Kobe Bryant has been extra nice since he announced his retirement in a letter via The Players Tribune. He has given extensive answers in press conferences, he has constantly been smiling, and has just been in an overall good mood.
But Shelley Smith told the New York Post that she, and many of those around her in the field, can see past Bryant’s niceness that he has been displaying.
Her interview started off discussing her cancer and the treatment she endured, along with becoming a voice for cancer care. When asked about anyone’s reaction to it surprising her, she mentioned Bryant, and gave quite an interesting answer:
Kobe and I started speaking after 10 years. I am not sure if it’s because I had cancer or if it’s because he is in a weird place right now — he’s being nice to everybody right now because he wants to go out being beloved. I covered his rape trial in Colorado and there were things I reported that he disagreed with. He told me he’d never speak to me again, and this was 10 years ago. It was real nasty and awkward. At media day this year, Lakers PR came over and said he’d do an interview and he came up to me and gave me a big hug. My jaw hit the floor.
When asked if his niceness was working, Smith said that she didn’t buy into it. “Everyone I talk to, no one believes it, because he wants to go out beloved like [Michael] Jordan did,” Smith said. “He wants to go off into the sunset as a superhero, but we all remember how badly he treated a lot of us.” Smith reported extensively on Bryant’s rape trial in Colorado over ten years ago for ESPN.
On top of her comments in regards to his niceness, it appears that the media might not be the only people he has rubbed the wrong way since his entry into the NBA.
When questioned about where he would go in his life after the NBA, Smith said, “I would be surprised if he stayed in basketball because he burned bridges coming up with players, coaches and front-office personnel.”
“I think he’ll go into some sort of business,” Smith said. “He’s very smart business-wise and he has a great brand.”
Bryant’s sudden niceness has been something that has somewhat gone unnoticed, and it’s interesting to hear somebody such as Smith talk about the details of it and bring certain situations to light. One could imagine somebody wouldn’t be as nice as she was when discussing it, either.
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