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Kobe Bryant Facing Legal Trouble

Aired July 07, 2003 - 14:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Kobe Bryant is the antithesis of the NBA's bad-boy image, but now the basketball star is facing legal trouble.
A district attorney in Colorado is weighing possible criminal sex charges against the L.A. Lakers player. Bryant turned himself into authorities in Eagle County last week on an arrest warrant. It was issued after a woman claimed an alleged sexual assault at his hotel last Monday. The general manager of the Lakers, Mitch Kupchak, is standing by Bryant, saying: "These allegations are completely out of character of the Kobe Bryant we know. For the seven years he has been with us, he's been one of the finest young men we have know and a wonderful asset to both our team and our community."

The district attorney in this case will hold a news conference from Eagle, Colorado. We'll bring that to you live at 5:00 Eastern.

Well, we're going to talk more about the Kobe Bryant case and today's other sports stories with CNN's Matt Morrison, of course.

Matt, good to see you.

MATT MORRISON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Kyra.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Matt.

PHILLIPS: Well, looking back -- we were talking about this -- Kobe Bryant

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: It's a real shocker.

PHILLIPS: Yes, growing up in Italy, family guy, close with his dad. We've never heard anything about

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Well, as Mitch Kupchak said in that statement that was released, Kobe Bryant has been the perfect gentleman as far as the NBA is concerned, perfect example of what a professional athlete you would hope to be.

Here is a guy that has done nothing but get better and grow into what is probably the best NBA player on the floor today, second in the league in scoring last year, a five time All-Star. And he's done it with a lot of class, a lot of dignity. He has never been in any trouble. That's why this is so amazing for anybody who has heard this story so far. First of all, can you believe it? Second of all, are we really talking about Kobe Bryant, the guy who married two years ago, had a young daughter -- had a daughter born in January, looked like the consummate family man, had never been in trouble, didn't even care to go to the hotel bar with his teammates, ostensibly to stay out of trouble?

O'BRIEN: I think this is one where you have just got to keep a good degree of skepticism here for a little bit about this whole thing, because, when you're in the limelight like that, you are a potential target. We've just got to watch this one.

MORRISON: Yes, we are talking about allegations here. There have been no charges filed, although, as Kyra mentioned, the district attorney is weighing the option of whether to file charges.

The other thing here that is so delicate is that we're talking about a felony sexual complaint that, when you are talking about the other potential victim in this, there are really two sides of it, two victims, possibly. Is Kobe being targeted by someone who recognizes his fame and fortune? Or is there some truth to this and we have a victim on the other side? That -- it's very difficult and very fragile to try to weigh this in the media, when we have so few facts right now.

O'BRIEN: Neither is a good outcome.

MORRISON: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Is the bottom line.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Now, historically speaking, we're kind of talking about some of these players that are squeaky clean for years, and then it turns out they have got kids on the side.

MORRISON: Right. And, most recently, we think of Kirby Puckett, who was Mr. Everything in the state of Minnesota and an All-Star baseball player, who recently underwent a court trial for sexual misconduct.

Before that, we're talking about Philadelphia basketball icon Julius Erving was shown to have a child out of wedlock. Michael Jordan has had his issues with this as well, all of these gentlemen with very well-crafted professional athletic lives both in the arena of play and outside as well.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the tour, shall we?

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh, crash course, as we've been saying.

(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Lance got caught up in that. What is great about being Lance is, you get to ride your teammate's bike. Mr. Armstrong, here, take mine.

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Well, I'll tell you what. We're talking about -- this crash that we're watching now, it happened in Sunday's official first stage of the Tour de France near the end of a 124-mile track, Lance Armstrong one of 35 riders mixed up in this. And, yes, he did grab a teammate's bike of the U.S. Postal Service, finished the race, finished 107th, still only 11 seconds back.

O'BRIEN: And that guy is back to delivering mail today.

PHILLIPS: Exactly.

MORRISON: He will carry saddlebags for Lance for the rest of the tour.

But the thing about this, to me, it shows that Lance Armstrong has a lot of resilience, a lot of guts here. A lot of riders get seriously injured in situations like this. It also backs up something that happened last month at a pre-tour. He was involved in a serious crash. He had a bad gash on his right ankle, shook it off, no problem. He's going after his fifth tour title, shows some mental, as well as physical toughness.

O'BRIEN: Well, anybody who has battled what he has battled.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: A couple of raspberries from the concrete...

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: There was a broken collarbone, though. Didn't someone, one of the bikers...

MORRISON: Tyler Hamilton, who is another U.S. hope and up-and- coming rider, suffered a broken collarbone. He jumped back into the tour today. I was thought that the collarbone would keep him out of it, but he was riding in today's other stage. Lance, by the way, 10th place, 11 seconds behind the overall lead.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, but I think that's by design. But we can talk about that later, right? And it's part of the strategy.

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Yes, exactly.

O'BRIEN: All right, Matt.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Matt.

O'BRIEN: Always a pleasure to have you drop by.

