Kobe Bryant: a legend, a loving father, an icon, a role model & mentor.
With the gut wrenching helicopter crash that took away 9 victims to their early graves on the fateful 28th of January, the world’s heart grieved as one bidding goodbye to a legend, a loving father, an icon, a role model, a mentor, the legendary basketball phenomenon, Kobe Bryant.
Some of us still find it hard to face the reality, that Kobe Bryant is really gone, would no longer appear on our screens, wouldn’t have us cheering from our couches alongside his fierce battle on court, would never have another appearance, another game, another event, another chance.
As we slowly begin to digest his departure, praying for an easy rest, we take this space, in this moment, to let the world have a page in his memory, for the one who entertained us, had us couch arrested every time a game came on and had us yelling ourselves hoarse, shouting out fight songs for the benefit of the miniature Bryant dribbling, shooting, flying on our flat screens.
Kobe Bryant’s NBA Achievements
Kobe Bean Bryant enrolled into The National Basketball Association, at the age of 17 years, right out of high school, becoming the 6th player in NBA history to ever do so.
Ever since then, Kobe had had an exciting career to say the least, in his 20 plus years with The Los Angeles Lakers.
Bryant had five NBA championships under his belt, was decorated as an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, was named the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player and was a 2-time NBA Finals Winner.
Kobe’s Background
Bryant was born in Philadelphia, the youngest of three children of former NBA Player, Joe Bryant and Pamela Cox Bryant.
He attended High School at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, located in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, where he won the hearts of nation wide fans with a sparkling high school basketball career.
On April 18th, 2001, Bryant married Vanessa Laine and their first child, Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born in January 2003. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant was born in May 2006 and their last two children, Bianka Bella Bryant and Capri Kobe Bryant were born in 2016 and 2019 respectively.
In the year 2016, Bryant was ranked No. 10 on The Forbes’ List Of World’s Highest Paid Athletes with an estimated net worth of $350m.
It is no doubt that the world took a hit when we lost a “greatest of all time” player to disaster. What remains to be even more heartbreaking is for him to have departed from this world together with his 13 year old, daughter, Gianna.
We can only bow our heads in prayer and wish them eternal peace, remembering The Legacy left behind of The Black Mamba. They might be gone, but never far away from our memories. We send out our love and heartfelt sympathies to every family that was torn from the tragedy.
Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, Ara Zobayan; may you rest in eternal peace. Our thoughts go with their families. It was too soon, too painful. Our grief knows no bounds.
Credits
Written by Zoomaburst
Cover by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
