Kobe & Gianna thread

[Sedale Threatt]

:(

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I wonder if West feels any guilt about going to the Clippers and not being around the Lakers organisation during this time period, seems like a strange time to bring it up that Kobe was going to go there too.

I doubt it. He brought it up to illustrate how he and Kobe still maintained a very close relationship even after he left the team, to the point that Kobe still called him for advance and guidance. The only reason I even posted it was because of West's last line about not being able to get over it.

[KobeBryant24]

Im gonna be sad af for a lonnng time

[Goudelock]

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Jimmy kimmel did a tribute on his show. His entire show, dedicated to Kobe. I couldn’t make it through the whole video. But, I wanted to share

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This was hard to watch. I know it's been said a million times before by a million other people, but sometimes, you forget that your favorite (and least favorite) athletes/celebrities are just normal people with friends, families, and loved ones.

Like, Jimmy Fallon is about as famous a talk show host as there is, and his persona is a famous as they come. But in that moment, he was just a guy reminiscing and mourning the loss of a man he'd known for over 20 years. I don't know if I can make it through the Inside the NBA segment.

[dockingsched]

Mexican banda music going strong at LA Live tonight, doesn’t get more LA than a party with Banda

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[stan francisco]

To Kobe, challenging times meant gaining strength. He proved that pressure makes diamonds, shone in the most challenging moments. We should all take a cue and dig deep. It would be disrespectful not to. He’d want our ‘shows’ to go on ASAP. The harder it is, the faster and bigger the growth.

[MAMBAEMD]

I’ve experienced a lot of loss of life both personally and in my line of work.
I never would have imagined the impact of Kobe’s tragic loss on me.
He was LA’s son and grew up in front of our eyes. He brought us so much joy over the years along with some episodes of frustration but we never stopped loving him like a son.
He always gave every bit of everything he had to the game and to the city.
LA will never be the same without Kobe.

RIP Kobe
RIP Gigi
My heartfelt prayers and condolences to everyone who lost a loved one in this tragedy and to the City of Angels

[BEazy]

Shaq and Jerry West got me hurting all over again... I felt that pain from them...

[Sedale Threatt]

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[EArl]

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[Danny Darko]

Jerry West still deserves to be the logo... his response to this confirms it.

Things between the org and Jerry are what they are, but Jerry is the MAN. and I cry my eyes out every time he talks about Kobe.
Kobe... pick a number 8 or 24 maybe both... but retire that league wide.

[Denizfeital]

RIP Kobe.

My condolences to Kobe's family, Lakers family and fans and the people involved in the crash.

Regards,

[MAMBAEMD]

Jerry West still deserves to be the logo... his response to this confirms it.

Things between the org and Jerry are what they are, but Jerry is the MAN. and I cry my eyes out every time he talks about Kobe.
Kobe... pick a number 8 or 24 maybe both... but retire that league wide.

I agree that West still deserves to be the logo.
If this tragedy hadn’t happened, no one would have thought about changing the logo.
But I think the league and the fans NEED this change.
In other words, it would be an intervention to help people heal, and this healing will take years if not decades. And from the nation-wide reaction that we are witnessing, it is obviously not just affecting Laker fans , but all fans, and even non-fans. It has affected multiple generations. Men and women.

I am a huge West fan, and for the sake of the mourning people and their healing process,I would welcome changing the logo to Kobe.
I know Jerry would too.

[WizarDynasty]

Rest in Peace to one of greatest nba shooting guards ever.

[Kilroy]

Jerry West still deserves to be the logo... his response to this confirms it.

Things between the org and Jerry are what they are, but Jerry is the MAN. and I cry my eyes out every time he talks about Kobe.
Kobe... pick a number 8 or 24 maybe both... but retire that league wide.

