My Kobe Story

I do have a Kobe Story. Just yesterday, basketball great Kobe Bryant was tragically killed in a helicopter crash at the young age of 41. His 13 year old daughter Gianna was also killed. So all day, news and social media exploded with heartfelt condolences for the man who has been called the greatest Laker of all time. The whole world now seems awash with purple and gold. We are sad. Just very very sad...trying to cling onto someone so many thought of as their hero. For that reason, I almost wish I could take my experience and hand it over to someone else...

Somewhere around 2010, I went to see a Lakers game at UNLV, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. My mother, my sister and I went. We blasted our favorite songs in the car driving there, we played slots, and played more slots, we watched the fountains at the Velagio Hotel, we walked up and down the Srip, we found the "Pawn Stars" Pawn Shop and went inside to have a look. We also got red velvet cupcakes at Freed's Bakerey, another place we'd seen on TV. The Titanic Exhibit was on display at the Luxor, so we just had to go. There was a giant piece of temperature controlled ice, kept at 28 degrees-- the exact degrees of the freezing water the night of the sinking. I held my arm up to the freezing block and counted. I made it to six and couldn't stand it anymore. I backed away, and thought "Ugly way to die."

But of course, none of this has to with the loveable six foot six hero who lost his life yesterday. Somewhere in the middle of all our fun, we sat high up in the stands at the University and watched the Lakers play the Sacramento Kings. I have never been much of a basketball fan. In truth I would not be a fan of Basketball at all, had it not been for Kobe Bryant. My mom and sister lived for Basketball season. I would try to get in on it with them and somehow always get my information wrong: the wrong team, the wrong player, the wrong season, the wrong game. It just wasn't my passion like it was for them. But there WERE and are, three things I loved: The gold and purple, seeing Jack Nicholson on the floor...and Kobe Bryant. To me, Kobe was to the Lakers what Joe Montanna had been for the 49ers. In fact, Kobe was better. Who always got the three pointer that changed the game...that WON the game...often with only a second left? Who managed to get AMAZING amounts of points per game that surpassed every other player? Who dominated every game and everybody loved it? Who was always known as the most dedicated player, even to other basketball greats like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal? Kobe. Always Kobe. I thought it was cool that his number was 24 because there are 24 hours in a day. It was like it stood for some kind of perfect order or something.

So here I was, watching KOBE BRYANT dribble the ball up and down the court. "Wow, " I thought. "That's KOBE!! That's AMAZING. I t seems comical in retrospect, because the three of us, screaming our lungs out, along with everybody else in the room, had to be sitting right behind possibly the only 3 (or was it 4?)? "Kings" fans in the whole Arena (judging from what they were wearing). I got the impression that these folks were from another country, simply because they were not the typical American sports fans in any way. Even if someone is cheering for the other team...they clap, they hoot, they holler, they stand up at least once. These folks sat perfectly still, they didn't clap and to my knowledge they didn't make any noise...right in the middle of crazy, screaming, LAKERS mania!! Funny, the things that stick in someone's mind. This detail may seem unimportant, but, see the basketball was secondary to me. I was here because I was invited to go to Vegas and do all those other things. I was here because there was an extra ticket. I was here because it was a chance to get out of the house. And...(drumroll)... there was Kobe! There was Kobe! THERE WAS KOBE!!! So, they WON. The Lakers WON! Kobe WON!! But as to the final score...I couldn't tell ya. I don't remember. As grateful as I am now that I got to be there, as was said, I wish I could've wrapped that experience up and given it to someone else as a present: A young boy whose dad had been deployed, or a disabled child unable to leave a hospital bed. Someone who applied to have a wish granted by "Make A Wish Foundation" maybe. But someone for whom Kobe was their hero; someone who knew how many points Kobe got in every game. Someone who simply would've appreciated it so much more than I did at the time. Yesterday, we all held our breath, trying to grasp that Kobe is gone. Many many people are so thankful today that they got to see him play; but still many more wish that they could have. The loveable "teddy bear" of a guy who won at basketball and then won an Academy award as suddenly been taken from us, and we are in shock. When it comes to Basketball, for many, Kobe was the entire game. Now that game is over. Kobe will be missed, and now for many, including me, much more appreciated as a basketball player than he ever was before.

But he was also a husband, a father, a buddy, a tireless humanitarian, a good friend, an artist, an Oscar winner and an amazing role model. So, even for those who knew nothing about basketball, they knew something about Kobe Bryant.So. So to a he'll of a player: Glad I got to see you in action. Fly high, and may you alwats score three pointers wherever you are now.