Today we celebrate the life of the legend Kobe Bryant.
I will be postponing my normal Monday post to tomorrow in his honor. And instead will do a post purely dedicated to the Black Mamba.
#ICYMI – as in spent your day under the covers doing nothing all day…
Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Sunday morning with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna while going to a youth basketball event. 7 others were killed as well. Before you ask, Kobe often took a helicopter as the traffic in LA is so horrendous, so the day started as nothing out of the ordinary for the Bryant’s. There was quite a bit of fog that day, but no foul play was involved.
The news also comes just hours after LeBron James passed Kobe Bryant as the 3rd highest point scorer ever in the NBA. Kobe was tweeting just hours before his death congratulating LeBron.
So why is everyone making such a huge deal?
Kobe Bryant was son of the NBA player, Joe Bryant, who retired when Kobe was 6 years old. His father moved his family to Italy to play basketball at a lower level. Due to his time there, Kobe grew up playing both soccer and basketball and spoke fluent Italian. He also had a nephew who played in the league.
Kobe picked up a basketball and started playing at age 3 and played for his high school in a Philadelphia suburb. During his senior season, he was named the Naismith High School PoY, Gatorade PoY, a McDonalds’ All-American and a USA Today All-American.
Kobe went to the NBA straight out of high school at age 17. He was drafted 13th to the Charlotte Hornets (great trivia fact). The Hornets agreed to pick Kobe so they could trade for the Lakers’ center Vlade Divac and the teams did just that. Kobe never left LA after that where he played from 1996-2016 wearing #8 and #24, which are both retired by the Lakers. In his early years in the league, Kobe was the youngest ever starter in the NBA and the youngest dunk champion in 1997. The Lakers went on to win the 2000, 2001 and 2002 NBA Championship, furthering solidifying Kobe’s status as one of the best players in the game (oh a guy you might know also played with him – Shaq). The Lakers then won the whole thing again in 2009 and 2010 with Kobe on the squad. His final seasons were injury riddled and he retired in 2016. But not before becoming the oldest player to ever score 60 points during his finale on April 13th.
He was NBA Finals MVP in 2009 & 2010, NBA MVP in 2008, named to the NBA All-Star team 18xs, All-Star MVP 4xs, 2x NBA scoring champion in 2006 & 2007 along with Slam Dunk Champion in 1997. He is also a 2008 & 2012 Olympic gold medalist playing on the American basketball team.
Seems like a lot of awards and accolades. Oh, were not done.
He also won an Oscar – the first African American to win for Best Animated Short Film, for Dear Basketball.
His personal life was also a winner
Kobe met his wife Vanessa when she was only 17 and he was 21 in 1999. The 2 were engaged after just 6 months of dating and later married in 2001. They had 4 daughters: Tatiana (17), Gianna (13 – died with him), Bianka (4) and Capri Kobe (7 months). He seemed to live for his kids nowadays and loved to watch them play all sports.
He appeared in TV shows, dabbled in music, wrote a book (The Mamba Mentality) and had many successful business ventures – his latest being BodyArmor which recently became the drink of the NCAA tournament.
There have been many stories coming out about who Kobe Bryant was but no matter who you talk to, it seems unanimous that no one worked harder at his love and craft than the Black Mamba.
Some of the ways people are honoring Kobe:
- NBA teams are taking violations on purpose
- Alicia Keys at the Emmy’s in the ‘House that Kobe Bryant built’
- Drew Brees at the Pro Bowl
- NFC celebration during the Pro Bowl
- Tiger Woods at the Farmers Insurance Open
- At the Australian Open, homegrown Nick Kyrgios warmed up in a Kobe Bryant jersey to pay tribute to the basketball legend and was met with raucous applause
- The Pistons have called on their fans to wear Purple & Gold at tonight’s games
- Billboards are popping up in OH, RI, PA, etc.
- Kobe’s final game will re-air tonight @ 8pm on ESPN
Who else died?
John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli (family and daughter), Sarah Chester, Payton Chester (mother and daughter), Christina Mauser (coach) and Ara Zobayan (pilot)
If this news makes you feel like you don’t want to work any more today, then I have some of Kobe’s own words for you.
- The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.
- If you do the work, if you work hard enough, dreams come true.
- Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.
- I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.
- These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.
- The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.
- Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.
- If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.
- Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.
- Use your success, wealth and influence to put them in the best position to realize their own dreams and find their true purpose.
- The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you’re here and you are for real.
- Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.
