I was going to start my blogs off with an interesting deep dive into the game of basketball, and talk about how much the game has changed from the 80’s and 90’s to now, but in the wake of what happened on Sunday, January 26, I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. Kobe “bean” Bryant, one of the games’ greatest players of all time has tragically passed away at 41 years of age along with his 13 year old daughter, and seven others. My relationship with Kobe is probably different than most. I grew up not liking Kobe, because he was in direct opposition with Lebron James who still remains my favorite player to this day. My love affair with the game of basketball started when I was eleven years old, so I didn’t get to see Kobe at his best when he was tearing up the league in the 2000’s, and therefor was blind to how great he actually was, not just as a player, but as a person. The first time I took a step back and got some perspective on Kobe was when he did his interview in 2016 with sports reporter Ahmad Rashad. When I watched the interview, it changed my entire perspective; Kobe was respected around the league because of his will to win, and his patented “Mamba Mentality”. Listening to him talk about how he failed, and learned from it time, and time again, and how it ultimately made him a better player on the court was inspiring, because he was very transparent with his failures. The reason I think he was like this is because he was not afraid to fail, he looked at it as a learning opportunity, and a time for growth, This is what made Kobe a winner. It also took me a while to realize that Kobe was a competitor on the court, but off the court was a much more laid back and fun guy because he didn’t have to be “The Mamba” around his friends, and family. Being so young I did not realize this, so I , mostly got to know the player Kobe Bryant through videos, and interviews he did after he was retired.

Kobe used his “Mamba Mentality” in his career in the arts just as much as he did playing basketball, he just did it in a different way. In sports everything is physical, it’s direct competition, therefor it’s easier for people to see the work that you put in on a night to night basis. Kobe went just as hard in his other life away from basketball. In a 2017 short film entitled “Dear Basketball” Kobe goes in depth on his love, passion, and competitiveness for the game in a moving short film that eventually won him an Oscar. Imagine that, an Oscar award-wining basketball player who would have thought. This is just further proof of the type of mindset Kobe had, he wanted to be the best in everything, and always gave his 100 percent in whatever that was. Legends never die this is something that has been proven over the years of human history, extraordinary people are always remembered, and if there was ever an extraordinary person Kobe Bryant was definitely one of them. I’m thankful for the special relationship that I shared with “The Mamba” I feel that I know him in a way that most of the people in my age group don’t they remember him for being an assassin on the court, a killer, but I just remember him for being simply…..Kobe.

Kobe Bryant’s Oscar winning short film “Dear Basketball”