At 22, Larry Nance, Jr. is still a young man, but he was only 19 when he tweeted in 2012 that “Gee I sure hope Kobe can keep his hands to himself in Denver this time…” and adding “#rapist”. Now Nance is a Los Angeles Lakers forward, drafted with the 27th overall pick. And minutes after he was drafted Nance deleted the 3-year-old tweet.
Nance, who has faced adversity including battling Crohn’s disease, was presumably just saying what he thought about Kobe Bryant, who is now his new teammate. (Bryant was accused of rape in Colorado back in 2003; the charge was dropped.) Bryant’s case evidently made enough of an impact that Nance’s tweet came nine years later, and he didn’t delete it for three more. No reason to believe that Nance doesn’t still hold a pretty low opinion of Bryant. Lakers management simply advised Nance to take down a tweet that wasn’t doing him any good — advice from the same Lakers management that’s about to pay Nance a lot of money. And so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut might say.
