"I don't know if the guys knew who he was....
It came as a big shock to them when he was killed."—Los Angeles Lakers
star Kobe Bryant, on teammates’ reaction to the ending of the Steven Spielberg
film Lincoln, quoted in Melissa
Rohlin, “Kobe Bryant Jokes That the Lakers Were Surprised Abe Lincoln Died,” The
Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2012
Well, I, for one, am awfully glad that the Times article clarified that Kobe Bryant
was joking about this. Given the
current state of American education, I would have been filled with
consternation—but, alas, not at all surprised—to know that some American
athletes had not a clue about the central event in American history and the
central figure in that conflict. (Heck, at least one didn’t have a clue about
an athlete, in his own century,
who paved the way for him to make millions: “I don't know nothing about no
Jackie Robinson," St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Vince Coleman once told a reporter.)
The more I think of it, though, the more this Bryant
story sounds fishy—conspiratorial, if you ask me. Since when has Bryant ever
bonded with teammates in any way, let alone at a movie? And since when has he
ever displayed a sense of humor?
