Kobe Bryant Discussion, Part Two

[chrismikayla]

[OkcSinceSGA]

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Never seen Draymond so humble and amazed with someone like he was Kobe.

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[TMU]

Whether you liked him or not, no one competed harder or loved the game more than he did.

[OkcSinceSGA]

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[Tor_Raps]

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Never seen Draymond so humble and amazed with someone like he was Kobe.

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That was awesome. Wish I could see the entire interview.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Ah ****. This one is getting me emotional again. Especially where Pau says he looks forward to their friendship for the rest of their lives.

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[Meliorus]

This rerun of his last game is incredible. Instead of commercials, we get more discussion of Kobe from Woj and co.

[Optms]

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Holy crap this is epic on so many levels

[Mikistan]

I don't think anybody believes the pilot is a "villain". I'm pretty sure he didn't fly into a mountain by purpose, but I'm also sure he made several errors which caused this terrible tragedy. This one is on the pilot. The pilot made the call to fly despite the whether conditions and the pilot made the mistakes which led him to crash against a mountain.

Kobe made the decision to buy a helicopter and the decision to travel by it whether there was fog or not.

No! Kobe can't make that call. Pilot is in charge of passenger safety. He failed.

I totally get that point but I dunno, as an adult, as a father, you kind of have to think about the variables - all the variables.

It's a bit of a cop out to say, no I hired a specialist - the specialist takes all responsibility.

At the end of the day, specialist or not, if you hired the specialist part of that is on you. If you are rich enough to buy a helicopter, you gotta know a bit about the helicopter too. You gotta look at the fog and the situation and take a step back and ask yourself if it's worth it.

They valued getting to the game on time even in less then perfect conditions more than being late but going by car.

[BillTheGOAT]

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[azcatz11]

This rerun of his last game is incredible. Instead of commercials, we get more discussion of Kobe from Woj and co.

This is great - I forget when he hit those 2 threes in a row

[SlovenianDragon]

This rerun of his last game is incredible. Instead of commercials, we get more discussion of Kobe from Woj and co.

I would pay good money for a live streaming service that doesn't have commercials just more studio time between breaks.

[azcatz11]

This rerun of his last game is incredible. Instead of commercials, we get more discussion of Kobe from Woj and co.

I would pay good money for a live streaming service that doesn't have commercials just more studio time between breaks.

Woj is great tonight - very interesting stuff tonight from him

[Jimmy Recard]

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Nadal talks about Kobe post match

Nadal is one of the closest things we've seen to Kobe in all of sports...he has the same mentality Kobe has

For sure. Two of the most mentally tough guys ever in their respective sports.

It got to me when he used to talk to Pau Gasol about him and Pau would talk about Kobe’s spirit and the fact that he always wanted more.

Ugh, this still doesn’t feel real.

[Tracymcgoaty]

**** man i dont think i can find joy in this season to be honest..Not even with this.

[Scott Hall]

Something I wrote after Kobe passed:

I didn’t like Kobe.

The problem was, I couldn’t get away from him. He would come to the Garden and dominate us, to the disgusting and traitorous (and let's face it, understandable) cheers of the Madison Square Garden faithful, and set records. On the PS2, my brother would lock in the Lakers, grab Kobe and take him to that sweet midrange spot…swish over and over again, on my stubborn Knicks-playing butt (all I had was Stephon). And anytime I’d go on the courts in China and see someone dribbling a ton and then taking a contested fadeaway against 2 opponents…I’d think, screw you Kobe. Screw you for even ruining all my pickup games. And that one guy who would always ruin my fantasy basketball league by trading all his top picks for Kobe.

But soon, that jealousy and anger turned to begrudging appreciation. Yea, I was hoping the Knicks would trade for him once he made that trade request (of course, it never happened, like it never does for us). The Matt Barnes thing…that was sick. And him shooting free throws with the torn Achilles. And him beating the Jazz during his last game by taking 50 shots. And yea, on the court at college, sometimes I’d pretend to be Kobe and jut out my jaw to annoy my friends and make them laugh (even though I played more like an injured Karl Malone). But even that was an acknowledgement of Kobe.

A while back, Michael Jackson passed away---I won't lie, I didn't get it all. But now I do. I have a kid now, and it feels weird, wrong that he won't grow up in a world with Kobe Bryant, that he'll only hear these random stories from me, watch these youtube videos. Kobe wasn’t perfect, and I'll tell him about that too...all the things. He was more than a basketball player, and I appreciate how people share that too.

But for now, I think the main thing I’m thinking now is that now Kobe’s not here anymore. It feels wrong, and it feels so meaningless. It feels like I took him for granted, that he would be here forever, the guy who would destroy my Knicks over and over again, the guy I wanted every player to emulate. The guy who went through so much pain to reach his goals is gone, and it feels like for no reason. No celebration, no Hall of Fame entrance yet, so much more to achieve. And it hurts.

