In July 2003, a 19-year-old woman accused Lakers star Kobe Bryant of sexual assault. She alleged that Bryant had raped her in his hotel room at The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Edwards, Colorado. Bryant's accuser, whose identity was later leaked to the media, worked at the hotel. Bryant initially denied that he had had sex with the woman. However, the discovery of physical evidence led him to change his story. Instead, Bryant claimed that he had consensual intercourse with the woman. After an arrest warrant was issued for Bryant, he surrendered to police in Colorado. Subsequently, he was formally charged with sexual assault.
The case was front-page news for months, with Bryant's legal team painting his accuser as a promiscuous, mentally ill individual. Furthermore, multiple outlets leaked the woman's identity, leading to her receiving death threats and other hate mail. The legal saga ended when the woman refused to testify at the trial, leading to the charges being dismissed. The following day, Bryant released an apology in which he denied that he had raped the woman. However, somewhat bizarrely, he said he understood how "how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter."
Kendrick Perkins References Rape Allegations While Hyping Kobe
Speaking on First Take in July 2023, Kendrick Perkins argued that the rape allegations, and Kobe's subsequent bounce-back, gave the late Laker the greatest story in the NBA. “When it comes down to Kob winning three NBA championships with Shaq, Kobe was at his highest. I'm talking about when he was with Adidas, all of us had the 8s, the Kobs on our feet, rocking the Adidas,” Kendrick Perkins said. “And all of a sudden, Kob was dealing with the situation in Denver. And most people, when dealing with something when your livelihood is on the line, I wouldn't have showed up to work, not to that capacity."
He continued. "Kobe was still showing up to work and giving people that work on the floor, giving people straight buckets. Throughout that period he had lost endorsements, hundreds of millions of dollars, he was getting booed in every arena. He basically had to start from the bottom and work his way back to the top, and he did that in great fashion. As far as getting back his endorsements, as far as building back his reputation as one of the best players in the game, winning two NBA championships, two Finals MVPs, the list goes on.”
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