And Kobe Bryant is dead at 41.
He was born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia. His father, Joe Bryant, played for his hometown Philadelphia 76ers, including in the 1977 NBA Finals, which they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers. Joe also played and coached in Italy, which led to his son being fluent in Italian.
Joe also coached in Japan, but, years earlier, it was his international outlook leading to him trying all kinds of things from around the world that led him to going to a Japanese restaurant, and seeing "Kobe beef," named for a Japanese city, on the menu. He liked it as a name, and gave it to his son. Joe also coached in China and Thailand.
Joe is still alive, at age 65. His nickname was Jellybean, so he incorporated that into his son's name as well: "Kobe Bean Bryant."
Joe was able to put Kobe into the prestigious Lower Merion Academy in Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, just outside the city limits. (The school has since closed.) But Philadelphia, a very insular city as far as basketball is concerned, never took to him. It wasn't just the suburban upbringing. It wasn't just the private school: Philadelphia has a Catholic League for high school sports, and Villanova, St. Joseph's and La Salle are all private, expensive Catholic universities.
It was that Kobe himself seemed to resist connection with his hometown. Even though his father had played for the 76ers and other teams, he took the Lakers as his favorite team. The Lakers had won the NBA title when he was 1, 3, 6, 8 and 9 years old.
In the 1995 NBA Draft, Kevin Garnett, the National Player of the Year in high school ball, was drafted without having gone to college. Kobe had considered nearby Villanova, and also Duke, North Carolina and Michigan. But now, he was determined to make the jump directly to the NBA. After leading Lower Merion to the 1996 State Championship, and being named National Player of the Year -- and taking singer Brandy Norwood to his senior prom -- he declared for the Draft, having made no campus visits at all.
The Charlotte Hornets were the only team besides the Lakers who were interested in him, and the Lakers also wanted to trade for Shaquille O'Neal of the Orlando Magic. So the Lakers traded Vlade Divac to the Hornets, thus freeing up a position for Shaq and salary cap space for both Shaq and Kobe, who became the 1st guard ever drafted right out of high school.
Kobe was just 18 when he debuted in the NBA, the youngest player ever, and it took time to adjust. Never before had he played even half of the 82-game schedule that the NBA has. Even with him and Shaq, the Lakers did not get close to the NBA Championship in 1997, '98 or '99. And, while he won the Slam Dunk Contest as a rookie, only in '98 did Kobe made the All-Star Game.
It all turned around in the 1999-2000 season. The Lakers moved from the Forum in suburban Inglewood to the new Staples Center in downtown L.A. (It isn't "The House That Kobe Built." If any one player's success made its building possible, it was Magic.) Phil Jackson, who had played on the Knicks' 1973 NBA Champions (he missed the entire 1970 title season due to injury), and had coached the Chicago Bulls to 6 titles in 8 years, was hired to carry the Lakers over the top.
He did. They went 67-15, and ground out a tough win over the Sacramento Kings in the 1st round -- some said with referees' assistance. They beat the Phoenix Suns, and then went 7 games with the Portland Trail Blazers before winning, to get into the Finals. In what turned out to be Reggie Miller's only Finals appearance, the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers in 6 games. Kobe and Shaq each got their ring.
In 2001, they put together the greatest NBA Playoff run ever. The 1983 76ers went 12-1, narrowly missing Moses Malone's prediction of "Fo', fo', fo'": Three sweeps of four straight. The 2001 Lakers swept the Blazers in 3, then the Kings in 4, then the San Antonio Spurs in 4. In the Finals, they played, perhaps appropriately, the Sixers -- their only Finals appearance since 1983, and the only one that Allen Iverson would ever make. The Sixers pulled the upset in Game 1 at the Staples Center, but the Lakers took the next 4 to win the title, going 15-1.
In 2002, they swept the Blazers in the 1st round again. Then it took them 5 games to eliminate the Spurs. Then came a nasty Western Conference Finals with the Kings, and pretty much anybody who isn't a Laker true believer suspected that the referees fixed Game 6 for the Lakers, earning this group the nickname "Fakers." The Lakers won Game 7 in overtime, and then swept the New Jersey Nets, in their Finals appearance since 1976 in the ABA, for the threepeat.
The Lakers fell short in 2003, knocked out by the Spurs in the Conference Semifinals. So they decided to go for it, to build a "superteam." In addition to already having Shaq, Kobe, Robert Horry, Derek Fisher and Rick Fox, they drafted Luke Walton (Bill's son), and signed future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton. And they brought Horace Grant, who had been on their 2000 and '01 title teams, out of retirement.
