Taking an athlete's full measure: reflecting on Kobe Bryant

The sport-and non-sport -- worlds reel today with the news that soon-to-be NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, his 13-year old daughter, and seven others died today when Bryant's helicopter crashed in California. It's an unspeakable tragedy, leaving his family to grieve and us to mourn a life that ended far too early, with too few accomplishments. After becoming the best basketball player in the world, he coached his daughter Gianna on the court, and she gave every indication of being a potential WNBA talent. Now we'll never see.

I'm not going to contribute to the long list of reminiscences because others have said far more beautiful things than I could. But I do want to note that when we mourn great athletes who have passed, we shouldn't put them on pedestals any more in death than in life. Bryant, while he has built a beautiful family, dealt with scandal in 2003 as the result of, at worst, a sexual assault and at best cheating on his wife. Today, we can take the full measure of his life, his accomplishments along with the missteps, and we can honor him for a Hall of Fame career, his mentorship of young players, particularly women, and mourn him as someone who was not perfect, who did things that we should not emulate, but who also accomplished great things.

I've done some thinking on this, not just today, but over the last couple of weeks. The Baseball Hall of Fame balloting just finished, with Derek Jeter and Larry Walker being voted in, and Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds denied. While it's irresponsible to suggest that the latter three didn't get in because of bad things they had done -- Schilling for his political statements and fraud case, and Clemens and Bonds for taking steroids -- it would probably be inaccurate. 

But we can take the full measure of their lives up to this point too. They are the most storied players of their generation: Schilling for winning two World Series titles for two different teams, including the Red Sox's first title in 86 years; Clemens for multiple trips to the Fall Classic and more than 350 wins, and Bonds for, however tarnished, breaking Hank Aaron's home run record.

They have feet of clay--they are human beings. We shouldn't make excuses for their behavior any more than we would for our own. We have to be accountable, and when we make mistakes, we have to own up to them and accept the consequences -- even run towards them. I for one was one of the people who felt that Schilling's actions should keep him out of the Hall of Fame, as they should for Pete Rose too. We shouldn't lionize people for their actions on the field when they're not accountable for their actions off it.

The point is, that Kobe Bryant was accountable for his actions and made amends to the people whom he hurt,and we can take his full measure tonight.

May his family take comfort in the joy and happiness that he brought them in life, may we take comfort in the joy we had watching him in his life, and may his memory be a blessing.

UPDATE: Nearly a week later, what's made the biggest impression on me is the #GirlDad hashtag, which emerged after a video of Bryant talking about the joy he felt in raising daughters (and particularly athletic daughters), and this video of ESPN anchor Elle Duncan talking about her encounter with Bryant when she was expecting her daughter. It's a resonant theme for any father of daughters, because girls have so many opportunities that they didn't have when GenXers, or even older millennials, were children and the culture has changed so much. It's a salve for the pain that the sports world has felt so acutely this week.