re: Did America lose it's least disposable athlete?

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Hearing about how much he was trying to do for girls basketball and women's basketball really sucked.

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Agreed. The thought of that getting on TV more than it is now is nauseating

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A true Role Model

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I mean yeh, lebron is a douche and some might not like him as a role model

But do we really want someone who admittedly cheated on their wife, lied to cops, choked a woman and caused bruising and vaginally bleeding being our role model?

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Its amazing how popular Kobe got all the sudden. There has been zero talk about him on here for years, other than the Bron haters.

He somehow went from once charged with sexual assault, to a apologetic cheater to national hero.

Im not saying he is any of those things but did the sports society just NEED a hero all of the sudden?

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Well I think almost any true fan of the league at bare minimum respected the guy as a player.

The last 3 1/2 minutes of his last game is one of the most bizarre and unlikely things I've seen in sports, which seared that very last impression of him on a court into our brain. We will never see anything resembling those final 3.5 minutes ever again at the tail end of any player's career. How do you go 5/5 playing 40+ minutes on those worn out tires (he played 35+ twice all year and was 17/45 before that stretch)? How crazy for that situation to play out as magical as it did. For the Jazz to actually be up a decent amount and challenging those shots. It is still the wildest thing I've ever seen in sports.

He's just a likeable guy as a fan.

The Colorado thing is the only thing people keep pointing to that has any traction as a negative. There simply aren't bad things to say about him after that situation happened.

I firmly stick by him being an awesome role model for kids.

- Isn't plastering things all over social media
- Isn't doing and saying very uneducated things like way too many athletes do
- Insane work ethic and drive to be the best
- Wants to inspire others to be their best as well, even if the rationale is selfish like winning basketball games

10-15 year old kids aren't going to go digging through wikipedia to read about something that happened 17 years ago.

Regardless of your personal feelings on him, Tiger Woods is probably the "least disposable" athlete on the planet given the context of the OP. Both he and Kobe had their off-the-court sex scandals, albeit Tiger was never accused of rape but simply for being, for lack of a better word, horny. But outside of that, he does as much, probably more, to give back through his various foundations. They also possess that same innate drive to be great. And in terms of worldwide fame and popularity, I'd say they're pretty even.

I think there are certainly plenty of athletes that are great role models, but far too often I also believe being the best at their sport swings the needle too much in that direction.

I just don’t ever remember my parents using athletes or famous people at all as role models for me

And I certainly don’t use it for my kids. It just seems so distant for lack of a better word

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I firmly stick by him being an awesome role model for kids.

- Isn't plastering things all over social media
- Isn't doing and saying very uneducated things like way too many athletes do
- Insane work ethic and drive to be the best
- Wants to inspire others to be their best as well, even if the rationale is selfish like winning basketball games

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I somewhat agree with you and dont take me wrong, I am not saying he is guilty for what happened in Colorado but the evidence sure seems like it was true.


But, it shows how bad our society, especially with sports guys as role models, is these days when a guy who cheated on his wife and family, had to openly apologies for it to keep from going to court, more than likely paid off a girl who he was accused of choking, raping and treating her like a total piece of trash is now a role model for our children.

Maybe these guys have always done these type of activities but they just get caught more now a days with all the technology but it sure seems todays heroes are not the same as yesterdays heros

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You may not like LeBron, but political statements seem easier to explain to your kids than what happened in Colorado.

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It's extremely easy to explain to your kids that an attractive woman sought out a rich athlete for sex and said rich athlete committed adultery with her

and I'm not someone who cares about glorifying Kobe Bryant, I just don't think it's terribly hard to explain

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I also just think people need to drop trying to make athletes these giant “role models”

Yes, Kobe worked his arse off. But bottom line he was a 6’6” athletic freak. That’s a huge factor to how he was able to play a game for a living. I just don’t see what the everyday parent would use him or most athletes for in a role model situation

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Are you black or from the inner city? Listen to the other NBA players after his death and say that these guys aren't role models. Just because you don't relate to athletes doesn't change the fact that many kids do.

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Are you black or from the inner city?

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No

But those kids need role models who aren’t just athletes more than anyone. And Kobe grew up in Italy, so I have more in common with those black inner city kids anyway