Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

You know...generally speaking I would be mourning MY loss with Kobe's death (very hard and strange to type that) but I was immidiately thinking about Vanessa, Natalia who is a 17 year old now and then Bianka 3 and Capri (7 months...)...

Man at some point we gonna move on from losing an amazing public figure which is a loss for humanity...but Vanessa, Natalia and co...they will have to deal with this *** for the next 50+ years...they will NEVER enjoy life anymore to the same degree. The pain will slow over time but the memories of Kobe (and Gianna) will live on forever because he is a legend.

The life of a family is absolutely shaken right now with zero chance to recover. I seriously do not know what Vanessa and co. must have gone through when their phone called and someone told them this horrible horrible news...I can't imagine it, I seriously can't. My brain won't process trying to imagine what that moment must have been like...


At the same time I wanna take time to address the other people on the chopper...your life matters too...my heartfelt thoughts and prayers for your loved ones...RIP. On the one hand you can complain about nobody "caring" about your loss because Kobe frickin Bryant was on the chopper...but consider yourself lucky, that you can mourn privately without being on TV 24/7 and on every news paper...its easier to deal with, believe me.

It was the worst weekened in my life. I'm absolutely devastated and I dunno how to express my anger...Gianna's death made it MUCH worse for me. She was a 13 year old loving kid trying to make a name for herself...I don't want to imagine what those last seconds must have felt like when the chopper started to shake and started to fall...what must have been gone through their minds...the scream, the fear, the thoughts about their family and the ramifications of this tragedy...

just an awful awful awful day...beyond depressed right now. Almost unable to work. Constantly tears coming up and me holding them back...also I'm still somewhat in disbelief. Part of me can't accept it yet.

My wife showed me an instagram story asking me: "Has Kobe died? Why are peopel posting him in black and white with RIP"...and I was like...BS, somebody making a bad joke but let me check my phone...and boy it had blown up with news...

my family from the netherlands, US etc. reaching out knowing how I idolized him and I was just numb....didn't answer to anyone, just reading for a fake news article that never came...Kobe was in my living room for 20 years....his smile, his drive, his "journey"...all followed on a daily basis. At some point I had more than 10k pictures of Kobe on my PC...

and now I see media saying "you are a legend, you'll live on forever" bla bla bla....he is gone man....GONE!!!!! We never find out what height his greatness could have achieved....we can only guess and imagine....

 

I understand that it sometimes seems like co-opting misery when fans write about their own lives in reflecting on tragic deaths of celebrities and influencers. If that bothers you, you can stop reading.

I was born in PA in 1979. I lived about 75 minutes from Lower Merion. I played sports my whole life, and I was a Lakers fan from as early as I can remember. But my interest was low since Magic had retired (the first time). Then MJ came back from baseball and I followed him while still a sort of Lakers fan, because he was the greatest. Then I started hearing about Kobe.

I wasn't on the basketball team after 8th grade. But my (one grade) older brother's friends who were talked about going to "see Kobe play." I didn't know who he was, and when I found out, I didn't understand why you'd drive three hours out of your way to watch a high school player. Of course, it became increasingly hard NOT to hear about Kobe, and he landed on the Lakers.

I followed Kobe's whole career. His is the only jersey I've ever purchased in any sport as an adult - and it's a knockoff because I'm not into sports gear like that. If you know me, you probably can estimate that I've spent at least hundreds of hours working on Kobe stats and articles. Most of them I just write and don't publish. They're just for me. Among the time I've devoted to Kobe fandom, my favorite output I've created are the ones where he was age-defying, posting some of the most absurd stats for his age up until the Achilles injury. Even with the injury, he sank those free throws. Kobe had a chance at working Father Time to a draw, it had almost seemed.

He didn't, of course. And I washed my hands of basketball soon after. I don't watch it at all. I don't follow the Lakers. I don't follow any team, in fact. I receive a daily "top performers" from Basketball Reference that I usually don't click and I check the box for D'Angelo Russell. But I don't care about basketball. There's nothing interesting left for me in this game, but that's been true since Kobe retired.

My favorite thing about Kobe's retirement was that I heard almost nothing about him, but what I did was about his family and business ventures. The hard part for someone with a warrior's mentality seems to be to reintegrate when the battle is done. This is the thrust behind many Greek tragedies, and it's even its own subgenre: the nostos (the return story, like The Odyssey). Kobe did it. And in not getting into fights, no money problems, no drugs, just family and crushing goals in his new chosen field, Kobe gave me peace of mind. An athlete hero I didn't have to worry about any longer.

I've gone back to watch Kobe's final scoring push against Utah several times since he retired. Probably every three months or so, I'd put it on and cry while I watched it. It's the single greatest sustained display of will I've ever seen on the basketball court. This wasn't prime Kobe. This was old, broken Kobe. But for one night, especially one six minute stretch of game time, he made it not matter.

The game always ends. You always stop playing at some point. I know that. The retirement was hard, but I processed it. Life is different. I just wasn't ready for Kobe's to end this way. I thought I'd have more time "with" him. If I'm co-opting his misery, it's because it's hard for me to think of my life without Kobe's impact on it. It's hard to process this for so many fans precisely because a part of us died with Kobe.

 

Woke up at 1:30 am. Laid awake for two and a half hours. I kept tossing around telling myself, "It did happen. Just try to sleep."