Why is Bob Costas being criticized for mentioning Kobe’s past?

https://www.nj.com/sports/2020/01/bob-costas-kobe-bryants-sexual-assault-charge-part-of-his-story.html

As Bryant is remembered for the rare player that he was and lives he touched, few have had the courage to bring up the worst part of Bryant’s well-known past: Eagle, Colorado.

Sportscaster Bob Costas decided to venture into the waters of Bryant’s sexual assault charge and how we should weigh sorrow with the full picture of the ex-Lakers life during an appearance on CNN.

Here’s what Costas had to say.

“Everything that’s been said about Kobe Bryant as a competitor, as a great, great player—one of the tiny handful of greatest players in NBA history—and what’s been said about what he did in the subsequent chapters of his life as a father, as a charitable person, as a friend, all that stuff is genuinely true.

“But when something like this happens, when someone is so famous and generally popular and when it’s so terribly tragic, there’s a tendency to canonize the person. And it’s more truly human to say that he surmounted some missteps. There was a significant misstep as a young man, a charge of sexual assault. There were no criminal charges brought, there was a civil suit, it was settled out of court. He contended that it was consensual, but he did offer an apology. That is not definitive of his life, but it is a part of his life.

“We’re talking about a great basketball player, and in the big picture, a very good man. But not a saint, and that’s OK.”

Bryant leaves behind a wife and three children.

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