MORRISON: My pleasure. All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



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Aired July 7, 2003 - 14:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Kobe Bryant is the antithesis of the NBA's bad-boy image, but now the basketball star is facing legal trouble.
A district attorney in Colorado is weighing possible criminal sex charges against the L.A. Lakers player. Bryant turned himself into authorities in Eagle County last week on an arrest warrant. It was issued after a woman claimed an alleged sexual assault at his hotel last Monday. The general manager of the Lakers, Mitch Kupchak, is standing by Bryant, saying: "These allegations are completely out of character of the Kobe Bryant we know. For the seven years he has been with us, he's been one of the finest young men we have know and a wonderful asset to both our team and our community."

The district attorney in this case will hold a news conference from Eagle, Colorado. We'll bring that to you live at 5:00 Eastern.

Well, we're going to talk more about the Kobe Bryant case and today's other sports stories with CNN's Matt Morrison, of course.

Matt, good to see you.

MATT MORRISON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Kyra.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Matt.

PHILLIPS: Well, looking back -- we were talking about this -- Kobe Bryant

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: It's a real shocker.

PHILLIPS: Yes, growing up in Italy, family guy, close with his dad. We've never heard anything about

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Well, as Mitch Kupchak said in that statement that was released, Kobe Bryant has been the perfect gentleman as far as the NBA is concerned, perfect example of what a professional athlete you would hope to be.

Here is a guy that has done nothing but get better and grow into what is probably the best NBA player on the floor today, second in the league in scoring last year, a five time All-Star. And he's done it with a lot of class, a lot of dignity. He has never been in any trouble. That's why this is so amazing for anybody who has heard this story so far. First of all, can you believe it? Second of all, are we really talking about Kobe Bryant, the guy who married two years ago, had a young daughter -- had a daughter born in January, looked like the consummate family man, had never been in trouble, didn't even care to go to the hotel bar with his teammates, ostensibly to stay out of trouble?

O'BRIEN: I think this is one where you have just got to keep a good degree of skepticism here for a little bit about this whole thing, because, when you're in the limelight like that, you are a potential target. We've just got to watch this one.

MORRISON: Yes, we are talking about allegations here. There have been no charges filed, although, as Kyra mentioned, the district attorney is weighing the option of whether to file charges.

The other thing here that is so delicate is that we're talking about a felony sexual complaint that, when you are talking about the other potential victim in this, there are really two sides of it, two victims, possibly. Is Kobe being targeted by someone who recognizes his fame and fortune? Or is there some truth to this and we have a victim on the other side? That -- it's very difficult and very fragile to try to weigh this in the media, when we have so few facts right now.

O'BRIEN: Neither is a good outcome.

MORRISON: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Is the bottom line.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Now, historically speaking, we're kind of talking about some of these players that are squeaky clean for years, and then it turns out they have got kids on the side.

MORRISON: Right. And, most recently, we think of Kirby Puckett, who was Mr. Everything in the state of Minnesota and an All-Star baseball player, who recently underwent a court trial for sexual misconduct.

Before that, we're talking about Philadelphia basketball icon Julius Erving was shown to have a child out of wedlock. Michael Jordan has had his issues with this as well, all of these gentlemen with very well-crafted professional athletic lives both in the arena of play and outside as well.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the tour, shall we?

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh, crash course, as we've been saying.

(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Lance got caught up in that. What is great about being Lance is, you get to ride your teammate's bike. Mr. Armstrong, here, take mine.

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Well, I'll tell you what. We're talking about -- this crash that we're watching now, it happened in Sunday's official first stage of the Tour de France near the end of a 124-mile track, Lance Armstrong one of 35 riders mixed up in this. And, yes, he did grab a teammate's bike of the U.S. Postal Service, finished the race, finished 107th, still only 11 seconds back.

O'BRIEN: And that guy is back to delivering mail today.

PHILLIPS: Exactly.

MORRISON: He will carry saddlebags for Lance for the rest of the tour.

But the thing about this, to me, it shows that Lance Armstrong has a lot of resilience, a lot of guts here. A lot of riders get seriously injured in situations like this. It also backs up something that happened last month at a pre-tour. He was involved in a serious crash. He had a bad gash on his right ankle, shook it off, no problem. He's going after his fifth tour title, shows some mental, as well as physical toughness.

O'BRIEN: Well, anybody who has battled what he has battled.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: A couple of raspberries from the concrete...

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: There was a broken collarbone, though. Didn't someone, one of the bikers...

MORRISON: Tyler Hamilton, who is another U.S. hope and up-and- coming rider, suffered a broken collarbone. He jumped back into the tour today. I was thought that the collarbone would keep him out of it, but he was riding in today's other stage. Lance, by the way, 10th place, 11 seconds behind the overall lead.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, but I think that's by design. But we can talk about that later, right? And it's part of the strategy.

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: Yes, exactly.

O'BRIEN: All right, Matt.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Matt.

O'BRIEN: Always a pleasure to have you drop by.

MORRISON: My pleasure. All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



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