BARKLEY BARKS ABOUT KOBE’S LEGACY IN WAY FEW DARE TO DO

'You have to tell the picture in totality': NBA legend Charles Barkley says Kobe Bryant SHOULD be remembered for the 2003 rape allegation as well as his NBA career

Daily Mail
February 14, 2020

Amid an ongoing public debate over Kobe Bryant's dual legacies, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley told NBC's Today that the deceased Los Angeles Lakers legend should be remembered both for his basketball career and for the sexual assault allegations levied against him when he was 24.

'You have to tell the picture in totality,' Barkley said while being interviewed ahead of this weekend's All-Star Game in Chicago. 'We're not making Kobe out to be no hero. We're celebrating his basketball excellence. We understand what happened in Colorado. That's fair, but two things can be true.'

Bryant was accused of sexual assault by a 19-year-old female hotel employee in Colorado, where he was scheduled to undergo knee surgery in the summer of 2003. He did not deny cheating on his wife, Vanessa, but did claim the sexual encounter was entirely consensual.

The accuser refused to testify at trial, prompting prosecutors to drop the charges against Bryant, but the two did settle a civil lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

The topic resurfaced following the recent helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others.

CBS' Gayle King, for one, took intense criticism for asking WNBA legend Lisa Leslie about the 2003 sexual assault allegations during an on-air interview.