When I first sat down to write this, at 6AM this morning, the shock from last night had still not worn off. I moved onto other priorities and in the twelve hours since, have had some time to reflect and understand my emotions.
A reader mentioned that upon hearing the news, he really felt nothing. He speculated that this was due to his age. I think he was right on point.
I’m 28 years old. I started watching the NBA in 1993 when I was 8. Jordan was gone. I didn’t even really appreciate Hakeem. When Jordan came back and finished out, I still really didn’t think much of it. I hadn’t been invested as a spectator from the start of his career.
In my viewing life, the “ultra-greats”–those guys you could put in a top-10/top-15 of all-time discussion–who I’ve seen from start to finish were Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, and Kobe. The former 3, while still effective, all faded into supporting roles towards their later years (or in Shaq’s case into a complete caricature of himself on TNT.) Duncan and Garnett obviously are still playing. The greats regarding whom I was not invested (due to my age and not having seen them from the start) were the likes of Hakeem and Barkley. They too faded but they too had going away tours. You knew it was coming.
The Kobe news hits so hard because it represents the fall of the most iconic player of my childhood’s generation, at his supreme peak, completely unwarned. There was no tour; we didn’t see it coming; it just happened. In the midst of what might have been his greatest season ever. It’s just shock. Almost like the assassination of a President.
You look back on Bryant’s career with amazement. Consider: his ‘peers’, essentially, were Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, and Tracy McGrady, the latter two of whom now reside in China, with the former being considered a ‘surprise’ for his contributions as a role-player. Bryant, at 34, will likely again make the All-NBA team.
I watched every minute of that game live and he actually got injured two other times, earlier on. After “the injury”, it still didn’t click. You saw him limping back to the bench after those two free throws but you knew he’d just come right back in later on. You saw it happen, something that, if it happened to anyone else, you’d immediately conceptualize the severity, but with Bryant, you just assumed it wasn’t serious. There is no comparison between an injury and death. But a quote from Notorious B.I.G. regarding Tupac’s death comes to mind:
so when they were like he got shot i was like again? ya know what im saying hes always getting shot or shot at. he gonna pull through this one again make a few records about it and its gonna be over ya know what im saying? but when he died i was just like wow..
The irony of Bryant is that he’s probably the most overrated player in basketball history, or, at the least, in modern history. It’s the arduousness of his supporters (in their ‘count the rings’ illogicalities) which actually takes away from a proper appreciation of what the man meant to this sport. When he’s talked about as the ‘greatest ever’ and protected of his flaws, it dampens the certitude of the stuff that put him amongst the greatest. He wasn’t the best. But he was the most committed and dedicated to his craft, perhaps ever. He was an artist who put supreme diligence to the honing of his skill. He approached his trade in a manner not humanly possible. For that we can only revere him.
This reads like an obituary but Kobe will be back. I wish it weren’t the case. Just like I wish Jordan hadn’t come back in Washington. He’ll work his tail off in rehab and probably crack 20 points per game once again, just on the strength of his fundamentals. But I don’t want that. I don’t want to tarnish the memory of my generation’s icon. I want to see him go out on top, and I think, the way he had been playing, were he to hang it up today, it would be, in a way, leaving ontop.
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The focus now turns to the Lakers who will have to move on to life after Kobe. Will Dwight Howard stick around? They had to run their best player into the ground just to squeak into the 8th; that team will surely be even worse next year upon Bryant’s return.
For Howard, it now becomes a clear choice: winning vs. money. Houston now represents his most viable option to win a championship. Will he take the 5th year with L.A. or will he bolt? Things now become much more interesting.
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