I never thought I would ever have to write something like this. To be honest, I am not sure I have yet fully accepted the events of January 26th. But as the days have gone by, one after another, I continue to let go and appreciate further what it was Kobe Bryant gave to me. However we got the news, I think most people even subtly aware of the man’s impact on the sports world went into a state of shock and disbelief when they learned that Kobe had died in a helicopter accident, at the age of 41.
I was sitting on my couch, watching the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open, hoping for a Tiger Woods run, when all of a sudden, golf was the least consequential thing in my world. As the hours pressed on, there would be a lot of confusion, misreporting, and general hysteria. Ultimately, we also learned that Kobe’s daughter, Gianna, and seven others passed away on that tragic flight. For many, the thought of a daughter dying in her father’s arms was the most crushing part of the whole painful ordeal. Gianna, whose passion for basketball was passed down to her from her father, was just starting to make a name for herself. She had committed to play at UConn in college, with dreams of one day making the WNBA. To see that potential unfulfilled was the hardest part for me.
I wish I knew more about the other seven passengers. They all deserve to be memorialized, and I hope in due time, those who knew them will teach us about who they were, and why we should honor their memory.
Kobe Bryant transcended sports, and he transcended America. When he passed, people from every walk of life, from sports fans, to politicians, to entertainers, to even average people, felt compelled to express their grief. For me, it felt as though a piece of my childhood had been taken away, with the thudding finality that stays in your stomach for days afterward. I honestly don’t know if in my life a celebrity has passed quite so suddenly, or elicited quite the same outpouring of grief. It is a reminder to all that life is precious, and we must value it every chance we get, because any moment can be the one where it is taken away.
But also in this time, it is important to be reminded of who Kobe was, and how he likely would have wanted us to respond. In the past weeks I have struggled with the balance between reflecting on his memory and trying to return to a normal emotional state, while attempting to avoid wallowing in sadness or neglecting it altogether. But for Kobe, he would have expected us to move on, to not grieve, but continue living day by day. He would’ve asked us to put one foot in front of the other as long as we could. Because HE certainly did.
It doesn’t take much to get out of me that I am a die-hard Lakers fan. And for most of my life, the best player on the Lakers was Kobe Bryant. I began watching the Lakers during Kobe and Shaq’s initial run of titles. When Shaq left in 2004, I stayed with the Lakers, and Kobe Bryant quickly became my favorite player. The best moments were Kobe’s MVP 2008 season, and the Lakers deep playoff runs that followed. The peak of these runs were the championships of 2009 and 2010. The worst moments followed promptly after, and were marked by the countless injuries of his later career. When Kobe tore his Achilles tendon, it came at the end an amazing 2012-2013 season in which he seemingly single-handedly willed the Lakers to the postseason. That season would ultimately be his last as one of the best in the game.
And yet, the magic wasn’t extinguished quite yet. In his last ever game, in April of 2016, Kobe scored 60 points, leading the Lakers to a comeback win in the ultimate Swan Song performance. For a single night, Kobe reminded us of what we had previously grown so accustomed, and as he said goodbye to the game, he somehow left us wanting just a bit more.
Kobe’s career was full of amazing moments. When he arrived in LA, has was still only 17 years old. His initial contract had to be co-signed by his parents. In his early years, he dazzled us with an athletic style rife with high-flying dunks and athletic acrobatics. But what made Kobe a legend was how he managed to age his game so gracefully. One can argue that Kobe’s best years were when he no longer had the legs of his youth, but more than replaced them with an astute basketball mind and killer technical skills. Kobe’s greatest successes came when he used his mind to create opportunities for himself and his teammates, leading the Lakers to many more wins than the raw talent of his youth could supply on its own. In the end, he played all 20 seasons of his career with the Lakers. When he retired at the age of 37, he had spent more of his life as a Laker than not.
Kobe’s career was defined by his trademark Mamba mentality, a product of his self-assigned nickname, the Black Mamba. He seemed to have a killer instinct that struck fear in opponents. Throughout the years, he seemed to hit game winning shot after game winning shot. As a fan, I never gave up on a game as long as Kobe was on the floor. Furthermore, he seemed to have a toughness about him that was unparalleled. He often appeared to have his best game when he was under the weather. He once played most of a season (and won a championship) with a broken index finger on his shooting hard. When he had rotator cuff surgery in 2015, his doctor posited that the muscle may have been damaged for years. There are so many stories of his defying injuries and pressing forward to great performances that to list them all would ultimately sound tired and repetitive. Such was the legend of Kobe Bryant.
But as most athletes fade away after they play their last game, Kobe continued to demonstrate his excellence. He proved he was more than an athlete when he won an Oscar in 2018. He began mentoring current NBA players, shedding his competitive exterior for a warmer, teaching attitude. That attitude extended to his coaching his daughter’s youth basketball team. Likely through this experience, he became one of the foremost advocates for Women’s sports around the world. In his brief few years of retirement, Kobe Bryant was already becoming an important voice in the world. In a time when many athletes struggle to find an identity in their new existence, Kobe and his wife Vanessa welcomed two new daughters to their family, and Kobe’s identity became that of a dedicated family man, which is quite an amazing thing to say given his life story.
