Kobe Bryant, Black Mamba, Girl Dad, Storyteller
"Be authentic, and let them like you or not for who you actually are.''
Five years ago on January 26, 2020 — on a foggy Sunday morning in California — the world lost [arguably] the best basketball player in his generation — Kobe Bryant and his 13 year old daughter, Gianna, who were amongst nine victims who lost their lives in a fatal helicopter crash.
Kobe Bryant is my all-time favorite athlete in sports history. I watched him dominate the NBA during his 20 year-long career from 1996-2016 — from beginning to end. His persistence, work ethic, and relentlessness is still unmatched.
''My brain — it cannot process failure. It will not process failure.”
It was Kobe versus Kobe. #8 versus #24. Mamba versus Mamba.
But Kobe wasn’t just a legendary force to be reckoned with, he was also a storyteller. He became the first professional athlete to win an Academy Award, and the very first African American to win an Oscar in the Best Animated Short category for Dear Basketball, which he wrote and narrated.
“I’m a storyteller. I love, love, love storytelling. I love framing stories that inspire. I love educating in a very creative way. I love putting pieces of the puzzle together.”
-Kobe Bryant at his 2015 press conference announcing his retirement.
I’m generally not a cryer, and I never really tried to process grief, but when we lost Kobe and Gianna — that was the first celebrity death that actually made me cry. My love of basketball and the Lakers came from my father. We created core memories at the basketball court when I was a little girl. I learned how to trash talk and be competitive from my father and Kobe. It’s the Mamba Mentality.
Girl Dad’s will always be a trend, and I will always be a daddy’s girl.
