Kobe Bryant — NEWSY — TheWriteFashion

Although my mind has yet to completely make sense of the tragic accident that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter GIanna and seven others, I felt compelled to speak on it in light of the recent interview given by Gayle King on CBS This Morning.

King sat down with WNBA and Olympic champion, Lisa Leslie to discuss the legacy of Kobe Bryant. Leslie and Bryant had been friends for over 20 years after meeting at the start of both their basketball careers. In what started out as a seemingly innocent walk down memory lane, quickly turned into a courtroom scene straight out of an episode of Law & Order. King brought up Bryant’s sexual assault case from 2003 and attempted to badger Leslie into painting Bryant as a sexual predator. Even when Leslie explained how she never had to question Bryant’s behavior towards women, King continued to push until Leslie became visibly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

Leslie said the man she knew would never do 'something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way'.

Leslie also said: 'It's not complicated for me at all. 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, "Lis, go get that girl, or tell her, or send her this".

She continued: 'I have other NBA friends that are like that. Kobe, he was never like that.' ‘ I don't think it's something that we should keep hanging over his legacy."

The accident. On January 26, Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, along with six family friends and the pilot were traveling to a basketball game at Bryant's Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks when their helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas. Bryant, his daughter, and the other seven occupants were killed.

From top-left, clockwise: Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, Payton Chester, Sarah Chester, Christina Mauser, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli and pilot Ara Zobayan, died on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, after the helicopter they traveled in crashed in Los Angeles. NBCLA

Although the cause of the crash is still unknown, initial reports indicated that the helicopter crashed in the hills above Calabasas due to heavy fog. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI have launched investigations to determine the exact cause of the crash.