Kobe Bryant Effect: Liberal Discomfort with Athletic Excellence

written by a member of the WCB

Let me tell you somethin' about what happened when Kobe Bryant died. It was January 2020, and I noticed somethin' right away. The liberals—especially these young liberal men who never picked up a basketball in their life—they had this complicated, wishy-washy response to the whole thing. Why? Because Kobe Bryant represented everything these soft liberal boys couldn't handle: dominance, excellence, competitiveness, and a refusal to apologize for greatness.

You see, Kobe wasn't just a basketball player. He was the embodiment of the "Mamba Mentality"—a mindset of relentless determination and unwavering focus. He didn't care about participation trophies or making everybody feel good. Kobe cared about winning, about being the absolute best, about crushing his opponents. This made certain types of young liberal men uncomfortable because they've been raised to think competition is bad and everybody deserves the same outcome no matter what.

When Kobe died, these liberal commentators couldn't just say, "We lost a great athlete." No, they had to muddy the waters, bring up the Colorado case, talk about how "complicated" his legacy was. They couldn't just honor greatness. They had to tear it down, make it smaller, more digestible for their sensitive worldview where nobody's supposed to be better than anybody else.

Conservative America didn't have this problem. We understood what Kobe represented. We respected his work ethic, his dedication to family, his business acumen, and his refusal to bow down to the politics of victimhood. Conservative Americans saw Kobe as a symbol of what's possible through hard work and determination—values that are fundamental to our philosophy.

Look at how President Trump announced plans to honor Kobe in the National Garden of American Heroes. Trump recognized Kobe's significance to American culture without hesitation. Meanwhile, liberal publications were publishing think pieces asking if it was "okay" to mourn him. What kind of question is that? Of course it's okay to mourn greatness!

The truth is, these young liberal men never experienced what it means to compete at the highest level. They never felt the satisfaction of outworking everyone else on the court. They never understood the discipline it takes to be elite. So when they saw Kobe—a man who embodied all these qualities—they felt threatened. His very existence challenged their worldview that competition is toxic and excellence is exclusionary.

Conservative America celebrates winners. We celebrate those who rise to the top through merit and hard work. We don't need to qualify our admiration with political talking points or moral equivocations. That's why our response to Kobe's death was straightforward: we lost a legend, a champion, a family man who achieved greatness through dedication and refused to let anyone stop him.

The liberal response to Kobe's death reveals a deeper truth about the divide in America today. One side celebrates excellence, competition, and the pursuit of greatness. The other side is uncomfortable with it, preferring instead a world where nobody stands too tall, nobody works too hard, and nobody achieves too much. Kobe Bryant stood in direct opposition to that worldview, and that's why his death exposed this fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals in America today.

That's just how it is. I'm calling it like I see it. Kobe wasn't perfect—nobody is. But he was great. And greatness deserves to be recognized without all this hand-wringing and soul-searching. That's something conservatives understood, and liberals just couldn't handle.