvon was in—but also having young boys," Wade told Bleacher Report. "Knowing that he is a big fan of the Miami Heat. That is something that we got behind. As a team. I can't even say the organization. It was as a team. We got behind it. And it was more so that than the color of his skin."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...martin_n_5078614.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices.

:tup:

As far as Kobe it is what it is....it's his opinion. As it was an interview where he was asked and he said how he felt. What I hate is for people to retract a statement. Shit stand by how you feel.
 
But at the same we long for the days when black athletes spoke about social issues.

We can't have it both ways. We can't want them to give opinions on certain things, and then when they do (especially if we don't agree with it) say their opinion is no more important than anyone else's.

I disagree, we can have it both ways. WE are not a monolithic people. WE are not required (nor should we be required) to think ONE way.
 
I disagree, we can have it both ways. WE are not a monolithic people. WE are not required (nor should we be required) to think ONE way.

I never implied WE should. If we're gonna demand these cats speak out/up on certain things, then WE have to accept everything that comes with it. Either these voices matter or they don't.
 
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