May 12, 2004

The two-word declaration of "not guilty" by Kobe Bryant took so little time that Bryant easily made his way back to Los Angeles for the Lakers-Spurs game Tuesday night.

This was of some concern, maybe more concern in some quarters than whether he has done what he has been finally and officially accused of doing, violating the peace and dignity of the people of Colorado, among other things.

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Only one of the people of Colorado has been violated, criminally or willingly, which shall be sorted out eventually.

What still is uncertain is if the sorting out will interfere with Bryant's participation in the Olympics. An August trial could give quite a boost to the French and the Lithuanians. These things have their own concerns, and the previous Olympics were just a little too close to take the next one for granted.

The NBA championship, defending the nation's honor against the world, these are heavy matters and all in Bryant's favor, while his alleged victim - as she still is allowed to be known - is left to her own private and personal agony.

What is one young woman's sense of individual dignity compared to the contributions and consequence of Bryant to so many?

Bryant is admired for handling the legal requirements of his problem and still managing to be effective on the basketball court, though worried witnesses have noticed he has appeared a bit tired lately.

Nothing is quite like this since Michael Jordan was implicated in gambling gossip on the way to his third title. Jordan handled it all by refusing to talk to the press, and, with the subsequent murder of his father in the summer, decided to give everything up and seek refuge in baseball.

As tough as this is on Bryant as he manages the demands of his talent and his significance to others, a greater courage is required to endure the weight of disdain, insinuation and doubt.

The legal system is a torment for rape victims, and in the particular history of celebrated athletes and the crime, more often than not the athlete is acquitted or the matter is settled or the accused simply cannot tolerate the criminal-justice process.

For all the uproar surrounding the case against the University of Colorado football program, no player is going to be charged with any sexual assault by the state's attorney general, in no small part because the victims don't want to endure what Bryant's accuser is enduring.

A piece in The New York Times offered these statistics: In usual, noncelebrity rape cases, 54 percent of those arrested for the crime were convicted. For athletes, felony rape convictions were only 31 percent, and only 10 of 53 resulted in a conviction at trial.

Undoubtedly, the most famous athlete ever convicted of rape was Mike Tyson. Tyson could have used Bryant's lawyers. The details of the cases are very similar. A woman went to Tyson's room and Tyson had sex with her. He said she was willing. She said she was not.

In one of the wackiest defenses ever for sexual assault, Tyson's lawyers argued - not as Bryant's lawyers are, that the woman is historically promiscuous - that any woman who went to Tyson's room deserved what she got. The "rutting animal" defense did not work.

We have just seen another basketball player, Jayson Williams, acquitted of manslaughter, a two-year legal event in which he twice had to plead not guilty. Williams admitted shooting Costas "Gus" Christofi with a shotgun, but he didn't mean to do it. The jury agreed that not meaning to was good enough for them.

Bryant did, of course, mean to have sex. He is guilty of adultery, he admits, but not felony assault. A jury will consider who he is and how much he has suffered and that, heretofore, he had not one unkind word said about him, and maybe decide that he did not mean to do anything bad, not, you know, criminally bad.

That is the advantage of fame, as well as the curse. And it generally works in favor of the fame.

What this is not, and yet what it is, is ongoing entertainment. This is much too serious for everyone involved to be relegated to the clichés of sport, offense and defense, halftime, overtime, who's leading, who's trailing.

The actual legal charge is ominous, and as the judge read it out to Bryant, it had not one bit of jargon in it. Unlawfully, feloniously and knowingly inflicted sexual intrusion or sexual penetration . . . against the victim's will. Application of physical force or physical violence.

When O.J. Simpson was asked how he would plead to much more dreadful charges - double murder - he answered, "One hundred percent not guilty."

Three extra words, for emphasis. But then, O.J. did not have a plane to catch.

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