Post#362 » by discconnected » Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:36 pm
As a 14 year old I was at the skydome hotel trying to meet my childhood idol Magc Johnson, who was an assistance coach on the Los Angeles Lakers at the time, it was about 3:30pm and we were hanging in the lobby of the hotel, trying to be inconspicuous so as to avoid being spotting by security.
We are sitting on couches in the lobby when a tall, skinny kid sits down across from us in a sweat suit, at first we thought he might be a son of a player or maybe someone involved in the lakers training staff, as he was close to our age, and didn’t look or dress like an NBA player.
After about 5 minutes, the kid comes over, introduces himself as Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard, I realize that I have his upper deck rookie card on me, not only did he flip through my stack of cards to find his own, he then took the time to gracefully sign it for me.
My friend had brought a basketball for Magic to sign, when Kobe sees the ball he tells me friend “you should get my autograph on the ball”, at first my friend is hesitant, although Kobe went 13th overall in the draft, he was basically unknown here in Canada, the internet was years away and our media at the time did not cover US high school athletics, Kobe then went on to explain that he would be one of the greatest players to ever play the game and that my friend would regret not getting his autograph.
Kobe must have been really convincing, because my friend ended up getting his signature on the ball, it became as memory that we shared for years, always looking back at how gracious Kobe was with us during that moment and also marvelling at the will and determination of the kid who was barely 17 but already knew and understood his future role in NBA history
Kobe was one of a kind and I would met him many times throughout his storied career, no matter how big the legend of Kobe Bryant grew, he continued to be a down to earth approachable person who was always generous with his time and was always above all, a caring human being.
#RIP Kobe, my friend's most prized possession in life became that basketball, it has always amazed me that you already knew this fact as a 17 year old....