Originally Posted by FlashUNC (Post 2649041)

When Jimmy Carter finally dies you'll see reams of words from me about a real saint of a human being.

Originally Posted by FlashUNC (Post 2649041)

Sharing my opinion isn't trolling, and I haven't shared what my opinion is of the man out of deference to this "if you don't have anything nice to say" nonsense. When Jimmy Carter finally dies you'll see reams of words from me about a real saint of a human being.



As I've stated elsewhere on this subject, if we want to have RIP threads for public figures, then just demand empty, banal RIP platitudes when these are complex, interesting figures to discuss, I think that speaks poorly of the forum's ability to actually discuss things.

Originally Posted by jtbadge (Post 2649046)

Maybe we don't need to have so many threads on a bike forum dedicated to memorializing people that have done a lot of bad stuff and also don't have anything to do with bikes

Originally Posted by cash05458 (Post 2649059)

yeah...just get rid of every ot about pretty much anything then other than chain length etc...it's really not up to you or anyone to decide who "did bad things"...I personally am not a Kobie fan but you types are really full of it...dude and daughter just died and have to come out here shooting your mouths off about you don't like him and he is a "bad" person according to you...grow the **** up...

Originally Posted by jtbadge (Post 2649064)

weren't you just complaining that a post (that you edited after it was quoted) was misinterpreted - and now you're saying I said he's a bad person?

Originally Posted by Frankwurst (Post 2649062)

Why are people so enamored by athletes, movie stars, rock stars and people who they have no personal connection with?

Originally Posted by FlashUNC (Post 2648989)

Great 2 guard who fit the era he played in.

After that, well, that's about the only compliment I can think of for the guy.

Well, I can see your perspective. It's certainly a rational one. His legacy is complicated - undoubtedly the most complicated in this Millennium. But that doesn't explain why I've been teary eyed all day.

Kobe was a master of burnishing his own legacy. He created the "Mamba," the gunner who saved the day late in the game (the stats don't exactly agree) and the charming, charismatic, and handsome man who was tailor-made for Tinseltown. Except that was really a myth, too. See: hotel room, Colorado. And his teammates didn't exactly adore him.

Contrast Kobe with AI, who was seemingly his antithesis. And he was. Yet the press flipped the script. AI was adored by his community, and his teammates.

But it's easy to digest a ready-made script. At the Philly/LA game last night, (the same game where the cameras zoomed in on LBJ's eerily prescient "Kobe Homage" shoes) my buddy and I saw a guy embrace Mark Jackson and Van Gundy. We didn't know who it was. We were shocked when we found out it was AI. Hard to believe. He looked drastically different from his playing days.

But not Kobe. He was the first basketball superstar of the Internet Age, and for 25 years, he never appeared anything less than youthful, confident, and indestructible. Hard to reconcile the fact that he's gone.

That's why I've been crying on and off today. Especially now that I'm a parent. You want to believe that someone like Kobe, who so artfully mastered his own legacy, would be impervious to the capricious whims of fate.

But he wasn't.

https://www.heraldcourier.com/sports...e39cb09c4.html

Originally Posted by XXtwindad (Post 2649008)

This article sums up my feelings pretty nicely: https://www.omaha.com/sports/nationa...e897b55a0.html

From the article: "But athletes, rock stars, Hollywood legends — we hoist them high, their narratives become enmeshed in our own. And when a star’s narrative is cut short, it leaves us a loose thread. A part of us unravels.

We’re reminded no one is immune to death — not them, and certainly not us. Giants can die. That’s a gut punch. What hope does that leave for the rest of us?"