Lakers draft pick deletes old tweet where he called Kobe Bryant a 'rapist'
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Nance immediately deleted it once he got drafted, but not before it became well publicized:
I don't think Kobe and Larry Nance Jr. are going to get along pic.twitter.com/arbcJcBwrB
- Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) June 26, 2015
In 2003 Bryant was charged with sexual assault in Eagle, Colorado. Bryant denied any wrongdoing, and repeatedly said the encounter was consensual. A judge later dismissed the case, and Bryant reached a settlement with the accuser in a civil lawsuit.
At a post-Draft press conference Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak addressed the issue with ESPN's Baxter Holmes:
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne called the situation "a problem" and compared it to Bryant's infamous rocky relationship with former Laker Smush Parker on SportsCenter.
"This has echoes of Smush Parker saying bad things about Kobe Bryant," Shelburne said. "He's obviously going to be sensitive about the situation. I don't think he's going to take this very well even if you say it was two or three years ago and even if you say, 'I'm a different person now and I was a stupid stupid kid back then and I shouldn't have said it.'"
"I think this is going to be a problem even if they talk it out. It's going to be hard to get off on the right foot, or any foot at all," Shelburne said.
Bryant has yet to publicly address the situation.
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