“And the Oscar goes to…”

He might be retired but Kobe continues winning. On March 4th at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony, Kobe Bryant took home an Oscar for Best Animated Short for Dear Basketball.

“This feels better than winning the championship, to be honest with you,” Bryant said. “Growing up as a kid, I dreamed of winning championships and working really hard to make that dream come true, but then you have something like this seemingly come out of left field.”

Inspired by his retirement poem published in 2015 by The Players’ Tribune, Kobe Bryant traded in 20 years of basketball for a career as a storyteller. Dear Basketball is a six minute film written and narrated by Bryant and directed and animated by the legendary Glen Keane. An all-star collaboration, Keane is responsible for classic Disney characters like Ariel from The Little Mermaid and The Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

During his acceptance speech, Kobe Bryant threw shade at Fox New’s Laura Ingraham who recently told LeBron James to “Shut up and dribble” after making political statements. Bryant  said, “As basketball players, we’re really supposed to shut up and dribble but I’m glad we do a little more than that.”

Kobe is tied with Leonardo Dicaprio and now has more Oscars than Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Amy Adams, Will Smith, Michelle Williams, and Matt Damon… combined.

Backstage, Kobe credited Oprah and Shonda Rhimes for mentoring him and sharing their expertise of the entertainment industry. “When you have mentors like that in your life, everything tends to work itself out,” he explained.

Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, LeBron James and former teammate Shaquille O’Neal took to twitter to congratulate Bryant.

Congratulations to my good friend @kobebryant for winning the Oscar for best animated short film. Well deserved!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) March 5, 2018

Salute @kobebryant on that Oscar!! #WeAreMoreThanShutUpDribble #UJustContinueToSitBackAndWatch

— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 5, 2018

Congrats to KOBE first Oscar that’s big bro #dearbasketball. Proud of you, Big honor for you and your family. I’m jealous lol

— SHAQ (@SHAQ) March 5, 2018

Not everyone is celebrating Kobe’s Oscar win. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, a petition was started demanding the academy rescind Kobe’s nomination because of a rape charge dating back to 2003. The petition of course is referencing Bryant’s arrest after the alleged rape of 19-year old hotel worker in Colorado. Despite overwhelming evidence (blood in the victim’s underwear and on Bryant’s shirt), the situation was settled outside of court in a civil suit. Kobe described the encounter as consensual but later apologized for the “pain she has had to endure.”

Is Kobe Bryant, a charged rapist who paid millions of dollars to his alleged victim for her to drop charges, winning an Oscar at #metoo Oscars evidence of Hollywood hypocrisy?

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 5, 2018

With his Oscar win Kobe Bryant joins the historic ranks of Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, stop me if you see where I am going with this

— Jack Hamilton (@jack_hamilton) March 5, 2018

Hollywood: Times Up
[cut to Kobe Bryant on stage]
Hollywood: whoops

— #TeamKillmonger. (@thewayoftheid) March 5, 2018

Kobe can now add an Oscar to his collection of 5 NBA championships, 2 Olympic gold metals, an NBA MVP, 2 NBA Finals MVP, and 4 All-Star game MVPs.

You can watch Dear Basketball here: https://www.go90.com/videos/261MflWkD3N

Do you think Kobe should have won the Oscar? We will be discussing that and more tomorrow on Chicks Into Sports from 1-2PM on 1100AM. Call in and give us your opinion!!