It hasn’t been a month since Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant perished in a helicopter crash, and people are still struggling with questions about his legacy. After a video clip of CBS This Morning host Gayle King questioning WNBA great Lisa Leslie about Bryant’s past rape allegation went viral, there has been a very negative backlash toward King. And LeBron James is the latest to speak his mind on the situation, according to Cleveland.com.
King interviewed Leslie, one of Bryant‘s best friends, and has received heavy criticism for the clip CBS released. The short video was from a longer interview that had King posing the question of the 2003 rape charge that was eventually dismissed against
Bryant, asking if that would basically stain Bryant’s legacy.“It’s been said that his legacy is complicated because of a sexual assault charge, which was dismissed in 2003, 2004,” Gayle said to Leslie. “Is it complicated for you as a woman, as a WNBA player?
“It’s not complicated for me at all,” Leslie responded. “Even if there’s a few times that we’ve been at a club at the same time, Kobe’s not the kind of guy—never been, like, you know, ‘Lis, go get that girl, or tell her or send her this.’ I have other NBA friends that are like that. Kobe was never like that.”
“I just never, have ever seen him being the kind of person that would do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way,” Leslie continued. “That’s just not the person that I know.”
“I just don’t believe that. And I’m not saying things didn’t happen,” Leslie was saying of the allegations. “I just don’t believe that things [happened] with force.”
Leslie said the media had “many years” to ask Bryant about the rape case, and that the media “should be more respectful at this time. I don’t think it should be something we should be hanging over his legacy.”
In response to the backlash she has been receiving, King posted a response on her Instagram account that the clip the network circulated was out of context:
James posted a message to Leslie from his Twitter account showing support for the former basketball player.
James is just the latest public figure to come at King. She has been lambasted by the likes of 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Vivica Fox and a host of others.