How does one mourn someone they never met? This has been the question I’ve been grappling with since the unfortunate news of Kobe Bryant passing away broke yesterday. I was just about to get onto I-87 southbound, coming home from visiting my dad when a friend texted asking about Kobe and saying that the news couldn’t be true. I pulled into a gas station to do some quick Twitter searching to see if it could possibly be true, there’s no possible way Kobe Bryant could be dead. I called another friend to see if he had heard or read anything about that and he didn’t know either. On the drive home as my phone kept dinging with texts and updates, a sense of numbness washed over me.
I will be turning 40 years old this June. I have watched and followed the NBA since I was around seven to eight years old and the Los Angeles Lakers have been my favorite team since then. Magic Johnson and the Showtime Lakers captivated me like no other. Magic was the reason I wore number 32 when I played varsity basketball. I never thought that there would be another player that I could love as much as I loved Magic. Then along came Kobe.
Here was a teenager that was only two years older than me, the first teenager that played the guard position to make the leap from high school to the NBA, and here he was getting drafted by my favorite team. Michael Jordan had been the must watch player throughout the 90’s and this kid was going to be the must watch player for the next generation.
Kobe’s career coincided perfectly with my basketball watching. With NBA games being broadcast more frequently throughout the week and me having a very loose “bedtime” as a late teen, I was able to stay up and watch the Lakers games that were broadcast. As I transitioned to college, I made it a point to watch as many of the Lakers games that were on tv that I could, regular season and playoffs. Kobe and Shaq bringing championships to the Lakers was just amazing as a fan of the Lakers.
After I left college and moved to Albany, Kobe and the Lakers were still must watch television; even through all the ups and downs. I knew that Kobe wouldn’t be playing basketball forever and I knew that I needed to watch him work his craft as much as I could before he decided to step away. For the last two titles that Kobe won with the Lakers I had purchased NBA League Pass so that I could watch every game of those two seasons, which I did, plus the playoffs. Even after his fifth and final title, with Kobe on the Lakers, as a fan, you always thought there was a chance he would win another, though it never happened.
I cried tears of joy during and after the final game of his career. Here was a basketball player that had brought me hours and hours of enjoyment watching the sport I love the most. He gave me innumerable memories. Watching the replays of all of his highlights over the past twenty-four hours gave me chills all over again. I remember where I was when I watched them as they happened live and how they made me feel. And now I feel immense sadness. It doesn’t seem right that I’m watching these highlights as a retrospective. It doesn’t seem right that my favorite player of all time who brought me so much joy is no longer around. Granted, he was done playing basketball, but he wasn’t done contributing to the happiness of people with all of his endeavors off the court. And I was looking forward to seeing his daughter Gigi dominate women’s basketball with the same cutthroat attitude that her father had. So how do you mourn someone you never met, yet brought you so much joy?
Throughout all of the sadness yesterday and the grey clouds that hung over the sports world, the country, and the world at large, a gleam of sunshine came down upon me. While watching the news and trying to comprehend everything that had and was happening, I felt my son kick for the first time ever. And on that extremely sad day, a smile came over me; I may not have Kobe’s athletic prowess, but I can strive to be the greatest father I can be to my son, like he was to his daughter’s. And I very much look forward to the day when I can tell my son all about Kobe Bean Bryant.
Perry Ponds 