DENVER – Los Angeles Lakers (search) star Kobe Bryant (search) said in a televised interview Thursday that he sometimes becomes distracted or scared as he fights a felony sexual assault (search) charge.
"You're just ... living in a nightmare and just can't really wake up out of it," Bryant said in the interview, broadcast on ABC at halftime of the Houston Rockets-Lakers game. Houston won, 99-87.
Bryant, 25, is charged with attacking a 19-year-old employee at a Colorado resort in June. He has said the two had consensual sex.
Asked if he has trouble keeping his mind on basketball during games, Bryant said: "Sometimes it wanders and I have to try to bring myself back to center. It's human nature, I guess."
He said he is sometimes "a little bit" scared.
"If you can't control, you just kind of have to let it go. And at times that can be extremely difficult but, you know, you do it," he said.
Despite the distractions, Bryant scored the winning basket as time ran out in a Dec. 19 game against the Denver Nuggets in Los Angeles after missing the first quarter to attend a court hearing in Eagle.
Bryant is scheduled to return to Eagle for another hearing Jan. 23.
He faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation if convicted.
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