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Coinbased
I’m a few days late but 
Happy birthday Gigi
this is still something that is hard to swallow
Happy birthday Gigi this is still something that is hard to swallow
Kobe and Gigi Bryant Memorial Thread (RIP)
- Thread starter We Ready
- Start date
I kinda hate basketball analysts and how sway they have over public opinion. KB is top 5 to me. Dude did shyt nobody ever did as a #1 option and probably will never do again.
I laugh at how they keep saying how top tier Pau and Odom were just so they don’t give dude props lol.
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Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Vic Damone. Jr
Don't support the phonies, support the real
Gotta cop this
Smfh, still feels like a sick joke.....
I AM WARHOL
Veteran
The last communication between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant
He still has the final text message saved on his phone.
Michael Jordan retrieves it from time to time, even though it refreshes his grief, triggers the urge to wonder all over again, as so many others have, "Why?"
Almost sixteen months after the death of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six other companions as well as the pilot in a helicopter crash, it remains agonizing to process. Jordan, who was Kobe's mentor, confidant and friend, has been mulling over how to put Bryant's life into context because he will be inducting him into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday. It is a responsibility that comes with a mix of distinction and dread.
Jordan still can't speak of Kobe without a little hitch in his voice, a catch of emotion that hasn't subsided since he spoke at Bryant's memorial service last February and openly wept over the loss of his "little brother." As the tears streamed down his face, Jordan joked about creating a new Jordan crying meme for the thirsty social media throngs.
"I told my wife I wouldn't do this, because I didn't want to see it for the next three or four years," Jordan said on that day. "This is what Kobe Bryant does to me. He knows how to get to you in a way that affects you personally ... even if he is a pain in the ass."
Time has passed, but the grief lingers, simmering on the surface. Jordan acknowledges that he had some concerns about how he would maintain his composure during the induction ceremony.
"I was thinking, at first, I might be a little somewhat nervous about it, but then I realized I'm not going to be nervous about showing emotions for someone I absolutely loved," Jordan says. "That's the humanistic side of me -- people tend to forget I do have one."
It is always heart-wrenching when people die young. The crash claimed the lives of three teenagers and young parents, all of whom left families behind. Bryant, just 41 years old, had settled comfortably into his basketball retirement, Jordan says, focusing on spending time with his wife, Vanessa, his four daughters and a burgeoning portfolio of literary, entertainment, coaching and basketball-related business ventures.
"He was just so happy," Jordan says. "He was doing so well."
The final text message, dated Dec. 8, 2019, indicates as much. Kobe sent it to Jordan just after noon, 12:18 p.m. PT.
"This tequila is awesome," Kobe texted, referring to Jordan's Cincoro Tequila, a bottle of which was sent to Bryant at the launch.
"Thank you, my brother," Jordan responded.
"Yes, sir. Family good?" Kobe replied.
"All good. Yours?"
"All good."
Jordan smiled, then decided to have a little fun. "He was really into coaching Gigi," MJ explains, "so I hit him up about that."
"Happy holidays," Jordan texted back, "and hope to catch up soon. Coach Kobe??!"
"I added that little crying/laughing emoji," Jordan chuckles.
"Ah, back at you, man," Kobe wrote. "Hey, coach, I'm sitting on the bench right now, and we're blowing this team out. 45-8."
Eleven days following that exchange, Bryant learned he had been officially nominated for the Hall of Fame as a first-ballot entry. Forty-nine days later, he was gone.
"I just love that text," Jordan says, "because it shows Kobe's competitive nature."
It was one of many qualities the two men shared. Each was relentless in their pursuit of winning, even as teammates occasionally became casualties of that white-hot intensity. They talked about the trappings of fame, the jealousy of others, the insatiable thirst for perfection.
"His style of play was identical to mine," Jordan says. "He stayed true to his course, and I respect that."
On Dec. 17, 1997, at the United Center, a 19-year-old Kobe Bryant bounded off the bench for the Lakers and scored 33 points in 29 minutes. Jordan, suitably impressed, sought out the second-year player after the game to compliment him. Bryant immediately began peppering him with questions about shooting release points. The conversation was brief, but warm. "If you ever need anything," Jordan told him, "just call ..."
Kobe did. Again, and again, and again. Sometimes at 2 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes before the sun came up. Bryant wondered about Jordan's turnaround jump shot, how to create misdirection, the best way to ward off bigger, stronger players in the post. In later years, the questions involved endorsements, the quest for privacy, advice on how to manage their shared need not just to beat someone, but to break them. Kobe made no secret of his goal: It was to be like Mike, or, if possible, to be even better.
"He was a mentally tough kid, maybe even tougher than I was," Jordan says. "Remember, the people who followed me, my fans, didn't like that he was trying to copy what I had done."
Bryant's induction into the Hall of Fame, along with a star-studded group of peers that includes Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, became official on April 4, 2020. He never had the opportunity to place a call to Michael Jordan to see if he would present him. "Vanessa asked me once he passed away," Jordan explains. "In all honesty, I knew he probably would. It was either me or Shaq, since they won three championships together."
Jordan says about six months ago he sent Vanessa a text to check in on her.
"I told her, 'Look, I know this is a tough time. I'm always here if you need me,'" Jordan says. "She answered back, 'I would love it if you stood up for Kobe at the Hall of Fame.'
"It's going to be a great honor, to be honest. It's like standing up for a family member. He paid me the highest respect by trying to emulate certain things I did. And I can only repay that by showing my support and admiration for a guy who I felt was one of the greatest to ever play the game."
Jordan says Bryant's blockbuster career with the Lakers, during which he won five championships, has overshadowed how initially difficult it was for Bryant to integrate himself into a league as a teenager who was not yet physically or mentally mature, and was often isolated from, and even scorned by, his older teammates.
"In some ways, Kobe was self-made," Jordan says. "People forget that. He was an 18-year-old kid that made himself into one of the best.
"To me, it was all from hard work and dedication. All the effort he put forth. He should be a great role model for a lot of kids who at 18 may not want to go to college, that may want to play basketball somewhere.
"He showed them how. And he sat on the bench for a long time before he got his chance. People forget that, too. But when he got his shot, he took advantage of it."
Jordan will have no shortage of material to illustrate the greatness of his friend. There are the five rings, the two Finals MVPs, the regular-season MVP in 2008, the 15 All-NBA selections, the 12 All-Defense nods and the four All-Star MVP trophies. But it's the father, the friend and the kindred spirit that Jordan misses most. During Kobe's memorial at the Staples Center, Jordan told the assembled crowd, "When Kobe died, a part of me died."
Maybe that explains why Kobe's number -- along with that final text -- remains on Michael Jordan's phone.
"I don't know why," he says, "but I just can't delete it."
The axe murderer
For I am death and I ride on a pale horse