Sports are bigger than all of us. They connect us in a way that few things do, they give us something to represent, a tangible arm of pride for your city, state or country. I always struggle in finding the words to express what sports mean to me, specifically basketball, maybe because I don’t fully comprehend it. At its core it really is just a business, a bunch of guys getting paid to play a game with a lot more folks getting paid along the way. I think what makes it so special for me is the way it makes people feel and brings people together. I’m a sucker for unity, I’ll admit in. It truly is amazing what it can do for a city when a team is playing well. There's a certain buzz around the town, a feeling of excitement and anticipation, a pride for your city and community. No city knows this feeling more than the City of Angels all because of one man: Kobe Bryant. No man has been more of a consistent part of the sport I hold so dearly to my heart since the very moment I first saw it be played. The city of Portland has an interesting, antagonistic history with Kobe and The Lakers. Truthfully, this could be said about damn near every team in the NBA, as he picked on the whole league for two whole decades. I think what makes Portland special in this sense is we always played him close, and his battles with us were some of the major stepping stones to his career. Maybe his most iconic moment was sending us home in the 2000 Western Conference Finals where they went on to beat the Pacers 4-2, one of Kobes five eventual rings. What's truly amazing about this run that Kobe had is that his first ring and fifth ring were separated by ten years. Ten years of championships is not an easy thing to do, and shows that his dominance was transcendent and evolved as he did. It's also very telling, and much like most of kobe's career, very storybook-esque. That's a decade bookmarked by the greatest player of the 2000s, and it's not even close.
It's hard to fully comprehend the sudden and tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, but even more unfathomable is the loss of his daughter Gigi, who he loved more than anything in the world, even basketball. What has given me strength and hope in the days since that horrific moment is the way that the city, and the basketball community as a whole, have come together to celebrate and remember the astounding impact he had on so many in the community and millions more who recognized what he represented and felt connected to him through that. It’s been surreal to see the thousands of people who have poured into the area outside of the Staples Center, an area that will likely be adorned with a statue of the great Bean Bryant, an everlasting testament to his continued excellence in representing the Purple and Gold. It really is a true reminder of the reach that sports have, and the way that they make us feel linked to people we’ve never met. It’s a lesson in humanity and how much more sports are then just a game. As Kobe once said, “Sports are the perfect metaphor for life”. They make us feel the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. They challenge us and show us greatness, and no one showed us greatness more than Kobe Bryant. January 26th was one of the saddest days for sports in history and will continue to impact and influence the sports world for the foreseeable future. Kobe was everything I love about basketball, and it's hard for me to fathom that the world will keep spinning without him.