Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 36150 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:03 pm Post subject:
It feels really strange to think about this in retrospect— that he would only live fourteen more years after scoring 81. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
I think about that day often. We all know everybody dies, but Kobe was the one person who almost made you believe he can live forever. My heart is broken. Even as I type this I'm crying. He's actually gone.
Jerry West reflects on Kobe Bryant: From wunderkind to icon
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The Christmas card arrived in the mail at Jerry West’s home — it was from Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, and his family.
West and his wife, Karen, were both immediately overcome with emotion.
“As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘Oh, my God!’” West said. “And then my wife immediately ran out of the room just crying like crazy.”
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“I don’t know what I’ll do that day of the anniversary because it will be prominent. I’ll probably relive that Sunday, I guess, that it happened. My God, it’s just horrid. Horrid. I can’t even imagine what those last moments were like. I hope somewhere along the way he had some final, great thought.”
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West said the people of L.A. should feel “privileged” to have been able to witness Bryant’s talents for 20 years. He called it a “magical time” that he’ll never forget.
“Now I’m down in the dumps after talking to you. It’s true,” West said, his voice sullen. “There are just certain things I can’t get out of my mind and there will never be. Sometimes reading will bring it up if it’s something pertaining to a crash. And then to think that all of them are gone. All of them. That’s what to me is the most difficult thing I try to get my head around.”
"He's the closest thing to a big brother that I've had in my life," Gasol said.
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"You could see his toughness, his grit, his desire, his hunger, the Mamba mentality -- be the best at all times, work harder than anyone else," Gasol said. "But he had a very kind, very loving side, too."
In the latter stages of his career Bryant started dropping the veil ever so slightly and letting the world see what Gasol did.
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Gasol said he cried for days, numb and heartbroken and shocked all at once. But very quickly he knew what he needed to do.
"We just booked a flight [to California]," he said. "We decided we needed to be there and we left. We didn't know if we were leaving for a week, two weeks or a month, but we needed to be there.
"We wanted to be close to Vanessa and the kids and be there, as Uncle Pau, for whatever they needed."
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"My daughter's full name is Elisabet Gianna Gasol," he said. "It's a way, not just to honor Gianna, but to always have them present. They're our family and in which way can you have them more present, than to have it in your daughter's name or your son's?
"We had more issues coming up with her first name than with her middle name. It represents so much, the name. The kindness, the heart that Gianna had, the talent, just with the toughness that she showed. Her dad and her mom in her, it's something that has a lot of meaning to us, and that's why she's named Elisabet Gianna."
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There's still sadness and shock. He says he will never ride in a helicopter.
"Every time I see one, it just triggers me," he said.
But Gasol said he knows he is doing exactly what his older brother would've wanted him to do: looking out for Vanessa and her three daughters, and helping others learn from the legacy Kobe and Gigi left behind.
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"He was someone that I'll miss for the rest of my life, but I'll have him present in everything that I do."
He Bonded With Kobe as a Competitor, Then as Another #GirlDad
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Where father and daughter readily concur: Bryant helped MacKenly improve immediately.
“I work with her a lot, but you could tell the difference with Kobe,” Zach said. “When Kobe was speaking, he didn’t have to say, ‘Pay attention.’”
“He basically taught me how to play defense and how to rotate,” MacKenly said.
Asked to describe Bryant’s coaching demeanor, MacKenly added: “You would know when he’s mad, or he’s not playing around, but he would never, like, yell at you.”
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“When I got the news, I had tears in my eyes,” Zach Randolph said. “I looked around and everybody on the highway in their car was crying, too. It was like everybody got the news at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
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Another bit of solace: Randolph said he did get to tell his old rival how grateful he was for all Bryant had taught MacKenly.
“He loved them girls,” Zach Randolph said. “He loved my baby. He told me, ‘I love her, man.’ When he told me that, I told him, ‘We’re brothers for life.’”
John Wall on Kobe Bryant's legacy: 'Legends never die'
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"I was in the car going somewhere, seeing the news I was like, 'Hell naw this can't be true,'" Wall told NBC Sports Washington's Chris Miller. "Nobody had a picture or anything so we were like, 'No it can't be true. Not the mamba, not the Black Mamba.' Not the guy that basically everyone from my generation, that's the guy you looked up to."
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"We're all gonna die at some point, but legends never die," Wall said. "What he meant to the game of basketball, he impacted so many people across the world, is unbelievable. There's nothing you can take from him, it's just devastating that it's been a year, but his name is never going to be forgotten, and that's the most important thing."
'I carry Kobe and Gigi with me every day': Sabrina Ionescu honors their legacy one year later
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I carry Kobe and Gigi with me every day and honor their legacies through my dedication to the game. I wake up every day grateful for the platform I’ve been given and I strive to lead by example and serve as a role model for young people and especially girls to pursue sports — a platform Kobe and Gigi were passionate about. I saw the way he supported his family and his constant advocacy for women’s basketball. His encouragement and promotion of equality in sports along with his Mamba Mentality is what motivates me today.
