Kobe Bryant means a lot of different things to many people. To most, the 41-year-old was the Los Angeles Lakers star and a five-time NBA champion who spent two decades wowing us on the basketball court. He may even be one of the best players to ever dunk a ball.

To others, he’ll forever be the cheating spouse, on trial in 2003 for allegedly raping a woman inside a Colorado hotel room, an encounter he claimed had been consensual. It should be noted that Bryant was married at the time. The case never made it to trial after the woman refused to testify, but she did filed a civil lawsuit against the basketball icon that was settled outside of court. Bryant later issued a public apology, saying he was ashamed for having committed adultery.

Was there more to that story, in terms of Bryant’s apology and his efforts to save his marriage? We will come back to that.

After his retirement, Bryant became known primarily as a doting father, largely shunning the chance to coach or work for the Lakers in some official capacity. It’s no surprise then that he died Sunday with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, a budding basketball talent herself, on their way to one of her games.

All but forgotten — as well as underreported by the news media since Sunday’s tragic helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., that killed Bryant, his daughter and seven others — was his active Catholic faith and how his efforts to practice that faith made him a better man, husband and father.

Bryant had spent a chunk of his childhood in Italy, a majority Catholic country, and was raised in the faith. How devout was Bryant? He attended Mass regularly, including just two hours before he died.

Kudos to Catholic News Agency for being the first to report that Bryant was a Catholic, then updating the story throughout the day with more details. Within 24 hours, others had followed suit, including Fox News, Breitbart and conservative Catholic media websites.

Note this strange journalistic assumption: Repairing your marriage and finding redemption in God must be a right-wing thing, if most of the news media finds it uninteresting to report on as part of the Kobe story and legacy. Why avoid that factual detail?

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez called Bryant, who retired from the NBA in 2016, a "very good Catholic, a faithful Catholic.”

“I remember one time going to the Lakers’ practice, and I had a good conversation with him,” Gomez told Catholic News Agency. “We are praying for the eternal repose of his soul, his daughter who also died and for the family. It must be a very challenging time for his family. So, let’s pray for him and pray for his family.”

The mainstream news media has been squeamish to report on Bryant’s faith. The reason may be two-fold. One, it would involve actually reporting on religion. The second, rehashing the rape allegation, an episode that is both dark and bleak from his past, is no way to remember Bryant’s life. After all, who wants to speak ill of the dead.

In a 2006 interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Bryant was asked what he had learned from the incident in Colorado. Bryant replied, “God is great.”

Pressed by Smith that “everyone knows that,” Bryant added, “You can know it all you want, but until you have to pick up that cross that you can’t carry and he picks it up for you and carries you and the cross, then you know.”

After years of trying to work on his marriage, Bryant’s wife Vanessa, whom he had four children with, filed for divorce in 2011 amid rumors of more infidelity. She later withdrew the petition and the couple reconciled. Bryant, in a 2015 interview with GQ magazine, said he had turned to his Catholicism during his time of trouble.

“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.”

Continue reading “How Kobe Bryant's Catholic faith saved his marriage and turned his life around” by Clemente Lisi at Religion Unplugged.