This Morning host Gayle King stirred controversy by raking up rape charges against the late NBA star who passed away in a tragic helicopter crash on 26th January that killed 8 other people including his 13-year-old daughter.
King sat down with former WNBA player Lisa Leslie for a conversation Tuesday about the untimely demise of the basketball legend, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant. The conversation began on a solemn note as two women missed the basketball player and discussed his demise.
Leslie who shared a close friendship with Bryant discussed all his achievements, records and legacy with the CBS host until the latter brought up the allegation of rape that were leveled against him in 2003 by a 19-year-old girl.
Picture: Instagram | Kobe Bryant
Gayle began that Bryant’s legacy is being said to be complicated due to the sexual assault charges on him. Is it complicated for her as a woman, as a WNBA player? she asked to which Leslie responded that it’s not complicated for her at all. defending him, she said that there were other basketball players who tried to attempted to get her to “play the wingman for them,” but Bryant was different as he would never do that.
She continued that she has never seen him being the kind of person who would violate a woman or be aggressive with them. Interrupting her, Gayle said that as a friend Lisa might not see it to which Leslie asserted that that could be possible but she doesn’t believe that things happened with force, she affirmed.
.@WNBA legend @LisaLeslie told @GayleKing that Kobe Bryant's legacy is "not complicated" for her despite his 2003 rape accusation.
"I don't think it's something that we should keep hanging over his legacy." https://t.co/qj6MVvOaqX pic.twitter.com/9qtVORobLO
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 4, 2020
Gayle even went onto ask if it was fair on people’s part to speculate and talk about rape allegations so soon after his death to which Lisa asserted that she thinks media should be more respectful at the time. She continued that it shouldn’t be something that people keep hanging out of his legacy. When Gayle prodded further that case was dismissed as the victim refused to testify, Leslie asserted, “I think that’s how we should leave it.”
Gayle received severe backlash from people across the globe for bringing up rape trial in her conversation with his good friend only 2 weeks after the death. Gayle responded to the backlash on twitter via 2-part video messages where she is infuriated with CBS for putting out a clip from a long interview which has been taken out of context.
In her video message, she said that she has been up reading the comments about the interview she did with Lisa Leslie about the late basketball icon Kobe Bryant, and she knows that if she had only seen the clip that people saw, even she would be extremely angry with herself.”
My perspective (1/2) pic.twitter.com/tUYK0yGh9q
— Gayle King (@GayleKing) February 6, 2020
She continued that she is mortified, she is embarrassed, and she is very angry. Blaming the network for blowing the controversy, she said that Unbeknownst to her, CBS put up a clip from a very wide-ranging interview — totally taken out of context — and when people see it that way, it’s very jarring. It’s jarring to her.”
On Thursday morning, Gayle said that she was getting calls and messages about the interview and she was told to remain silent until the matter cools off. However, the 65-year-old television personality didn’t listen to that as she wanted people to understand what really happened in the interview, Gayle remarked. Explaining her intention behind raking up the issue, she said that she reached out to Lisa because she knows Lisa was a long-time friend of Kobe’s — to talk about his legacy and their friendship.
(2/2) pic.twitter.com/Gojxatll7y
— Gayle King (@GayleKing) February 6, 2020
Explaining the context, she apprised that they talked about that court case because that court case has also come up. And she wanted to get Lisa’s take on it as a friend, as a person who knew him well, what she thought, where that should stand.
Appreciating and accepting Leslie’s viewpoint, she asserted that it was very powerful when Lisa looked her in the eye, as a member of the media, to say, ‘It’s time for the media to leave it alone and to back off.’
In the end, she said that disparaging him is the last thing that she would do at this hour. She signed off saying that she no disrespect was intended.