Kobe bryant sexual assault case

Kobe bryant sexual assault case, Phil Jackson’s memoir hit bookshelves Tuesday and in addition to talking life, Michael Jordan, and Zen, the 13-time NBA champion, the former Lakers coach spoke on how Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case drastically changed the way he viewed #8.

It’s coming out now, though, in Jackson’s 339-page memoir co-written with Hugh Delehanty and available Tuesday: “Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.”…

Jackson talked about how the sexual-assault charges levied against Bryant in 2003 temporarily changed his outlook on the perennial All-Star.

It “cracked open an old wound” because Jackson’s daughter was the victim of an assault while on a date with an athlete in college.

“Brooke expected me to get angry and make her feel protected. Instead I suppressed my rage — as I’d been conditioned to do during childhood by my parents … it left her feeling alone and unsupported. (In the end, after filing a report with the police, Brooke chose not to press charges.)

“The Kobe incident triggered all my unprocessed anger and tainted my perception of him. … It distorted my view of Kobe throughout the 2003-04 season. No matter what I did to extinguish it, the anger kept smoldering in the background.”

Charges were dropped against Bryant in 2004, a few months after the Lakers lost to Detroit in the NBA Finals.

The coach-player relationship eventually improved to the point that Jackson defended Bryant after his infamous trade demand in 2007. Bryant was irritated after three languid seasons and wanted to continue his championship pursuits elsewhere.

“No question, losing Kobe would be a blow to the organization and to me personally,” Jackson wrote of that summer.