Kobe Rebounds

Bryant is now free to rejoin his Laker teammates--at least those who are left. As his legal team was scoring point after point, his basketball team, which lost to Detroit in the NBA finals, was disintegrating. Coach Phil Jackson is gone. So is Shaq, Gary Payton, Rick Fox and possibly Karl Malone. Bryant is the lone star, a few million dollars lighter for his legal fight--plus the $4 million "I'm sorry" ring for his wife--and toxic as a marketing personality. His contracts with McDonald's and Sprite are finished. He still has a $45 million deal with Nike, but don't expect a Kobe sneaker anytime soon. He'll have to make do with a $136 million, seven-year contract he signed with the Lakers in July.

Bryant now bounces from the criminal-justice system into the civil arena. His attorneys may have to assign a price to keep him from giving what will be a very sordid deposition. Atlanta attorney L. Lin Wood, who represents the plaintiff, told TIME, "There have been no settlement discussions with respect to the civil case," adding that Bryant's apology was independent of the civil matter.

Women's rights advocates, who worry because the loss in the criminal case could discourage women from reporting sex crimes, took some solace in Bryant's apology. Said Cynthia Stone of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault: "If this had been dismissed without that statement, it would have been devastating. It was a validation."

But it was not a conviction, or even a verdict, and Bryant's accuser may be saddled with a kind of fame she never bargained for. "It has ruined the life that she's known," says Strickland of his ex-girlfriend. "Her future is pretty well set for her. She's not allowed to put it behind her."

--Reported by Mike Billips/Atlanta, Rita Healy/Eagle and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles