Why everyone loved Kobe Bryant
For me, it still hasn’t truly hit home.
Somehow Kobe Bryant, the man who had more life than anyone else, is gone.
There has already been much appreciation shown towards the legendary career of the Black Mamba. He had such a profound impact on the game of basketball and sports in general that his untimely passing was always going to produce touching tributes from around the globe.
Go onto any major sports star’s Instagram page and you’ll see a post commemorating Kobe. Players from soccer, tennis, rugby, golf and others all took the time to pay homage to the guy from Lower Merion High School.
Why is it that Kobe’s untimely demise hit the entire world so hard? What was it about him and his legacy that made him so revered not just in sports, but in life itself?
Having watched Kobe since 2010, I think I have the answer.
NBA athletes usually have a hard time dealing with life after hanging up their sneakers. Apart from coming to terms that they will never play the game they loved at the same level again, keeping all their hard-earned money is very tough. An estimated 60% of former NBA players go broke within 5 years of leaving the league.
Not the Mamba.
Kobe approached retirement in the same way he had his playing career; relentless, never a day off, always improving. He was putting his $600 million-plus in career earnings to good use, including developing a media production company and venture capital fund to invest in media, tech and data companies. His money was making a difference and he looked set to move his basketball dominance into financial dominance.
Kobe was also one of the first NBA athletes to really grasp the importance of making the NBA a truly global sports league. He saw how the league could really expand in China and made huge efforts in growing the NBA brand there. This also massively increased his own brand image. From 2007 to 2017 Kobe had the highest-selling jersey in China. 11 Million people from China tuned in to watch his 60-point final game vs Utah and the hashtag #KB20 saw over a billion views on Weibo, China’s top social media platform.
In 2016 partnered with his production company, Granity Studios and Sports Illustrated to create an animated short called “Dear Basketball”. It won an Oscar in 2018. Kobe was dominating life after basketball and it sucks that we will never get to see what he was going to accomplish next.
Then there was Gianna.
It was a tragedy that Kobe Bryant was taken from us in that helicopter crash. What made things even worse was that his 13 year-old daughter Gianna was on board as well. Gianna Bryant was already making a name for herself in the world of basketball. She was showing that she had the same fire inside her that her father had, that relentless drive to win. With Kobe at her side, she was going to achieve greatness as her father had.
When Kobe retired in 2016, he stepped away from the game of basketball. His daughter Gianna brought him back. He was mentoring and molding her to dominate the game as he had. He wasn’t living his basketball career through his daughter. He recognized that this was her path to take, he would only guide her down it. He was investing his time and knowledge back into the sport that had given him so much, and now, sadly, we won’t see that happen anymore.
Kobe was a man who seized every opportunity that came his way. He Carpe Diemed the hell out of life and always looked to give back. He was not only an example of a great athlete but a great person as well. There are few athletes in the world that had the impact Kobe did. We loved his story because it was human. It was about emergence, fame, downfall, determination, and redemption.
Kobe lived his life to the fullest and his legacy is a reminder that we all can achieve greatness if just work hard enough. It is an international tragedy that Kobe died so young. Number 24, if you’re watching, thank you.