Don't forget the RAPE scandal

He gave his wife a diamond ring and everything was ok again. (So no big deal)

The legacy of the Kobe Bryant rape case

On June 30, 2003, Kobe Bryant arrived at the Cordillera Lodge and Spa in Edwards, Colorado. After a frustrating season that saw the Los Angeles Lakers fail to win a fourth straight championship, Bryant was in town for an operation on his knee.

A 19-year-old concierge at the hotel showed the superstar and his security team to their rooms, and caught his eye. Bryant, a new father of a six-month-old daughter, made small talk with the blonde, and once they arrived at his room, he took her aside and requested that she come back later to give him a private tour of the hotel. She obliged, and after the tour and mild flirtations, Bryant invited her into his hotel room.

Just five minutes later, the woman exited the room, disheveled and reportedly distraught. Her underwear was bloody, as was Bryant’s shirt.

She told her friend, a bellboy at the hotel, about the encounter that night, and after making sure the woman got home safely, the bellboy went home and told his father. The next day, after recounting the incident to her mother, the woman reported it to police.

https://thinkprogress.org/the-legacy-of-the-kobe-bryant-rape-case-6a42f159be7b/

Kobe Bryant’s Disturbing Rape Case: The DNA Evidence, the Accuser’s Story, and the Half-Confession

On April 13, Kobe Bean Bryant will don his Lakers jersey for the last time. And during this, his 20th and final NBA season, Bryant has received an extended valediction fit for a king, replete with a plethora of celebrations, movie star-commercials, and unanimous praise from basketball stars past and present. His professional résumé is, of course, indisputable. Bryant is an 18-time All-Star, 12-time member of the All-Defensive team, and 5-time NBA champion. He will go down as the second-best shooting guard in NBA history—behind His Airness—and one of the Top 20 players to ever set foot on the hardwood. But when taking into account the entire breadth of Bryant’s tenure in the spotlight, the personal and professional, there will always be one giant question mark, one disturbing episode that gives even the most ardent admirers of the Black Mamba considerable pause: the rape case.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kobe-bryants-disturbing-rape-case-the-dna-evidence-the-accusers-story-and-the-half-confession