Upworthy's book GOOD PEOPLE, now available - take a look!

Shop
 Explore 

kobe bryant

Culture

Snoop Dogg just made a powerful apology to Gayle King after attacking her Kobe Bryant questions

It turns out addressing Kobe Bryant's "complicated legacy" is, well, also complicated. Snoop Dogg recently apologized to Gayle King for comments he made following an interview where the journalist spoke to Lisa Leslie about Bryant's rape allegation – an interview which King also apologized for.

A clip of an interview between King and Leslie, a friend of Bryant, was posted on CBS's Twitter account. In the clip, the "CBS This Morning" co-host asks Leslie about the 2003 sexual assault charges against Bryant. Bryant's case did not go to trial. Bryant also issued a statement acknowledging that while he believed it was consensual, the woman did not see it the same way. Leslie told King that Bryant's legacy was "not complicated" for her "at all," saying she had never seen Bryant "do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way." The clip ends with Leslie telling King, "I think that the media should be more respectful at this time."

King received backlash for the clip, with many accusing King of trying to take down a black man who wasn't around to defend himself against 17-year-old allegations. Even Snoop Dogg joined in on the pile on, calling King a "funky dog-head bitch" in a now deleted Instagram video. "We expect more from you, Gayle. Don't you hang out with Oprah? Why y'all attacking us? We yo people. You ain't coming after f---ing Harvey Weinstein a-- with them dumba-- questions. I get sick of y'all," he said. "How dare you try to tarnish my motherf---ing homeboy's reputation?"

— (@)

King later apologized for the interview, saying the 30 second clip wasn't reflective of the full interview. "I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I'd be extremely angry with me too," King said in an Instagram live video. "I am mortified, I am embarrassed, and I am very angry. 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."

See on Instagram

RELATED: In a deeply personal interview, Kobe Bryant once shared how education can combat racism

Now, Snoop Dogg is apologizing to King after speaking with his mother. "Two wrongs don't make no right," Snoop Dogg said in an Instagram video. "When you're wrong, you gotta fix it."

See on Instagram

"Gayle King, I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner based off of emotions, me being angry at the questions that you asked. Overreacted, should have handled it way different than that. I was raised better than that," he restated. "So I would like to apologize to you publicly for the language that I used and calling you out of your name and just being disrespectful," Snoop Dogg says in the video.

Snoop Dogg's apology is a powerful reminder on the importance of treating others with respect, even if you feel passionate about the issue.

From Your Site Articles

In a deeply personal interview, Kobe Bryant once shared how education can combat racism

While basketball fans mourn Kobe Bryant's sudden passing, others demonstrate inadvertent racism when speaking of the basketball legend's death. The BBC ran a photo of LeBron James instead of Bryant when reporting on Bryant's helicopter crash. Sure, they played on the team, but they don't even look alike. The BBC apologized for the mistake, calling it "human error." But it's hard not to think the human error being committed was the error of being racist.

During his life, Bryant spoke out against racism. Just before his passing, Bryant spoke to CNN at a Major League Soccer event and opened up about the racism he saw while living in Italy between the ages of six to 13. Bryant's father, Joe Bryant, played professional basketball for various teams in Italy, and Bryant became fluent in Italian. Unfortunately, he was exposed to hate. "When I was growing up in Italy, I've obviously witnessed it first-hand going to certain soccer matches and things of that nature," Bryant told CNN. "My parents have taught me and educated me on how to deal with those sorts of things."

Recently, Italian soccer league Serie A came under fire for the "No-to-Racism" campaign posters featuring the faces of monkeys as a way to somehow deter racism, while simultaneously being super racist. Go figure, it inspired even more racial slurs and people threw bananas at black players. Serie A apologized for the incredibly inappropriate posters.

But racism isn't something that we have to live with, and Bryant advocated education as a way to combat racism. "It's always education and understanding that racism is a thing that's been a part of our culture for a while," Bryant told CNN. "Even though now we've come such a long way but there's still so much to be done and I think education is always the most important thing."

Bryant pointed to other sports legends as inspirations, legends who are remembered for their amazing accomplishments in addition to the barriers that they broke. "I think speaking up and taking a stand, a significant stand [is important]," Bryant told CNN. "Looking at various muses that have handled things extremely well, from Jackie Robinson to Bill Russell and so forth and so on, so I think education is very important."

Italy is kinder to Bryant after his passing. "All of the NBA players are important, because they're legends, but he's particularly important to us because he knew Italy so well, having lived in several cities here," Italian federation president Giovanni Petrucci told the Associated Press. "He had a lot of Italian qualities. He spoke Italian very well. He even knew the local slang."

RIP, Kobe. You will be missed.

From Your Site Articles

We have a small favor to ask of you

kobe bryant