The Associated Press reports that race may become an issue in the Kobe Bryant case. Polls already show more blacks are sympathetic to his plight than whites. And many compare Kobe's case to OJ Simpson's--in which the vast majority of people think OJ got away with murder.

Two CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls conducted in late July and early August found that 63 percent of blacks surveyed felt sympathetic to Bryant, compared to 40 percent of whites. About 68 percent of blacks said the charges of sexual assault are not true, but only 41 percent of whites said the same.

....Both blacks and whites mentioned O.J. Simpson, whose acquittal at his criminal trial for the 1994 deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman divided the groups. Most whites concluded the verdict was wrong, while most blacks favored it.

Bryant and others, including Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, have been viewed as athletes first and black men second, said Tony N. Brown, assistant sociology professor at Vanderbilt University.

But, he noted, that "doesn't last long. At the first sign of trouble, race comes right in the picture."