I turned 33 a month ago. I saw all 6 of MJ's titles but was too young to remember his NC days and early battles with the Pistons. I watched and remember Kobe from his rookie season. MJ is mythic to me but Kobe was a legend I saw everything from. I took for granted what I witnessed because I thought I'd get old and keep seeing him at All Star games with gray in his hair like Bill Russell and I'd be telling young dudes they didn't know shyt about how great this dude was. The tears haven't stopped and I still don't think this has really hit me fully yet. I'm playing nothing but Victory Lap today, but that only makes it hurt more. shyt sounds like a Kobe soundtrack. This part of his life was supposed to be his victory lap. Dedication? Who embodied that more than Bean?
Whats weird is I felt the inverse of that. As a major Kobe fan, I invested a lot of time in not liking LeBron. When Kobe died, alot of the anger I felt towards Bron evaporated. It’s bigger than basketball. These are people. And we should enjoy them while they’re here instead of picking them apart for silly debates. The crazy thing is we (the stans/fans) fought each other tooth and nail when they saw each other as brothers
So in honor of Bean, I want to see LeBron win a couple more rings especially for the Lakers.
I couldn't sleep much. A lot of people couldn't for different reasons. I stayed up checking this thread, reading tweets, watching old youtube vids, etc
And this is for someone I spent at least half of his career *hating*. At nearly every turn I rooted against him. I spent half my life arguing against Kobe. AI vs. Kobe? Give me A.I. Kobe vs. TMac? Give me TMac. KG vs. Kobe? Give me KG. Rooted for the Blazers, rooted for the Kings, rooted for the Suns.
The origin being that I was an MJ fan. It was too soon for me to see a potential threat to his crown. Sometimes hate derives from fear. At the time I didn't view it as such, but in retrospect it was. I feared Kobe being as good as MJ. I then became a LeBron fan. He was different enough from MJ...that I felt like they'd be too different/difficult to compare. So if he fell short oh well. However, Bron was my bridge to hoping Kobe wouldn't be viewed as the GOAT. The thing about Kobe though is no matter my hate/fear dude always found a way to succeed...usually ended better than who I rooted for. I was like how can somebody be this confident, how can someone have such a strong will. He just did.
Thankfully I learned to appreciate/respect Kobe for Greatness the latter half of his career.
So Why was I up doing all these things?
Cause it truly hit me how I didn't appreciate that man like I should have when he was alive. Like I'm trying to make up time that was wasted. Sometimes we spend more time trying to undermine somebody instead of understanding them. I can have my favs, I can have my critiques, but I don't need
hate. Now some of that simply came with age because I just got tired of that energy.
I lowkey envy brehs like
@CantStop @10bandz and all the other brehs. Cause they got to truly embrace his greatest moments.....
in the moment. I missed it.
The shame is what
@CHICAGO hinted at with his daughter. You could see him building for her future. Them being similar is what he seemed most proud of. She can carry on both his legacy while created her legacy. To whatever success or road that might be.
So not only robbing him of his life....but hers is what hurts the most.
Let's not get carried away now.