Gayle King has responded to mounting criticism after a video clip from a recent interview with WNBA star Lisa Leslie hit the internet.
King had come under fire from many for her audacity to bring up the late NBA star’s 2003 rape case when she asked Leslie (a close friend of Bryant) about whether his legacy is “complicated” by the sexual assault charges.
“Is it complicated for you, as a woman, as a WNBA player?” King asked Leslie in the interview.
Leslie remained poised and patient with King as she answered, showing both respect for the question and her longtime friend’s legacy, saying, “It’s not complicated for me at all.”
But it was King’s questions and the timing of raising the issue of Bryant’s rape case in the wake of his death that led to an immediate backlash on social media.
Many celebrities, including 50 Cent, Boosie, Lil Duval, and Snoop Dogg, weighed in with profanity-filled rants. Snoop Dogg posted a video criticizing King and saying her question was “out of pocket” and accused her of trying to tarnish Bryant’s reputation.
Lil Boosie questioned why King would even ask the question saying, “Why would you do that to your people?”
However, King responded by posting two videos on her social media addressing her critics and calling out her bosses at CBS for posting a small clip of the interview without much context for the actual discussion that took place between herself and Leslie.
“I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I would be extremely angry with me too. I am mortified. I’m embarrassed, and I am very angry,” King said. “Unbeknownst to me, my network put up a clip from a very wide-ranging interview, totally taken out of context, and when you see it that way, it’s very jarring.”
King maintained that during her conversation with Leslie, they talked about Bryant’s career, his sense of humor, how he was a mentor to so many people, and how he was looking forward to endless possibilities as he entered the next chapter in his life.
“Yes, we talked about that court case because that court case has also come up. And I wanted to get Lisa’s take on it as a friend who knew him well,” King explained.
But her detractors like Snoop Dogg aren’t buying her response. Snoop took to Baller Alert’s IG page to comment after King’s response video was released saying:
“B*tch u knew what u was doing, so stop playing dumb. F*ck your bosses ya network and all ya executives u no heart having gutless b*tch,” he said.
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