John Sutherland: Hoop Nightmares

The cover of the latest issue of the Globe, an American supermarket tabloid, features a pretty blonde smiling at the camera and provocatively lifting her skirt to reveal a gartered thigh. Alongside the picture (taken some years ago for the girl's high school prom) is her name and the caption: "Did she really say No?"

She is basketball superstar Kobe Bryant's accuser: the Globe's splash is timed to coincide with Bryant's court appearance this Thursday, on charges of rape. The paper justifies its violation of Colorado's "rape shield law" by the emperor's clothes argument. Every net-connected citizen in America has access to her identity. There are websites with photographs and intimate personal history. Bryant's attorney "accidentally" dropped the name six times in preliminary hearings, in between detailing the semen stains on her yellow pants.

The Bryant case involves a power struggle between four of America's most powerful institutions: the law, the press, the internet, and Lakers' fans. The LA team is to basketball what Man Utd is to soccer, and Bryant is its Beckham. After only six years in the National Basketball Association, he earns $40m a year. But will he earn it next year?

NBA players are traditionally tom cats. Hall-of-Famer Wilt Chamberlain claimed 20,000 women during his career. Shaquille O'Neal - the Lakers' other superstar - has children by multiple partners. Who cares, just so long as the team keeps on winning?

Bryant was different - he is no ghetto kid. He was brought up in Europe by middle-class parents. He is fluent in a number of languages. He married early, didn't party, and clearly adored his wife Vanessa and their newborn daughter. If there were a role model for young African-Americans, he was it.

The pounding of huge bodies like Bryant's (6ft 7in, 220 lbs) on hardwood floors wrecks legs. The 24-year-old star's knees were already wearing out. Before the start of the 2003 season, he went for secret surgery in distant Colorado. Not even the Lakers knew about it. He registered in a resort hotel under a false name, leaving Vanessa at home.

On the night of June 30, Bryant flirted in the lobby with a 19-year-old college student who was working part-time in the hotel. Around 11pm, she snuck up to his room. She was, allegedly, willing to fool around but did not want sex. The charge is that Bryant bent her over a chair and raped her. The following day, she was examined at the same hospital where a blissfully unconcerned Bryant was having his surgery. Vaginal injuries and bruises were recorded. Charges were duly brought by the local police.

Bryant admitted the sex but protested it was consensual. Contritely, he bought Vanessa (very "pissed") a $6m ring and had her name tattooed on his arm. If his lawyer, Pamela Mackey (small, white, pretty, smart), gets him off he should inscribe her name underneath it. In between court appearances, Bryant is leading the Lakers on a winning streak. Any court he plays on, he owns.

But not the Colorado court. Legally it is a tough sell. A huge black man from out of town having sex with a little white girl, however consensually, ignites prejudice. The locals (predominantly white) are not Lakers fans. Sheriff's deputies have been reprimanded for wearing T-shirts with Bryant's name and a hangman's noose on them.

Colorado is severe on rapists. A guilty verdict could mean life as the best basketball player in the exercise yard. Kobe has his legal "dream team" and 14m Lakers fans rooting for him. "Unconfirmed rumours" are being published on the web about the accuser's mental instability, her promiscuity, her insatiable appetite for "big" black men. And now a supermarket tabloid has made her a sexual fantasy.

If this is press freedom, bring back the Star Chamber.