Dear Kobe

Kobe was a lot of things to different people. For many years the world saw him as a basketball player, first and foremost. What he did on that floor in the 29 arenas around the country were a thing of legend, down to his last performance we got to witness. I re-watched his last game last night. 60 points. At 38 years old, slower than his younger self, still had the fire and passion to take on anyone at any moment. Early on in the game when nothing would fall it was a blocked shot from behind that sparked something in him. That was Kobe. One spark of hustle ignited the fire that blazed into 15 points in the next five minutes. And again, in true Kobe fashion would not sit in the second half. He would bring his team back from being down 10 with three minutes to go. He just had a way of always getting the best of people. We saw that for 20 years. 19 years 364 days of him being a villain to most. One of those villains who you feared from his power and greatness but respected hard work and passion more than all. Then on his last day in uniform everyone was a Kobe fan. I had goosebumps and jumping up and down the first time I watched it. I had goosebumps and tears watching it last night. His, only fitting, final words of the night “Mamba Out!”

But then he was out of our lives. We didn’t see or hear from Kobe much after that for a few years. We saw why about a year ago. The stories came out about how the AAU team he coached, with his daughter on the team, beat another team a million to nothing, or something close to that. My first thoughts were that’s the Mamba mentality at its finest. Even a 12-year-old girls team isn’t safe from Mamba’s competitiveness. What I didn’t understand at the time was it wasn’t the Mamba who anyone needed to worry about anymore. He was just an artist molding a Mambacita with the same fire and passion he had. I realized why we hadn’t been seeing Kobe. His passion for this game was now through the eyes of Gianna. Gianna brought him back to the game he had already given so much to because of her passion. The past year we saw him come back to the NBA, with Gianna, sitting on the front row. It wasn’t because Mamba was coming back to see his old prey in action. It was so Mambacita could study her favorite players to one-day use on her prey. It was so exciting seeing the two of them discussing the intricacies of the game he already conquered and her on her way, was a special thing. To see players, such as LeBron and Luka, come hug him, always happy to see him. Then make a point to go say hi to Gianna was special. I looked forward to seeing that for the next 20 years. I can’t believe we won’t see that for the next 20 years. But you always left us wanting more. “Mamba Out!”