Rest in Peace.

This post reminded me of a few things for me personally... (bit of a long read)

I grew up in the Jordan era where Jordan was god I also still was a kid/early teen when Shaq played for Orlando
I had the Shaq Fu video game and even Shaqs rap cassettes.

As a Raptor fan we got the 2nd pick in the 1996 draft we should've had the first pick in the draft but expansion rules
prevented us from picking first...

The next year we ended up drafting Tracy McGrady from a competitive stand point you want to have the best high school
player in the league so you didn't want Kobe or KG to be better then him...

Then Vince Carter arrived on the scene and people were calling him the next Jordan. Vinsanity was the biggest thing
in the league at the time or so I thought and then Kobe started rapidly developing and starting winning tittles with
the Lakers.

I felt Kobe was good but was only winning tittles because he was playing with the most dominant player in the
world in Shaq and the GOAT coach Phil Jackson. I felt if you put Vince, T-Mac, Pierce, Iverson, Ray Allen etc with
prime Shaq and Phil Jackson they would win rings as well.

I remember using the ESPN.com boards at the time and couldn't believe Kobe was loved LIKE THAT. People were acting
like he was better then Jordan and since I was completely biased towards Vince and T-Mac it put me as a Kobe hater.

Also since I was a Shaq guy it pissed me off that Kobe blamed Shaq for the 2003-2004 Finals and snitched to him to
the cops and there was that thing with Karl Malones wife.

I also didn't understand Lakers fans fascinations with Kobe like you have/had Shaq, you saw Magic Johnson and Kareem
and Wilt and West etc etc and this guy is your GOAT? put Kobe with an average team in the East with poor coaching
and see what he wins?

I also never liked that Kobe refused to go to any team other then the Lakers during the draft and it was clear the
Lakers were the evil empire of the league. I just hated Kobes fanboys and the attention he got thought it was way
over the top. I remember when the Lakers came to Toronto in 2006-2007 it was the first time ever I've seen the
arena actually invaded by another team and it was Laker/Kobe fan boys and it pissed me off.

I remember when 2K sports came out with Online play for the first time in 2003 and you could play people from
all over the world and I swear for the first 10 years it was nothing but Laker/Kobe Fanboys 85% of the time trying
to score every shot with Kobe.

Media wise it just seemed liked the league was completely Kobe/Laker centric and the rest of the league was an
afterthought....

Of course there was the Kings getting screwed by the Refs and once again Kobe/Lakers being the benefactor. As
well as the 81 point game which I was more pissed off at Sam Mitchell for one of the worst coaching jobs ever
but the fact that the game was over and garbage time in the 4th quarter and Kobe was still in there stat padding
trying to embarrass a tanking team that started the season 1-17 and had just got screwed out of its own star player
for nothing the year before.

I always rooted for Lebron to surpass him and have the better legacy I always thought Kobe was spoiled playing
with other great players except for a year or 2. Didn't respect that soon as he had a little turbulence he asked
for a trade.

Kobe/Kobe fanboys made a great villain somebody competitively you wanted to beat...

In the end it was clear that Lebron was gonna have a better career and the GOAT debate moved on to Jordan vs. Lebron
then Kobe tore his Achilles ironically his first game back was against the Raptors the day they made the huge Rudy Gay
trade. It felt like Kobe picked that game to return because he thought he could torch us and instead a short handed
Raptor team beat the Lakers in LA for the first time in 11 years and that game magically turned the franchise around
as we started winning and have never looked back since. Kobe was not the same and it was the beginning of the end
for him as one of the best players.

In the years after I really liked who Kobe turned into as a man he had a lot of admirable qualities. The Raptors won
the Chip last year he tweeted out congrats and it all seemed like water under the bridge.

It's surreal that a guy who you hated and loathed for years but in the end had lost those feelings and emotions for
years and actually started to like tragically dies like this after the fact.

It's just all surreal feels like a chapter for millions of us that lived that era is over and how it all came full circle.
Just seems like yesterday that bald kid with those in style 1996 sun glasses on his head took Brandy to the prom
and he was on that Nintendo 64 game how did it go by so fast?

[Lord Eder]

**** man i dont think i can find joy in this season to be honest..Not even with this.

He’s gonna go absolute beast mode

[CS707]

Later year Kobe resonated with me as the father of two athlete daughters. It was cool to see him have the same passion for his girls as I did mine.

[DayofMourning]

He had so much more to give us. Selfish, I know, but I wanted more.

[NewEra]

NYC Empire State Building Tribute to Kobe #Salute

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