Someone brought up Mike Tyson a few pages ago. I think there's an important distinction between Tyson and Kobe Bryant- Tyson was found guilty and sent to prison. He was punished, and so I think the idea of redemption holds up better in his case. Kobe was able to skate by with paying a settlement. Now by all accounts he's been a model citizen since then, and that, combined with the complicated facts of the case, allowed his public image to be whitewashed. I don't know how to feel about this whole thing, honestly. I think I posted before, here or elsewhere, that if the Colorado incident happened in 2017 instead of 2003, Kobe would have been 100% finished, b-ball talent or no.
For sure fans shouldn't be sending death threats to people commenting on this on social media, though. That's fucking sick. Like it or not, what happened in Colorado is a part of Kobe's legacy. It's a legitimate point to make. People are so fixated on propriety when it comes to the deceased, even if they did monstrous things in life.