UPDATE: Kobe Bryant has re-posted the photos of his wife in a bikini with a watermark included this time. Instead of taking them down due to the churlish behavior of commenters, he did it because he didn’t want anyone to use the photos without giving him the proper credit. KOBE!

Of course Internet commenters don’t bother the Mamba. He just didn’t want anyone else getting credit for snapping these lovely pictures of his wife.

EARLIER:

Kobe Bryant posted pictures of his bikini-clad wife, Vanessa Bryant, on Instagram earlier tonight before removing the candid shots.

The side-by-side photos feature Mrs. Bryant in a revealing swimsuit from up close and far away. We’re guessing the commentsâ€”at the time of the screen grab, 728 of themâ€”assumed the sort of covert misogyny and sexism you’d probably expect. If a famous athlete’s wife is featured in a skimpy bikini on the Internet, people are going to say some unkind things. That’s depressing to acknowledge, but still true.

But the Mamba has certainly figured out how to use hashtags. Bean captioned the photos: “#allreal” and “#ishouldknow.” This most likely added fuel to the fire for the anonymous commenters, but hopefully Kobe’s learned a valuable lesson with this Instagram posting, one we should all keep in mind if we find ourselves in a similar situation: don’t post pictures on the Internet of your wife in a tiny bikini when you’re an internationally famous athlete.

Unfortunately, the Internet hivemind is still a 13-year-old boy that can’t wait to make a joke about a woman’s body.

What do you think?

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