Shaq Diesel, the Black Mamba, the Mailman, and the Glove. Not to mention Big Shot Bob, Derek, Rick and Horace. Damn, this could have been the greatest team in NBA history, all in the big market of L.A., on the most glamorous (if not the most historically successful) franchise in the league. The 2003-04 Lakers were set up to be something special.
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But first, Kobe needed to have knee surgery, so he would be in better shape for the coming season. He went to The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, in Edwards, Colorado, 117 miles west of Denver. He checked in on June 30, and was to have surgery in nearby Vail 2 days later.
On July 1, a 19-year-old female hotel employee entered Bryant's suite. The next day, she went to the police, and said that he had raped her. She was medically examined, and proof of a sexual encounter was found. The Eagle County Sheriff's Department sent officers to Bryant, and he denied that anything happened. When shown the evidence, including photographs of bruises, he admitted that something had happened, but that it was consensual.
The bruised areas included her neck. Blood was found on Kobe's shirt, and testing revealed it to be the victim's.
He was arrested on July 4, and it was publicly announced on July 6. He was formally charged on July 18, and held a press conference. By his side was his wife, Vanessa Laine, a former dancer he'd married 2 years earlier. They already had a daughter. Kobe admitted that he had cheated on Vanessa, but still insisted that what had happened was consensual.
Fellow employees at the hotel told conflicting stories: Some that she seemed upset, some that she didn't. It was revealed that she had been prescribed drugs to treat schizophrenia -- which called her account into question, but also suggested that Kobe had taken advantage of someone who might not have been in a position to consent to sex. Doubt, reasonable and otherwise, began to develop.
On September 1, the accuser told the prosecutors that she was no longer willing to testify. The charges were dropped. She filed suit in civil court, and Kobe settled with her, announcing that no money had changed hands (probably a lie), and that he was sorry for what he'd done (probably also a lie, as most people who do things like that are only sorry that they got caught).
Kobe's endorsement contracts with McDonald's and Nutella were scrapped. Sales of his Number 8 jersey dropped. When the season began, his knee may have been ready to play, but whether his mind was, only he knew for sure. He was cheered wildly in L.A., but booed hard everywhere else.
Still, there were supporters. Within days of the charges being dropped, I saw a man and his son walking down the street, and both were wearing Laker Number 8 jerseys. You would think that a man would have told his son, "What Kobe did is something you should never do. We can never wear these jerseys again."
The season was played, with the Kobe story hanging over it like a cloud. The Lakers went 56-26, not nearly as well as had been expected. They beat the Houston Rockets in 5 games in the 1st round of the Playoffs, then the Spurs in 6 games, then the Minnesota Timberwolves in 6 to reach the Finals. (This is the furthest the T-Wolves have ever gotten, led by Kobe's former business model, Kevin Garnett.)
The Lakers were expected to beat the Eastern Conference Champion Detroit Pistons. But the Pistons won Game 1 at the Staples Center, 87-75. The Lakers needed overtime to win Game 2 at home. And then, in the 3 games at The Palace of Auburn Hills, the Pistons won 88-68, 88-80 and 100-87. It wasn't the biggest upset in NBA Finals history -- 1975, Golden State sweeping Washington, is usually given that distinction -- but it was shocking that the Pistons had not only won, but comparatively easily.
It shouldn't have been a shock. Joe Dumars, now general manager after helping the Pistons split the 1988 and '89 NBA Finals with the Lakers, and beat Portland to win the '90 title, was the general manager, and he built a team with Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Lindsey Hunter, Richard "Rip" Hamilton, Mehmet Okur and Corliss "Big Nasty" Williamson.
The Lakers had the more talented group of players, but the Pistons had the better team. Larry Brown, who got the 76ers into the '01 Finals against the Lakers, and had won the 1988 National Championship with the University of Kansas, thus became the only man ever to coach an NCAA Champion and an NBA Champion.
Things went from bad to worse for the Lakers. Dr. Jerry Buss, the team's owner, and Mitch Kupchak, the GM, who had been a player on the Lakers' 1980s Champions, broke them up. They had little choice. Malone and Grant were retiring, Payton wasn't happy, and Shaq and Kobe could no longer live with each other. Shaq was constantly reminding Kobe that he was The Man, and Kobe was complaining that he had to be The Man.
Phil Jackson had coached great players with issues before. Michael Jordan was an egomaniac. Scottie Pippen had always complained about being underappreciated. Dennis Rodman was, to put it politely, a unique individual. All needed the guide of a very careful hand. But Jackson called Kobe something he had never called one of his players before: "Uncoachable."
So Phil quit. And Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat. And he helped them win the title in 2006, his 4th ring, and his 1st without Kobe. Meanwhile, the Lakers were now, unquestionably, Kobe's team. He was The Man there. And they went 34-48 in 2004-05, missing the Playoffs.
