The world lost an icon.
The world lost a legend.
Kobe Bryant achieved greatness on the basketball court. He won 5 NBA championships with the Los Angels Lakers, crowned 2 Olympic gold medals with Team USA, he was ranked 3rd on the NBA all-time high scoring list (only to be surpassed by Lebron James the day before his death,) a two-time NBA Finals and one-time regular-season MVP, he won an Oscar, and he was the youngest player to join the league at 18 years old- bypassing college ball.
In his final NBA game, before he retired, he scored a whopping 60 points against the Utah Jazz. Since his retirement he had two jersey numbers hang at Staples Center- both number 8 and number 24. Thereafter, he was hyper-focused on family as being on the road for two decades who cut into family time. Often, you would catch him at games with his lovely daughter Gianna (Gigi,) who too played basketball. More importantly, he became invested in Gigi’s career being the coach of her team. Kobe leaves behind a loving wife over 20 years of marriage, Vanessa, and three other daughters, Natalia, Bianka, and Capri. He was a “girl dad.” This wife described him at his life celebration as the real MVD (Most Valuable Dad.)
Bryant, like Michael Jordan, inspired a generation of kids to play basketball at the greatest level. His name even echoed on basketball courts as a moniker for epic scoring as youth chant “Kobe!” before nailing a shot. Many would debate who was the greatest basketball player of all time, I’ve heard my fair share of great debates crowning Kobe over Jordan and even Wilt Chamberlin and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. However you look at it, he earned his own right to be placed on the top throne amongst legends.
January 26th, 2020 was the day three basketball world stood still…
1/26/20 was a sad day for us all as we learned of the Black Mamba’s fatal crash. 2/24/20 was an uplifting day as we witnessed the life celebration of Kobe, Gigi and seven other beautiful souls on the helicopter that day.
“Those times when you get up early and you work hard, those times when you stay up late and you work hard, those times when you don’t feel like working, you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. That’s the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. And if you guys can understand that, then what you’ll see happen is you won’t accomplish your dreams, your dreams won’t come true; something greater will. Mamba out…” From his jersey retirement speech, 2017.
Kobe Bryant will always be a legend to us all forever.
