Rest In Peace Kobe Bryant & Gianna Bryant

The death of a celebrity rarely impacts me emotionally. There have been very few occurrences that it has. The only one that comes to mind now is actress Carrie Fisher. Yesterday, I was caught off-guard, much like the rest of the world, by the death of the legendary NBA Superstar Kobe Bryant, age 41, and his daughter Gianna Bryant, age 13. They, along with seven others, died in a helicopter crash on the morning of Sunday, January 26, on the way to the Mamba Academy. This one hit me more than I thought it would.

Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna sitting court-side at a game. Photo Courtesy of Getty Images.

I was never a Kobe fan. I have always been a Pacers’ fan through and through, but that does not mean I did not recognize the greatness that was Kobe Bryant. I too yelled Kobe when I was shooting crumpled up paper into a trash can. Kobe was one of the best to ever play the game. You have to respect that. When the Pacers were bad and the tickets were cheap, I was excited when the Lakers came to town because that meant that my dad would likely take me to go see Kobe.

The last time I saw Kobe Bryant play in person was on December 2, 2008. It was the most exciting game of my life. The Lakers were 14-1 and the Pacers were 6-10. The Pacers had no business even playing that game. Kobe had torched the Pacers all night and had 28 points at the game's end. Then, the unbelievable happened, the Pacers won on a buzzer beating tip-in by power forward Troy Murphy. My dad and I went wild. We had beat Kobe. Not “we beat the Lakers”, but we had defeated Kobe. Kobe was larger than the team and larger than the league. He was the Black Mamba. He loved the game of basketball and he was great at it. Opposing fans may not have liked him because he played for a different team, but they respected him.

There are some things I saw on Twitter last night that I believe that the NBA could do to honor Kobe. Every uniform should have a purple and gold 24 patch attached to it for the rest of the season. For the All-Star game one team should all wear number eight and one team should all wear number 24. I personally believe that the NBA should follow Mark Cuban’s example and retire the number 24 league wide. Lastly, they should waive the five years it takes to be voted into the hall of fame.

Kobe should not be remembered just as an NBA superstar. By all accounts, he was a loving husband and father. He won an academy award for his animated short “Dear Basketball.” He had a multitude of talents. His daughter Gianna was going to carry on his legacy into the WNBA. Alas, that is not going to happen. Two lives gone way too soon. My heart goes out to their family and all of the families impacted by this crash. Rest In Peace Mamba and Gianna.