RIP Kobe Bryant

Thinking about the number retirement. I can think of only two numbers in North American sports that have been retired by an entire league, Jackie Robinson and Wayne Gretzky. Kobe isn't close to either.

 

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So sorry about your family experiencing this, MileHigh.

 

Sadly, yours is the voice of experience here, and I'll defer. I'm sorry you ever had to learn about such a topic in this awful manner.

 

I'm actually surprised how emotional I've been all day because of this. I was 12 during his rookie season and grew up in the same hometown as his Mamba Academy, where he was reportedly heading this morning. I've gotten texts and phone calls filled with incredible sadness all day, like a family member has died. I can't remember feeling this way about an athlete. Tried to capture my feelings on this bad day here. Rough one to write. Relentless and revered: How I will remember Kobe Bryant

 

Been following this thread all day and trying to formulate my feelings on the whole thing. Caught the news on Facebook as I was sitting down with my dad for breakfast at the local restaurant; I saw the headline and for a second thought it was one of those bogus search-engine stories (You know like "Julia Roberts is moving to [your hometown]"), but then I saw "tmz.com" and my heart sank, as we all know TMZ is pretty accurate with these kinds of stories.

My feelings on Kobe are, as stated by others on this board, complicated. I'm generally have a positive attitude about him because, well, I'm a Laker fan (but not much of an NBA fan anymore if that makes sense) and he's a Laker. However, along with my memories of all the championships, the 81-point and farewell games, and just the way he played, I can't really forget about the incident in Colorado, and it's a roadblock in my mind to fully admiring him.

However, what happened today was obviously just horrible, and I've found myself thinking a lot about Vanessa Bryant and her surviving children and how incredibly difficult for them right now knowing they lost a father/husband and daughter/sister in an instant. Man, I hope they can just get through this somehow.

As for others on this board who don't want to give him any slack on what happened in Colorado, that's their right and I'm not going to blame them for that. And exmediahack, I hope you don't leave the board -- you make great contributions here and I don't feel you need to apologize for any of your posts.

MileHigh, I appreciate your insight on this. I know it's bringing back bad memories.

 

Maybe not in your corner of the world ... but where I am, Dale Earnhardt's death during the Daytona 500 was a big deal.

Not at all a takedown attempt, but it did - and still does - resonate big here.

And may nothing ever approach Munich ...

 

One friend got me into basketball card collecting when we entered middle school in 96-97. That was an awesome NBA rookie class. He gathered a crap ton of Kobe rookies. Wish I followed his lead.

 

For as much as we were wondering where the WWL was earlier today, SVP has a great show tonight.

 

Mine too, Sam. Holla sometime mi amigo.

 

I’d be curious to hear what part of the company social media policy she supposedly broke.