Kobe
“Fuck you, Kobe!”, a 12-year-old me screamed at the top of my lungs. I was this chubby, nerdy kid back then who had just stepped into the waters of basketball fandom. I watched with disgust this old bald dude embossed in the Laker purple and gold toast every defender from my Miami Heat. Dwyane Wade, one of the best defending guards of all time, had his body all over Bryant midway through the first with the shot clock running down. Much like his Mamba moniker, he slithered through Wade’s boulder of a body with a couple of dribbles, spun around, and shot it. Cash. It was like this the whole evening at the front line of the Heat’s defenses. Udonis Haslem? Nope. Mario Chalmers? Not a chance. Shane Battier? Swish. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I officially despise Kobe now.
“You’ll never be as good as LeBron, Kobe!”, a still nerdy, slightly less girthy version of me screamed, one year later. Same setting, but this time, it was the Heat on top, and the dynamic duo of Wade and LeBron is taking over the league by storm, and the Bryant’s Lakers were getting the wrong end of it this time. The Heat were getting everything they wanted in this game, as the ill-fated chemistry of the 2013 Lakers had Kobe and Co. reeling off of dunk after dunk by James and his 32 points. Finally, we got Kobe.
“Let’s go, Kobe!”, I begrudgingly thought to myself as I was watching a random Lakers-Spurs game. If there’s one thing that I hate more than Kobe Bryant, it’s the San Antonio Spurs, so I’d always go out of my way to profess my resentment for that team, even if I had to half-heartedly cheer for my perception of the NBA’s villain. I watched as every fade away, every free throw form, every step back triple was performed with grace, like an orchestrator organizing his own piece, and much like grand musical performances, Kobe put on a masterful suit of his own and turned to the cunning music, leaving no man alive as he drained shot after shot. It was like he was giving me the middle finger through the screen for all my hate and prejudices against him. I was entranced. Was I starting to like Kobe now?
“Congrats on a great career, Kobe”, a phrase I never thought I would say unsarcastically. I have unequivocally fallen in love with Kobe Bryant and his game, so it was a pain to have to say goodbye to his playing days. At the same night of Kobe’s farewell game, the infamous 2016 Warriors were set for a coronation for the best regular season record, one that will be cemented in NBA history, but nobody cared. All eyes were on Kobe: the kid from Lower Merion H.S., 20 years, 33,643 points, 5 championships, 2 Finals MVPs, 15 All-Star stints later. In classic Mamba fashion, we witnessed Bryant pour in 60 points in his final game, punctuated by a pull up jumper in the clutch for his 50th field goal attempt to solidify the Lakers win. Mamba out. Poetic.
“Rest in peace, Kobe”, a phrase that I had to put into words just this morning. After catching wind of the news that is Kobe’s death, I had absolutely no words. I scrolled through my Twitter timeline as I do whenever I wanted to confirm a piece of news. Woj, D-Wade, Bleacher Report, Bill Simmons, hell, even the official NBA account all tweeted out to confirm the tragedy. Even with some of the most credible NBA people talking about it, I still couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be happening, this must be a nightmare. Kobe had a whole post-basketball career ahead of him: the philanthropy, the lifetime Nike endorsements, the stories, the Academy Award-winning Dear Basketball, among others. Kobe was an intelligent and impactful man. The thought of his beloved Mambacita, Gianna, who had a whole life ahead of her alongside the rest of the precious lives that were lost in crash, is incredibly distressing.
“Goodbye, Kobe”, a phrase that resounded throughout the whole league. There’s no definite way to start off the impact that Kobe has done not just for the world of basketball, but for the world of sports. There’s the Frobe years that made him such a fan-favorite right off the bat. Just the simple numbers 8 and 24 have been immortalized by Bryant. There’s the million missed shots, the air-balled jumpers against the Jazz in the Playoffs, the chemistry problems, the lost postseason stints that inspired the one and only Kobe. There’s the dire clutch shots, the 81-point game agains the Raptors, the terrific last-second heroics agains the Suns, the five titles that inspired a whole generation of ballers who worshipped the Mamba Mentality.
“Kobe!”, is not only a word that’s bound to be, and already is, immortalized in the basketball world, it’s a way of life for a lot of people who relate to Bryant. It’s a testament to the work ethic, the passion that Bryant puts in everyday to be the NBA legend that he is. Whether it is shooting one’s shot at a girl at a party, or taking the biggest sports play of one’s life, or grinding every day to get that big break, or even just a simple crumpling of paper into a ball and shooting it for life’s simplest of joys, Kobe’s legacy lives on.
Thank you, Kobe.
