Kobe Bryant gave the NBA everything he had, and inspired a generation

Following the tragic news of his passing on Sunday, it’s never been more apparent just how much Kobe Bryant gave to the NBA, and to so many more beyond that.

How do you write about the tragic events that brought the eyes of the world on Calabasas on Sunday? I’ve spent hours trying to work out my answer to that question.

I hate writing in the first person. It’s incredibly difficult to do well, so often comes across as self-indulgent, and makes it all too easy to lose sight of why you sat down to write in the first place. It’s the kind of thing, with my editor’s hat on, that I have often warned writers against utilising too frivolously. But here I am, trying to work out my thoughts in the aftermath of a horrific accident that led to the death of nine people, including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, and it’s the only approach to this I can make work.

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It goes without saying that I don’t know Kobe Bryant. I might be attempting to work through what Kobe meant to me, or to the game of basketball as a whole, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that what’s most important is what he meant to the family and friends whose lives he touched. Kobe is an icon, but he was also a person like you or I.

For all of his basketball exploits, and a career that cemented him as one of the absolute greatest to ever play the game, I find that’s what I’ve been thinking about most since the news first broke too.

Kobe the person.

Kobe the personality.

Kobe the mindset.

And, of course, that Mamba Mentality.

These are certainly some of the most complex and, in some respects, uneasy elements of unpacking the legacy of a revered figure who certainly wasn’t perfect in his life away from the court.

Reckoning with the rape case involving Bryant, in which criminal charges were ultimately dropped, a settlement was reached for a civil case, and a public apology was ultimately issued is arguably more contentious and complex than ever 17 years on. For many, mention of it alone remains a lightning rod for anger, and yet it is a part of his story. It can’t go unacknowledged, just as his greatness on the court, his love for his family, his work to support women’s sports, and his openness in learning and later advocating for LGBT causes are also essential to the Kobe Bryant story.

Any rounded portrait of Kobe can’t help being anything but infinitely complex and challenging and, still, it’s the complications, those questions of who the man himself really was, that likely also hold the key to why he was so adored. Being a hero is one thing, being a villain is another, but the ability to have been both on a global scale tells us something entirely different.

My hoops origin story is not tied to a love of the Black Mamba. It would be nothing but disingenuous to even pretend that I spent most of Bryant’s career feeling any level of warmth that stretched beyond indifference.

I’m not, nor have I ever been a Lakers fan. One of my first really serious exposures to the game in a way that extended beyond video games or movies came in the form of the 2010 NBA Finals. Coming from Ireland, and with games hardly ever shown on TV, it would have been impossible for me to root against the shamrock iconography on that first contact, and that instantly cast Kobe as the villain. Of course, the fact that he won that battle likely didn’t help things either.

To this day, the way Kobe played is not something I particularly enjoy. For some that’s basketball at its pinnacle, but it’s just never quite clicked that way for me. Still, none of that ever prevented me from having an immense respect for just how gifted he was as an athlete, and as a winner. I can’t think of many players whose shirsey I owned, and whose signature shoes I bought, in spite of not necessarily being a big fan.

And so, as I try to process Kobe’s shocking death, I’m struck by just how hard its hit me and just how surreal it all feels. I don’t think I’ve simply been swayed by the colossal outpouring of sympathy, as I was on Twitter at the moment the first report began to circulate and I felt my heart sink and my stomach turn at that precise second

There’s no exact science to this, particularly with all of it still so fresh, but in contemplating just how singularly important Bryant has turned out to be to a whole generation of players who are now superstars in the NBA, I think I’ve also been able to figure out why Kobe may always have resonated with me more than I’d previously realized.

Kobe famously played into and relished the notion of being hated and heckled. If he wasn’t on your team, in the ever trivial sphere of sports, that made it even easier to root against his routine excellence. It’s also easy to diminish Bryant due to his single-mindedness when it came to his shot selection, his relationships with teammates, or myriad other basketball-related reasons.

What was always undeniable about Kobe, though, was that he was giving all that he had, not just to a given play, or game, or season, but to everything that he truly cared about in his life.

Kobe is a shining example of singular pursuit, relentless drive, and unflinching commitment, the kind of which great care should really be taken with lauding. It’s easy to frame those qualities to be aspirational, but the process of actually putting them into action in a positive fashion in life is much more complicated.

Put simply, the Mamba Mentality is not for everyone. That approach has likely broken countless others in their pursuits of their own individual brand of greatness, even amongst those with whom it resonated most loudly. As someone who will admit to frequently approaching goals, interests, and life with a kind of obsessive application, I admire the traits that made Kobe become Kobe. I also recognize that his ability to channel those demands on himself into a propulsive and eminently positive fuel to overcome doubt and adversity is what truly separated him from even the many greats around him. It stops me from going as far as saying I can relate to that element of his character, not because of scale of achievement, but as I’m simply unsure whether it’s possible to gauge whether such an attitude is a positive or negative for a person until all is said and done.

The scenes from around the NBA on Sunday capture what Bryant’s legacy will be, and the truth is it’s not about basketball even if that is likely the arena where it will remain most obviously evident. Greatness may have helped to attract the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyrie Irving, Trae Young, and countless others to adopting Kobe as a hero, but it was his attitude and approach to hitting those heights that really laid out an example that they and others could go on to follow.

More than many other sports and leagues around the world, it’s become ingrained that an insatiable hunger and work ethic is required to truly be the best in the NBA. That hard-nosed approach to the game certainly predated Kobe as a core tenet of teams such as the Bad Boys Pistons and Michael Jordan‘s Bulls from the late 1980s onwards, but at a time when the media landscape of the league changed and interest was transformed through an entirely new prism, it was Kobe’s unmatched competitiveness that carried that banner through the 2000s and into the 2010s.

LeBron James furthered the image of professionalism as a fundamental to being the face of the NBA, and that’s certainly a cause that Giannis has also taken on as he continues his pursuit of back-to-back MVP wins.

For Kobe, though, that approach to life didn’t stop when he stepped off the court at Staples Center for the last time. If anything, the glimpses into his life in the time since that 60-point salvo suggest that it was family and fatherhood that became the causes Bryant dedicated himself to with what was likely even greater devotion than his famed love for basketball.

In writing about the loss of Bryant for the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Bill Plaschke relayed the details of a recent conversation he shared with Kobe:

"“In our 20-minute conversation, he showed a side of Kobe that I had not seen before.The edge was gone. The arms were open. He urged acceptance of LeBron. He preached calm for Lakers fans. He said greatness wasn’t worth anything if you couldn’t share it.”"

That final sentiment may only have been something that came to Bryant in time, but there’s certainly an extremely poignant pleasure in knowing he did have that epiphany before it was too late. In recent years, there’s no doubt that Kobe shared his greatness. With family, with peers, and with fans around the world.

For all of the trash talk, and the permanently hard nosed visage he displayed in over 57,000 total NBA minutes, Bryant in retirement had none of the trappings of embitterment that often accompany great athletes when the curtain has come down on their careers.

Instead, it became easier than ever to recognize Bryant as someone who lived only for the things he loved most in life. With the perspective that Sunday has undoubtedly provided for so many, that’s an attitude that we could all probably do with a little more of.

In his own words, Kobe Bryant reflected on the end of his basketball journey in his Academy Award winning short film Dear Basketball:

"“My heart can take the pounding, my mind can handle the grind, but my body knows it’s time to say goodbye. And that’s okay. I’m ready to let you go.”"

There are millions around the world who weren’t ready to let Kobe go, but his influence will live on, his legend will continue to grow, and his dedication will continue to inspire.

Mamba forever.