Kobe Bryant covers the March issue of GQ. I wouldn’t ordinarily care, but Kobe comes in and out of celebrity gossip like the wind. I have the feeling that he’s a big-time cheater, and I also have a feeling that his wife Vanessa just stays with him because she likes the “good life.” Which isn’t to say that Vanessa isn’t above yanking his chain and filing for divorce every now and then. But the real reason I’m writing this up is because Kobe gives some quotes about his 2003 sexual assault charge. Remember that? You can see the Wiki for the case here. The charges were dropped, although the young woman did sue in civil court and he publicly apologized to her without having to admit any wrongdoing. That incident still creeps me out and it’s tainted any good feelings I might have about Kobe’s athletic abilities. Anyway, you can read the full GQ piece here. Some highlights:

Kobe on his ego & whether that deters good players from joining the Lakers: “Does my nature make me less enjoyable to play with? Of course. Of course it does. Is it possible that some top players in the league are intimidated by that? Yes. But do I want to play with those players? Does the Laker organization want those specific players? No. Magic. Jordan. Bird. We all would have been phenomenal teammates. This organization wants players who will carry this franchise to another five or six championships. The player who does that has to be cut from the same cloth. And if they’re not cut from that cloth, they don’t belong here.”

He’s not selfish: “I chose to extend my deal with the Lakers to play with Shaquille O’ Neal and win championships. I knew what I could have done individually. I could have gone anywhere and destroyed people. I gave that up to win championships.” B

On Shaquille O’Neal: “He had years where he was lazy. But during those three championships we won? To say he was a beast would be an understatement. To say I didn’t learn things from him that I still use to this day would be a disservice.”

His religion helped him through his 2003 sexual assault case: “I started to consider the mortality of what I was doing. The one thing that really helped me during that process—I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic—was talking to a priest. It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ‘Did you do it?’ And I say, ‘Of course not.’ Then he asks, ‘Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ‘Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go.’ And that was the turning point.”

Does he have friends? “I have ‘like minds.’ You know, I’ve been fortunate to play in Los Angeles, where there are a lot of people like me. Actors. Musicians. Businessmen. Obsessives. People who feel like God put them on earth to do whatever it is that they do. Now, do we have time to build great relationships? Do we have time to build great friendships? No. Do we have time to socialize and to hangout aimlessly? No. Do we want to do that? No. We want to work.”

[From GQ]

He seems… tightly wound. That’s what people always say about Kobe. That he’s basketball and nothing else, that he never really developed as a person beyond the game. As for Kobe’s priest asking him point-blank if he assaulted a woman and asking after his legal team… well, all that made me think of was the fact that a lot of priests have been needing legal representation in the past few decades. And of course Kobe’s big life lesson out of that moment was “let it go.” Ugh. Professional athletes.

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Photos courtesy of Peggy Sirota/GQ.