Kobe switched uniform numbers from 8 to 24, which he had worn in high school, before switching to 33. (Neither 33 nor 24 was available with the Lakers.) It didn't work much: In 2005-06, despite an 81-point Kobe performance against the Toronto Raptors, a total topped in NBA history only by Wilt Chamberlain (who got 100 in a 1962 game, long before there was a 3-point shot), they lost in the 1st round. In 2006-07, they lost in the 1st round again. He had led the NBA in scoring both times, but it was all for naught.
In 2007-08, Kobe seemed like a man on a mission. He wanted to win. He and Jackson swallowed their differences, and Jackson returned. For the only time in his career, Kobe was named NBA Most Valuable Player. (He would be named MVP in 4 of the 18 All-Star Games he played in.) The Lakers went 57-25, and got the 1st seed in the Western Conference. In the Playoffs, they swept the Denver Nuggets in 4 straight, beat the Utah Jazz in 6, and beat the Spurs in 5.
But the Boston Celtics had decided to ignore the Lakers' 2004 project, and build a "superteam" of their own. They already had Paul Pierce, and brought in Garnett and Payton. The Celtics won the 1st 2 Finals games in Boston. NBA fans say a Playoff series is never over until a home team loses a game, and the Lakers won Game 3 at the Staples Center. But the Celtics won Game 4. The Lakers staved off elimination, but when it went back to Boston for Game 6, the Celtics won.
It had now been 4 years of Kobe as The Man in L.A., 4 years of Kobe without Shaq on the Lakers, and 4 failures. Shaq, who had tried to start a rapping career early in his playing days, went to a club, and was caught on video, saying, over and over again, "Kobe, tell me how my ass taste!" In other words, not, "Kobe, you can kiss my ass," but, "Kobe, you have already kissed my ass."
Kobe was a joke. And people still remembered what happened in Colorado. If he had died right after this, he would have been remembered as basketball's Icarus: Ignoring all the warnings, he flew too close to the Sun, and his wings melted, and he fell to his doom.
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After that, everything changed. It's almost as if Shaq were trying to save him by dissing him. As Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon, himself a former Los Angeles athlete, a UCLA quarterback) would say, "A slap to the face is a humiliation. To the back of the head is a wakeup call."
Kobe woke up. From this point onward, it was as if he understood what being The Man really meant. He became one of the most charitable people in Southern California, following the example of Laker legend Magic Johnson. He became more conscious of the role of black men, especially fathers, in America, and of black people's historic roles in America, and aiding in the perception of both, following the example of Laker legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He even got smarter in advising the team in which players to bring in, following the example of Laker legends Jerry West and (yes, he counts as one, especially after his own GM role) Mitch Kupchak.
His personal life was still a bit shaky. Late in 2011, Vanessa Bryant filed for divorce, but a little over a year later, they called it off, and stayed married. They eventually grew closer, and had 4 daughters: Natalia Diamante in 2001, Gianna Maria-Onore in 2006, Bianka Bella in 2016, and Capri Kobe in 2019 -- all Italian names. ("Diamante" is Italian, and also Spanish, for "Diamond.")
Halloween 2019. Kobe plays the Wizard of Oz -- who famously said,
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
The 2008-09 season was Kobe's masterstroke. In a way, he had become like Derek Jeter: The elder statesman of a great team. Just as Derek, now 34, was leading the Yankees from the old Yankee Stadium (the closing ceremony consisted of him giving a speech to the fans and then leading the team in what soccer fans would call a "lap of honour") to the new one (leading the team to win the World Series in their 1st season in it), Kobe, now 30, accepted his higher level of responsibility.
Fisher (34) was the only player on the team older than Kobe (30). Walton was still there, and now so were Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Adam Morrison, and Andrew Bynum, who had broken Kobe's record for the youngest man ever to play in the NBA. The Lakers went 65-17, beat the Jazz in 5 games, beat the Rockets in a tough 7-game series, beat the Nuggets in 6, and then beat the Orlando Magic in 5 to take the title.
It was Kobe's 4th. It was his 1st without Shaq. And Kobe was named Finals MVP. If Shaq said anything about this, it was not memorable. In fact, after his "Kobe Diss Track," Shaq played 3 more seasons, and didn't come close to another title.
The Lakers won the Championship again in 2010, this time beating the Celtics in the Finals. Kobe was named Finals MVP again.
The Celtics have won 17 NBA Championships, the Lakers 16 -- although the 1st 5 came in Minneapolis. They've played each other in 12 NBA Finals, more than any other pairing in the "Big Four" sports: The Celtics have won 9 (1959 while the Lakers were still in Minneapolis, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1984 and 2008, the Lakers 3 (1985, 1987 and 2010).
