Kobe Bryant's story, tragically unfinished
On the legend's tragic death and the legacy he leaves behind.
Kobe and Gianna, the basketball-obsessed girl he publicly doted on, were on the way to a travel basketball game with the other passengers. (Reportedly, this includes at least one of Gianna’s teammates.) It’s an especially cruel end to their lives, even in this cruel world.
On the court, Kobe was loved and hated for all of the right reasons.* There was no middle of the road with Kobe, his fans or his detractors. Every discussion about Kobe raged with the passion of a supernova. Nobody instilled reverence and awe and deference in other players like Kobe. And nobody looked more ready to conquer the world after he retired than Kobe did.
The Tragedy, Pablo Picasso
What made Kobe look so maddeningly calculating during his playing career made him look like a certified genius in the three years since he retired in a 50-shot salute to himself. By the mid-2000s, after the threepeat, Kobe knew how every action would be interpreted by the media and the basketball world. He and his team methodically built his persona — the Black Mamba nickname, the Nike ad campaigns, the not-so-subtle workout sessions for the media, the photo shoots, the post-game and parking lot quotes, the trade demand threat, the elevation of ring culture. (All of that image stuff turned out to be the real Kobe once the mask came off.) With his legacy cemented and playing career over, all of that energy and genius went to building his second act, which appeared to be a love letter to basketball and his family.
Kobe and his wife Vanessa were blessed with four daughters, and from everything we saw (which was always everything Kobe wanted us to see) Bryant seemed be in love with being a doting father. You often hear of him taking the kids to Disneyland (I’m pretty sure my wife saw them on Big Thunder just before Thanksgiving), you saw him talking hoops courtside with Gianna. Seeing Kobe as a committed and engaged father is what thawed me to him, what made him look something like a human.
That he embraced a variety of young players (including Kyrie Irving, who didn’t play Sunday after hearing the news, and Trae Young, who wore No. 8 for the first couple of possessions of the Hawks’ game) was really cool. That he also befriended and mentored young women players like Sabrina Ionescu, and championed the women’s game, is so admirable, especially when you consider how his endorsement could instill confidence in young female fans and might nudge his young male fans to cross over into WNBA and women’s basketball fandom.
You know his Hall of Fame induction speech would have hit every perfect note. We’ll never hear it. Dammit.
We’ll never see what other triumphs Kobe was capable of, how he would have written the second half of his story, a story he had so meticulously crafted his entire life.
What we lose is infinitesimally small compared to the loss suffered by Vanessa and her daughters, by Kobe’s parents and sisters, by his closest friends and adopted nieces and nephews in and out of the basketball world.
It is said that Kobe is your favorite player’s favorite player. The impact of his loss was seen in every players’ face on Sunday night as the NBA allowed games to be played. The loss will be felt for years.
Kobe is gone far too soon, and his story goes tragically unfinished. But in his painfully short life, the imprint he left on the sport is permanent, in this generation of players and fans and the next and the next after that. We are without Kobe, but we will never truly be without him.
* We don’t come to whitewash Kobe’s life. He was accused of rape 17 years ago. Prosecutors dropped the case when the woman declined to testify. Bryant settled a civil case with the alleged victim. Kobe showed public remorse in acknowledging that the victim did not believe their sexual encounter was consensual (though he maintained he believed it was). The incident is a huge scar, and it is understandable that some are repulsed by tributes to Kobe.
Good Morning It’s Basketball will be back on Tuesday. Thank you for reading.