It is important, when discussing Kobe Bryant, to acknowledge and digest that he was not perfect. Throughout his career, he was often accused of being cold, both to his teammates and those he played against. In some cases, this iciness led to great players like Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard deciding they’d rather play elsewhere. On one occasion, he shouted a homophobic slur at a referee during a game. At another time, he was reprimanded for displaying apparent indifference towards violence against his fellow African Americans in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting.
But his worst transgression of all was a 2003 rape accusation. A perfect public reputation was instantly destroyed, and Kobe found himself cast into infamy. Kobe, already a married man, admitted to an affair with his accuser, but maintained his own innocence. Nevertheless, the resulting proceedings showed at the very least a willingness of his defense team to participate in a shaming of the accuser amongst other shady tactics. To this day, this episode has left a scar on Kobe’s legacy. Ultimately, he was cleared of criminal charges, but did reach a civil settlement with his accuser. As part of the settlement, he released a statement apologizing to her for his conduct.
Kobe’s faults are part of his story, just as much as his many accolades. To forget them is to misremember who Kobe was. Throughout my time being a fan of his, I have had to wrestle with how to continue celebrating his accomplishments while the specter of some of his less reputable traits lingered. This conflict arose again when I heard about his death. A voice that has helped me come to terms with this conflict has been Rachel Nichols, one of the preeminent basketball journalists who covered Kobe. On an appearance on ESPN’s South Beach Sessions, she shared her appraisal of Kobe’s complicated legacy. “He’s certainly not a saint,” she said. “But I watched him do things that were good, and I watched him do things that were terrible, and I watched him try to get better after that, and that’s the biggest thing I ever want from someone. And I saw him try. And I saw him do it.” If nothing else, this may be the most important thing we learn from the life of Kobe Bryant. No matter our faults, no matter what we may have done in the past, it is our responsibility to improve, to leave a positive impact however we can. Even if some of his transgressions may never be forgiven, we can appreciate that Kobe made that effort.
As part of the process of coping with Kobe’s passing, I’ve been spending much time reminiscing about the great moments I had watching him. I’d like to share my fondest memory. It is not from any of the five championship runs. In fact, it is not even from a playoff game. It is from a Friday night regular season game in 2013, during his last hurrah amongst the game’s elite. The Lakers, at the time outside of the playoff picture, were playing a game against the Toronto Raptors. A season that had featured far more turmoil and drama than winning was just beginning to turn around, with Kobe leading the charge playing some of the best basketball of his career. This night, the Lakers, playing without perhaps their next best player in Pau Gasol, trailed the whole game, all the way up until the end, when in the last two minutes, Kobe hit three 3-point baskets to tie the game up. The first was off of multiple pump fakes, with defender Alan Anderson draped all over him. The second was a quick catch and shoot from the corner off a sneakily amazing pass from Steve Nash. The third was a cold-blooded catch, pump and shoot to tie the game. When that last shot went up, so captivating was the performance that there was no doubt in the minds of those watching that it was going through the net. This heroic performance was excuse enough to be excited, but the reason this is my favorite memory is far more sentimental. I was sitting in my parent’s house, all of 17, watching the game via an illegal stream on the internet. And sitting by my side, taking it all in with me, was my 77-year-old grandfather. He is a huge sports fan in his own right, but having grown up in India, basketball was never on his radar. Still, while we watched Kobe will the Lakers back into the game, it was hard to miss the amazement in my grandpa’s eyes. What began as just the routine watching of a basketball game for me ended up being one of the most precious bonding moments I’ve had with my grandfather, both of us captivated by the theatre of the game unfolding before us. The Lakers ended up winning in overtime, courtesy of a Kobe Bryant game-winning dunk to cap of a 40-point masterpiece. And I had experienced a night I will never forget. Kobe Bryant gave that moment to me. He gave that moment to my grandpa. It is something for which I will certainly always be grateful.
All of us are writing the chapters to the books that will be our lives. Some of us will be fortunate enough to know when we are writing our final chapters, able to do so on our own terms. Unfortunately for Kobe, Gianna, and the seven others who perished on January 26th, they did not get that opportunity. Today Vanessa Bryant is without her husband and her daughter, and three other girls are without their father and their sister. Many others are grieving for their loved ones who perished that day. I can only hope that with time, their pain will begin to subside and normalcy can exist in some form again. But I do know this much: Kobe Bryant has cemented his place in our memory. I will never forget the countless moments of joy I experienced watching him play. I know that his work will continue as well. In the void that was left, countless others will step in to fill it, whether it is in mentoring the next generation, in advocating for those less fortunate, or in celebrating the accomplishments of those who deserve celebration beyond what they have come to expect. And, more than anything, I am sure that the generation of young athletes he inspired will continue to pay tribute to him in the way they practice, study and compete. And for that reason, the Legacy of Kobe Bryant will surely never die.
The Shy Guy Sports Blog 