(For comparison's sake: In baseball, the Yankees and the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers have played 11 World Series against each other, the Yankees winning 8; the most common NFL Championship Game matchup, Super Bowl or otherwise, is the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears, 6 times, with the Bears winning 4; and the most common Stanley Cup Finals matchup is the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Boston Bruins, 7 times, the Canadiens winning all of them.)
The ring count was now Kobe 5, Shaq 4; Kobe without Shaq 2, Shaq without Kobe 1. But that no longer seemed to matter. Both men had matured to the point where they could bury the hatchet. They were probably better friends as ex-teammates than they ever were before.
The Lakers won the Pacific Division again in 2011 and '12, but they haven't gotten close to a title since. In Kobe's last 4 seasons, they lost 37, 55, 61 and 65 games. He retired after the 2015-16 season, having made 11 All-NBA First Teams, 9 NBA All-Defensive First Teams, and, of course, winning the 5 titles. He also won Olympic Gold Medals with the U.S. team in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
He became the 1st athlete in any sport to have 2 uniform numbers retired by the same team, as the Lakers sent both 8 and 24 to the rafters. He was not yet eligible for the Basketball Hall of Fame: Where once it took 3 years after a player's retirement, it now takes 5. He would have been eligible for it next year, and would have gone in with Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.
Next year will also mark the NBA's 75th Anniversary. In 1996, on the 50th Anniversary, Kobe had yet to make his NBA debut, but Shaq was, controversially given his relatively recent arrival, named to the 50 Greatest Players. If a 75 Greatest Players is chosen next year, Shaq and Kobe might both be among the 1st 10 players chosen.
His daughter Gianna, a.k.a. Gigi Bryant, had become a basketball player with some prospects. Kobe had become a big supporter of women's sports, including basketball and soccer, standing behind the U.S. national team's bid to be paid the same as their male counterparts.
What happened in Colorado in 2003, people had chosen to forget. They now viewed him as one of the great men of sports, and even a champion of women's causes. But, whatever happened in that hotel room, it still happened. It should not simply be forgotten. He became a better man eventually, but that didn't happen immediately.
In that regard, Kobe may have been lucky. Lucky that he was not already a retired athlete, with a chance to get on the field of play, as well as on the field of human advocacy, and improve his image, unlike O.J. Simpson. Lucky that what he did wasn't caught on video, unlike Ray Rice. Lucky that #MeToo wasn't around in 2003. And, yes, lucky that former opponents, and even angry former teammates, recognized that he was reaching out, and were willing to let bygones be bygones.
This morning, January 26, 2020, Kobe and Gianna boarded a helicopter he owned at John Wayne Airport in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Ana. They were on their way to a basketball camp at which Gianna was scheduled to play. But fog set in. At 9:47 Pacific Time (12:47 Eastern), the helicopter crashed in Calabasas, on the other side of Los Angeles. All 9 people on board were killed. Kobe was 41, Gianna 13.
At first, reports flew around as erratically as the chopper did. One said that all 4 daughters were on board with him and died. Another said that actor and former Laker teammate Rick Fox was on board and killed. And when Fox, a regular Twitter user, hadn't tweeted for hours, people began to presume that this report was true. But both Fox' daughter and his lawyer have confirmed that he is alive and well. (UPDATE: Not long after I posted this, Fox tweeted his condolences.)
Reaction has come in from all over the world, from Presidents Trump and Obama to Franco Baresi, who knew the Bryants from Joe's time playing basketball in Italy, making Kobe a fan of the soccer team Baresi long served as player and captain, A.C. Milan.
Shaquille O'Neal, whose relationship with Kobe had been such a rollercoaster ride, became the father of his youngest daughter Me'Arah on the same day that Gianna was born, which may have helped bring the families closer together, to where he thought of Kobe's daughters as his "nieces."
He may have said it best: "There's no words to express the pain I'm going through with this tragedy of losing my niece Gigi and my brother Kobe Bryant. I love you and you will be missed. My condolences go out to the Bryant family and the families of the other passengers on board. I'm sick right now."
Shaq and Kobe will be forever linked. And maybe, in spite of his huge size (and bigger personality), he's the right mirror for the public: His feelings for Kobe rose, fell, and rose again, as ours did.
The French author Voltaire wrote, "To the living, we owe respect; but to the dead, we owe only the truth."
Well, Voltaire had his issues, like anyone would. So did Kobe. That's a truth that cannot be ignored.
Whether Kobe made up for his issues is for each of us to decide. The reaction to his death suggests that most of us have decided in his favor.
That doesn't mean that we should forget. It does mean that it is still possible to decide that the good he did outweighs the harm.
He figured it out: "The man behind the curtain" shouldn't be a con man, like in the movie. He needs to be a good man and a good Wizard -- or a good Laker, as the case may be.
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