Kobe Bryant’s death still on the minds of the Lakers
Kobe Bryant’s helicopter tragically crashed last January in Calabasas, California, killing the Los Angeles Lakers’ legend, his daughter and seven other people on board. The world was stunned when the news broke, with the entire National Basketball Association mourning the death of one of the greatest players to ever play the game. While time does heal old wounds, Bryant’s passing remains fresh in the minds of many current Lakers stars.
“Man, it’s a saying that time heals all,” James said in the postgame press conference on Saturday night after the Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, via ESPN. “And as devastating and as tragic as it was and still is to all of us involved with it, only time. And it takes time. Everyone has their own grieving process.”
Bryant was just 41-years-old while his daughter was only 13 when their helicopter went down.
“As we approach his one-year anniversary, it saddens our hearts to actually come to the realization that he’s gone,” said Anthony Davis, via ESPN. “I know I still have trouble with it, you still just can’t believe it.”
Bryant spent his entire 20-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers, getting drafted right out of high school. He was an 18-time All-Star and was named the NBA MVP in 2008. He will forever be remembered for helping the Lakers win five NBA championships, being named NBA Finals MVP on two separate occasions.
Along with his success in the NBA, he also represented his country at the highest levels, winning two Olympic gold medals with the United States in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. He also helped lead the United States to a FIBA Americas Championship gold medal in 2007.
“To this day, it’s, ‘Mamba on three!’ anytime we bring it in because we still want to recognize that he’s a part of our organization,” Davis said. “And ever since the tragedy happened, we had a mindset that this is bigger than, you know, ourselves.”
Bryant is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time and often is compared to his hero Michael Jordan. James was happy to weigh-in on the discussion with members of the media when asked about it.
“I only looked at Kobe for him,” James said. “And obviously you’ve seen a lot of the similarities between him and Mike, but I appreciated Kobe’s game for Kobe’s game. The way he played the game, the finesse that he played with, the ballhandling capabilities, the shooting, everything that he possessed on the floor – I respected him for who he was as a player and what he was able to bring onto the floor.
“The fact that he was able to take some things from MJ and look at some of MJ’s DNA and actually be able to do it – a lot of people try to do that, a lot of people wish they could take things from some of the greats, implement them into their game and then be successful, they just can’t. They don’t have the ability to do it. They don’t have the drive to do it, the mindset to do it. But he actually did it and did it at a high level for a long, long, long time. And you can respect that.”
The Los Angeles Lakers were able to win their first NBA title since 2010 this past summer, when James led the team past the Miami Heat inside the bubble in Orlando, Florida.
