I was never a huge basketball fan, you could see in all my past tweets over the years how many times I tweeted out “I hate the NBA”. But, Kobe Bryant transcended the sport of basketball. His killer Mamba mentality on and off the court made Kobe one of the greatest to ever play the game, always striving for greatness. Always putting in all the work needed to be the best he could possibly be in anything that he did, from basketball to being a parent, to everything else in his life. He was an inspiration to all, on and off the court. Every time I was shooting a basketball or even just throwing something from farther away into a trash can, it wasn’t “Jordan” or “LeBron” I was saying as it would drift in…”Kobe”. The Lakers legend was beyond amazing. On the court, he was one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball, winning five NBA championships, MVP honors in 2008, two finals MVPs, 18 All Star game appearances as well as plenty of other accolades throughout his career. One of the best ever. Off the court following retirement he found success too, being a great father and coaching his oldest daughter’s AAU team, winning an Oscar for his work on a documentary and all of his business success.
I’ve also never really been that shaken up about a celebrity death. Whenever Twitter would be going nuts about a singer that would pass away or an older athlete, it never really got to me that much. I know its terrible when it happens for the families and everyone directly involved, but to me none of them have really gotten to me all that much. Life, and death happens. It’s part of life.
But today, when one of my friends texted me out of no where while I was working out, I expected to see some minuscule PGA Tour update when I unlocked my phone and was beyond shocked to see “Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash”. I didn’t even believe it. I was stunned. First thing I did after I read that text was open Twitter, just hoping for it to be a hoax, like the internet seems to get fooled with regularly and my heart sunk to see it confirmed to be true. Per TMZ, Kobe Bryant’s private helicopter crashed with everyone aboard it losing their lives.
Insane. I couldn’t believe it. As I was doing cardio, Fox News on a TV at the gym switched over to a special report and confirmed the news, it was real. Kobe’s helicopter crashed and he died along with everyone else on board.
The rest of my workout I was glued to Twitter seeing as updates came in on the story confirming it to be true as more and more details came in. ABC News had mentioned that Kobe’s daughters were on board the helicopter as they cut to their coverage of the Pro Bowl which sent the world into a heartbroken frenzy, as people tried to find other confirmations on if this was true or not. The world was praying for it not to be. This turned out, thank God not to be completely true. Of course the network that covered up Jeffrey Epstein’s horrible acts for over three years falsely reported the deaths of these little girls. That’s the scary thing about social media, its the fastest news outlet possible with instant news, but it’s tough to know whats real right away, which leads to fake news sometimes. A terrible, scary thing, especially with heartbreaking news and even more so when innocent kids are involved.
Shortly following that news though, the world was heartbroken by the news once again as Woj reported that Kobe was flying with his 13 year old daughter Gianna on their way to her AAU basketball game when the accident happened, along with one of her teammates and that teammate’s parent. Many recent memories of post retirement Kobe, being how closely involved he was in his kids lives especially with his oldest daughter following his footsteps in the game of basketball.
Not only was Kobe’s death such terrible news on it’s own but to find out these young kids were part of the accident as well was so heart wrenching it didn’t feel real. What sad news.
Several teams across the NBA today following this heartbreaking news had touching tributes to Kobe on court, with 24 second shot clock violations and 8 second backcourt violations to start most games, representing the #24 and #8 that Kobe wore during his storied career.
Rest in Peace Kobe and his daughter Gianna, as well as the other child and parent aboard that helicopter today. I can’t even begin to imagine what these families are going through. My heart goes out to them.
Thank you, Kobe. Fly high Mamba.
A Town's Zone 