I'm looking at a computer screen, watching tweets about Kobe Bryant in a state of shock and horror. Even when relationships are confirmed, I still hold a vague hope that the life of one of the best players in NBA history did not end early Sunday morning. But it's there, in front of me and basketball fans around the world as a kind of horrible aspiration nothingness.
Bryant's Sikorsky S-76 helicopter crashed into a hill near Calabasas, California, at 9:47 am. None of the nine people on board survived, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. As I write this, TMZ confirmed that one of the passengers was Bryant's daughter, Gianna Maria Onor, 13 years old. The father and daughter were going to practice basketball, along with another player and his parents.
This is the part of the story where I mention his colossal successes on the field and, in all honesty, it would be easier to stay there alone: as the future member of the NBA Hall of Fame of 41 and a quarter of all Times The top scorer spent his entire twenty-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five titles, was the most valuable player in the league for the 2007-2008 season and was present at the All-Star, All-Defensive, and NBA All-NBA.
I can still see images of a 17-year-old teenager, Bryant, wrapped in a loose shirt from Lower Merion High School, who was already a keen guard with supernatural talent, who went straight to the NBA. Sometimes he was a shy boy, who had struggled to acclimate to life in the United States after spending his childhood abroad in Italy, where his father Joe Bryant played professionally.
Celebrity came quickly. His early years in the NBA were defined by an occasionally accused, albeit tremendously successful, association with Shaquille O'Neal. Under the leadership of head coach Phil Jackson, Bryant and O'Neal dominated the league, winning three consecutive titles from 2000 to 2002. After O'Neal was sent to the Miami Heat, Bryant unleashed all his offensive power. During the 2005-06 season, he led the NBA in scoring, accumulating 35.40 points per game, a score that was only surpassed by two players since the 1976 NBA-ABA merger: Michael Jordan and James Harden.
Like the Lakers, the unkempt years didn't last long. Bryant, flanked by the versatile strikers Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, made three consecutive trips to the final, winning two. He was named MVP of the series in both 2009 and 2010. During the past six years of his career, Bryant has faced several injuries and has slowly eroded his skills. But he still managed to get up for one last wave of greatness, scoring 60 points in his last game, including 23 in the last quarter.
None of this should diminish the joys provided by Bryant or take away from the portrait of a loving, committed father and husband.
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