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“You took me under your wing and believed in me more than I believed in myself,” she wrote. “I only have one choice. To live out your legacy. You will forever live through me, and be watching over me every step of the way, because you have the best seat in the house.”
Former childhood home in Italy, Reggio Emilia, honors Kobe Bryant with plaza dedication
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"The city of Reggio Emilia and its citizens loved, first Joe, and then Kobe Bryant, the child who, once he returned to America, always remembered Reggio with love," Emanuele Maccaferri, the vice president of the Sport Foundation of Reggio Emilia, told ESPN. "On this sad day we want to remember that happy child who left wonderful memories in so many people of Reggio Emilia."
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Nearly 30 years after first meeting Bryant, Ward was reunited with the grown-up NBA star in the Lakers' home locker room, a few weeks before Bryant's last game, as a guest of his old pal.
"I was a dreamer, like he was, when we were kids and dreaming of being there [in the NBA]. And finally I got there," Ward said. "Through him, but I got there. So it was very satisfying."
Bryant welcomed a bit of Italy back into his life. Now Bryant's old Italian stomping grounds will welcome his spirit forever more.
"I know that it was just six or seven years that Kobe lived in Italy, but the Italian period was very, very important for what Kobe became," Ward said. "What he lived here, what he learned here, I think was very important for him in a sense of culture and approach to things. ... This was a sensibility that Kobe had that many others do not have."
Analysis: A year since his death, Kobe Bryant's legacy may be stronger than ever
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“God rest his soul, God rest the soul of Gigi and the seven others that perished,” said Miami assistant coach and former NBA player Caron Butler, who was close with Bryant for years. “The legacy that he left, man, he did it all. He inspired. When you think about being better, embracing the storm, having the right mentality and perspective about life and always trying to be better, he embodied it all and that’s why his legacy will live forever.”
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“Everything stopped,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “The music stopped. The players stopped. Nobody said a word. A lot of guys dropped to the floor and started crying. Nothing happened for 10 minutes. We all just sat there in silence. It was one of the worst moments of all our lives.”
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“I don’t think any of us will ever forget that day,” Kerr said.
Kobe Bryant wasn't just an NBA star. He was an ambassador for all sports
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Sharia Washington, one of Bryant's two sisters, played volleyball for Temple, with a sportswriter declaring in 1997 that she was "every bit the athlete Kobe is" (and she was able to dunk before her little brother!). Bryant's oldest child, Natalia, followed in her aunt's footsteps so, of course, he loved the game.
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Bryant joined Los Angeles' bid for the 2024 Olympics (the city was selected for the 2028 Games instead) and appeared with fellow gold medalist Michael Phelps at the Golden Goggles to give yet a third gold medalist, Katie Ledecky, the 2017 female swimmer of the year award. He's also been a stalwart for parasports.
"The lesson I cherish the most is how important it is to love what you do," Bryant, freshly retired from the NBA, told Special Olympians in a 2016 video message. "If you love what you do and it's making you happy, all the hard work and perseverance will pay off. When you know you're truly giving it your all, there's no greater feeling in the world."
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Many National Hockey League players lamented his death, including superstar Alex Ovechkin. New Jersey Devils defenseman P.K. Subban, one of a few dozen Black players in the NHL, revealed after Bryant's death that the baller had served as a mentor.
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Bryant and Lakers teammate Pau Gasol once owned an interest in a horse, Siempre Mio -- Spanish for "Always Mine." While that is a little-known factoid, better known is that Bryant took inspiration from the best, including the best of the best: Secretariat.
Norman Powell wears No. 24 in Bryant’s honor. So do Lauri Markkanen, Buddy Hield, Dillon Brooks, Pat Connaughton, Marques Bolden, Khem Birch and Devin Vassell.
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Twenty-three players wear No. 8, Bryant’s original number, including 10 who chose it specifically because of him: Zach LaVine, Marcus Morris, Maurice Harkless, Wayne Ellington, Naji Marshall, Josh Green, Shaq Harrison, Dwayne Bacon, Jae’Sean Tate and Malachi Flynn.
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As an Oakland native, Lillard grew up a Warriors fan—but he idolized Bryant and rooted for the Lakers each spring, when his hometown team was nowhere to be found. He vividly recalls Bryant’s seizing control in overtime of Game 4 in the 2000 Finals, after Shaquille O’Neal had fouled out. He can still picture Bryant’s game-winner from the right elbow to beat the Suns in the 2006 playoffs.
“I had a Kobe jersey. I had the Kobe shoes,” Lillard says. “We all idolize Kobe.”
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“The fact that you have a guy like Kob, that was lending his platform, his voice, resources, his time to champion the women’s game, that obviously is a huge encouragement to continue that mission,” says Curry, who says his efforts were partially inspired by Bryant’s. “A lot of people really appreciate it more because of how Kobe celebrated and supported the game while he was here.”
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