Forever a hero, even to the enemy: A Celtics tribute to the career and life of Kobe Bryant

It’s hard to wrap my head around yesterday’s news of the passing of Kobe Bryant. As a Boston Celtics fan and as a human being, the loss of one of the game’s greatest icons in this fashion is soul-crushing.

January 26th will forever be remembered as one of the darkest days in basketball history. Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna died Sunday morning, when their helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California. Seven others died in the crash. There were no survivors.

TMZ first reported the tragedy at 2:32 PM, and I saw it two minutes later. It’s the most shocking experience of my life.  Kobe? Like, that Kobe? It can’t be.

Something like this hasn’t really happened in sports…ever. A player this beloved, this well-known across ALL communities and walks of life, hasn’t passed away suddenly in a tragic accident. He was only 41. He’d only just begun the stage of his life–retirement. And just like that, it’s over.

But let’s look back on the great person that was Kobe Bryant. Growing up, Celtics fans watched him growing up, watched him terrorize our team again and again in the biggest moments.

My earliest memory of professional basketball was game 7 of the 2010 NBA finals between, who else,  the Celtics and Lakers. Of course, the Lakers went on to win that game 83-79, winning back to back championships. That game is the game where I understood winning. That’s the one word I would use to describe Kobe: winning. He’s a winner. He’s the epitome of greatness. Not good, not very good, he was great.

The face of the Boston Celtics during those title runs, Paul Pierce, gave his respects to the Black Mamba on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7zbBXdhJc2/

Nowadays, the “mamba mentality” has become a meme because of the negative impact it has had on some current day players, but Kobe showed its true potential. When Kobe wanted to win, he got the ball, and he was gonna make the shot. No questions asked.

In his last game in Boston, Kobe scored 15 points and 11 rebounds, and his Lakers got the win. But more importantly, he was cheered.

Someone who robbed the Celtics off a title just six years ago, the star for the Los Angeles Lakers, got cheered at TD Garden. That doesn’t happen to just anyone.

When you’re around Boston fans, you start to realize the one thing they respect over anything else is heart. If you put your heart and soul into the game, they’re gonna love you. The only reason Boston had so much hatred for Kobe was because of the jersey he was wearing. It’s the same reason Celtics fans have fallen in love with Marcus Smart so much – he’s a winner. He goes out there everything night, and plays until he can’t play anymore. Here’s what Smart tweeted after Bryant’s shocking passing:

After his career, Kobe moved on to helping his family and peers become better people and professionals. He took Jayson Tatum under his wing, and trained with him over the 2018 summer to help him gain that mamba mentality. Tatum posted a picture from that workout, with the caption “How much does it mean to you”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Blt-U2eAV8N/

And that’s what Kobe Bryant taught him. It’s the want and desire to win. Sure, you can argue that it made Tatum shoot more mid-range jump shots, and made him a more inefficient player. But in the long run, none of that matters. Tatum learned from a winner, how to win. And not many people can teach that.

Tatum was probably the closest Celtic to Kobe, and he posted this on his Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7zEzS-gWX1/

These players grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. He was everyone’s favorite player. Everyone wanted to play like Kobe. Everyone wanted to be Kobe. And now, he’s gone. As Coach Brad Stevens talked about his Celtics players, he remarked “Kobe is their Jordan.” He’s exactly right.

You can debate where he is on the greatest players of all time list, and I don’t really care. What I do care about is the person, mentor, father, and player he was. Kobe got me and millions of others engulfed by basketball. It’s so silly, watching 5 men try to throw a ball in a hoop. But Kobe brought out the love and passion for the game – something I had never seen before.

Lots of fans wanted Kobe to have a son – he has had four daughters – and he talked about that on his interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2018.

In the clip, he’s talking about his late daughter Gianna, another victim in the helicopter crash. Looking back now, this video is heartbreaking, hearing her dreams of becoming a WNBA player, with her dad supporting her every step of the way. Bryant has always been an outspoken supporter of women’s basketball and the WNBA, helping it gain popularity in the process. This is just one of many things the mamba has done off the court for basketball.

He made a whole generation of kids shout “Kobe!” every time they threw something in the trash. Like, what kind of person has that impact on a society?

Some other insane moments for the Black Mamba: scoring 81 points against the Raptors in 2006, tearing his achilles in 2013, then coming back to make his two free throws before exiting the game, and scoring 60 points in his final game to lead a comeback against Utah. He played 20 years for the Lakers, capturing the hearts of the LA faithful, leading them to 5 championships.

He was a 5x champion, 2x Finals MVP, 1x MVP, 18x All-Star (second most in NBA history), 11x All-NBA first team, 9x All-Defensive first team, and was scheduled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame later this year. He defined greatness.

So that’s it. I could go on and on about how great of a person Kobe was, or how shocking the news was to me. But, as I sit here and shed tears, I leave you with this from the great Boston Celtics radio announcer, Sean Grande:

“As Celtics fans, we didn’t think Kobe Bryant could break our hearts one more time. We were wrong.”

Rest in peace Bean. I loved to hate you, but now I just love you.