I don’t think reminding people that Kobe was a probable rapist is necessarily denying that he did good things too. I saw the posts about his crime as a response to the hero-worship that happened after his death. Because there were a LOT of people that were behaving as though he was a saint who did no wrong.

People have done the same for white men who did many inspiring things. For example David Bowie had sex with a 13 year old apparently, when he was coked up in the 70s. I was shocked to find out, yet as a major fan of his music, and someone who believes he did a lot more good than bad, I acknowledge what he did with that groupie as a part of his legacy. It doesn’t mean I “cancel” everything he did, doesn’t mean he can’t still inspire me as a person, and I also think he tried to be a mostly good person, especially in the last 20–30 years of his life.

People are complex. But we need to be able to acknowledge the bad in our heroes as well as the good. I think anyone who treats a dead celebrity as a saint, needs to recognise their flaws. And at the same time, people who bring up their bad behaviour need to accept that for many people, one bad action doesn’t a monster make.

I do think though that the response that people had to the woman who tweeted about what Kobe did is WAY out of line. Death threats etc. I think both the Kobe stans and the Kobe haters acted badly.