Early Sunday morning, the heartbreaking news that Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna had suddenly and tragically passed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. shocked the world.
Not only did basketball lose one of its most beloved icons, a family lost its father. A mother lost her child and her husband.
Life has an excruciating way of reminding you how precious our time here is and how it should never be taken for granted.
For 20 years, Bryant donned the Laker purple and gold. He hoisted five championship trophies, won the 2008 NBA MVP award, made 18 NBA All-Star games and was named first team all defense nine times. His determination and fire as a competitor were unmatched by his peers and he truly will go down as one of the all-time greats.
“Well, to my generation especially, it was Kobe or Lebron,” Tigers forward Lance Thomas said. “They were gods to us."
I was always a LeBron fan but a basketball fan first, so growing up just me and my mom, I would just watch Kobe highlights all day and go outside and do those exact moves. I’d picture myself hitting those same shots in the same scenarios. He affected the way I worked. He affected the way I thought. I never want to be outworked because of Kobe and most of all, he made me want to lock in and never lose by any means.
Kobe is basketball to me.
Often when a death is reported, it can get lost in the shuffle of a normal news day. However, when TMZ broke the report, time almost seemed to slow down due to the surrealness of it all.
Not Kobe. Not this way.
Everyone waited impatiently for the follow-up report that it had all been false. It never came. Kobe Bryant was actually gone.
Memphis men's basketball head coach Penny Hardaway spoke to media Monday afternoon about Wednesday's away game at UCF. He answered the first question about his thoughts of Bryant's passing.
“Kobe Bryant meant a lot to the world, to the basketball world, to all of his fans,” Hardaway said. “That’s devastating news yesterday to hear about what happened to him, his daughter and the rest of the families. Being in the big fraternity in the NBA, it’s just crushing to know that happened. We’re on planes, I’ve been on helicopters. I’ve been in those situations plenty of times because that’s been our life. Every time you go on, you’re just praying to god that you’ll come down and be able to go home.”
From the day he entered the league in 1997, Bryant had a chip on his shoulder, motivated to prove himself. When he stepped in between the lines, it was like a different beast awakened inside him.
“He was a very competitive guy,” Hardaway said. “A guy that was always in tune with what he wanted to do. He knew that when he was coming to town, it was going to be a battle. There’s certain guys that he just had on a list that he felt like he had to show that he could compete with or dominate or want to dominate and I was one of those guys. I knew when he came to town that he wanted to show who he was. Just a tough competitor, he didn’t really fraternize with the rest of the players in the league. He wanted to keep it all business while he was in the league because he was about championships.”
Players like Kobe are rare. His cerebral approach to the game defined what it meant to be a fierce competitor. His 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors in 2006 is the stuff of legends. He inspired people not only around this country, but around the world.
“I remember always watching him on tv and wanting to be just like him,” freshman guard and California native Boogie Ellis said. “Losing him yesterday was a really tough day for me. He was like the guy I wanted to be. My mentality, my work ethic, all that stuff I got from him.”
The void left behind by Bryant’s death is one that the NBA will not be able to get over any time soon. The outpour of support and emotion from the league community has already been immense, and it is sure to continue.
Many professional leagues honored the Laker great in various ways, but inside the NBA, some have already gone beyond the lines.
The Dallas Mavericks wasted no time announcing that their franchise will retire the number 24. Expect the rest to follow suit.
The NBA postponed Tuesday night’s scheduled Lakers-Clippers matchup. Players like the Trae Young, Tyson Chandler and Devin Booker were all visibly overwhelmed on the floor Sunday night. While the hurt and the sadness certainly will not be going away anytime soon, the only bright side in all this is the memories Kobe provided for us are not either.