I dunno... I listened to both comments from West, and I felt the first was a lot more genuine. The second, with the Clipper stuff, and the "no one knows the conversations we had!" stuff, just seemed weird to me.
A little too much 'Jerry West, knows everything' for me.
I'll chock it up to sadness, but a little part of me kinda feels like the second interview was more a reaction to the calls to change the logo.

[Kilroy]

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The one thing that kind of surprised me that Shaq said, was that he hadn't spoken with Kobe since his retirement game. Now, I don't know if that's "spoken face to face" or not, but I was surprised by that given how much it seemed like Kobe chatted with his kids, etc...

[Kilroy]

Jerry West still deserves to be the logo... his response to this confirms it.

Things between the org and Jerry are what they are, but Jerry is the MAN. and I cry my eyes out every time he talks about Kobe.
Kobe... pick a number 8 or 24 maybe both... but retire that league wide.

I agree that West still deserves to be the logo.
If this tragedy hadn’t happened, no one would have thought about changing the logo.
But I think the league and the fans NEED this change.
In other words, it would be an intervention to help people heal, and this healing will take years if not decades. And from the nation-wide reaction that we are witnessing, it is obviously not just affecting Laker fans , but all fans, and even non-fans. It has affected multiple generations. Men and women.

I am a huge West fan, and for the sake of the mourning people and their healing process,I would welcome changing the logo to Kobe.
I know Jerry would too.

Personally, I was pretty shocked they didn't change the Logo to MJ when he finally retired... The NBA loved them some MJ back then. He pretty much single-handedly took the league to the next level from a marketability standpoint, and they protected MJ more than I've seen them protect any other player since. It seemed to me that MJ becoming the logo was a foregone conclusion.
Maybe MJ wanted royalties or something.

But all things considered, I think a logo change is long overdue. I love Jerry West and all, but his NBA is long gone.

And I'm fairly certain, Kobe's only shot at becoming the logo is if it happens in the next few days. Because any longer than that, and the sting of his death is going to wear off enough for the league to start being more concerned about lasting marketability.
They'll give him the HOF... But whether or not he committed an actual crime, Kobe **** up in CO, and the league will never want to be bound to his legacy in that way.

Even if they do give Kobe the Logo, my guess would be that it would be temporary and it'd get changed to MJ or someone like that eventually.

In fact, it would make a whole lot more sense from a Marketing standpoint, to rotate the Logo every couple years. They'd sell a hell of a lot more swag that way.

[Kilroy]

A few days in, and I think the thing that's tripping me out the most about this is the dichotomy between people who should have known Kobe the best, seeming to have really known very little about him.

It almost seems like people like Kimmel got to know Kobe better than Shaq.... I don't know if that just through the lens of public perception, but it's really striking and somehow, perfectly understandable, if true.

[TylersLakers]

The Gianna piece of this breaks me. I'd be hurt if it was Kobe. The Gianna part makes this completely devastating.

[zimpy27]

A few days in, and I think the thing that's tripping me out the most about this is the dichotomy between people who should have known Kobe the best, seeming to have really known very little about him.

It almost seems like people like Kimmel got to know Kobe better than Shaq.... I don't know if that just through the lens of public perception, but it's really striking and somehow, perfectly understandable, if true.

Well, I think being on a team would be like a brotherhood, not brothers that grew up together but like step-brothers or cousins. You're forced together to bond even though you have different personalities. You would always be there for each other like family but you aren't wholly invested in each other's lives like good friends.

The people that knew Kobe the best would be his friends, you make friends based on shared personalities, humour, intellect, ideals. For Kobe I imagine people that work hard, are intelligent and have a good sense of humour would have been his bag. Kimmel fits that.

Kobe also had a lot of mentor, mentee relationsips, I think that's why his impact has been this devastating to the NBA community. Many people felt like fathers or mentors to him and he passed that on as he got older to where many players so him as a father or mentor. These are different types of relationships. I'm probably most interested in hearing from Kobe's good friends like Kimmel, I think that's where you go when you truly want to know someone, that and his close family.

[Jurassic_Park]