Kobe Bryant - Legal Trouble

In 2003, Bryant's reputation was tainted by a sexual assault case in which Katelyn Faber, a young woman from Colorado, accused him of rape. With his image badly tarnished, the public's perception of Bryant plummeted, and his endorsement contracts with McDonald's, Nutella, and Ferrero SpA were terminated. Sales figures from NBA merchandisers indicated that sales of replicas of Bryant's jersey fell far off of their previous highs.
During the rape investigation, Kobe told police that "he should have done what Shaq does ... that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything" and that Shaq already had paid up to $1 million "for situations like this." This was controversial because Kobe and Shaq were teammates at the time and many thought that Kobe broke "locker-room code" by revealing confidential information, or worse, by falsely accusing a teammate to deflect attention from himself.
The rape investigation was resolved when Kobe agreed to apologize to the victim for the incident, including his public mea culpa: "Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did." Details of financial compensation to the victim were not made public.
In 2004, a dispute between Bryant and former teammate Malone became public prior to Malone's expected re-signing with the Lakers. Bryant claimed Malone had made inappropriate comments to Bryant's wife. Malone claimed the comments were in jest and that Bryant was overreacting. In the subsequent months, rather than re-join Bryant and the Lakers, Malone turned his attention to the possibility of joining another team, but ultimately decided to retire.
Wikipedia - Kobe Bryant