You didn’t have to be a basketball or sports fan in order to know who Kobe Bryant was. He was a legendary athlete, an Oscar winner, filmmaker, rapper, businessman, devout Catholic, and author. But undoubtedly, his favorite job was being a husband and father.
It’s terrible to write this because Kobe isn’t the only one we have to honor. There were nine people on that helicopter. One of them being his daughter Gianna (Gigi).
Many people have said that neither one of them would have been able to live without the other. When the news broke, the first thing I thought was that for whatever reason, they were meant to pass together and his wife and three other daughters have been given the strength to live without them and carry on his legacy.
I think everyone should look at both Kobe and Gigi as inspirations and role models. Obviously a big idea associated with Kobe is the Mamba Mentality. He was never satisfied. He practiced during early hours and perfected his craft. He had an incredibly outstanding career because he worked so hard. He set his goals and dreams and worked to achieve them.
After he retired, he wanted to keep working. He became a businessman, he became an author by writing his biography titled The Mamba Mentality. He was a philanthropist by becoming the official ambassador for After-School All Stars which provides after school programs for kids in 13 cities in the U.S. He created the Kobe Bryant China Fund to create education and health programs in China. He also assisted Zach Braff at a Call of Duty launch event where they presented a $1 million check to the Call of Duty Endowment which helps veterans transition back to their civilian lives and careers after they have finished their service.
He also created the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation in order to help young people in need. Their goals were to encourage the development of physical and social skills through sports and helping the homeless.
Bryant won an Academy Award for his short film, Dear Basketball and became the first African American to win for a short film and the first professional athlete to win an Academy Award.
He also of course started the Mamba Academy where his daughter Gigi played basketball. She was just as dedicated as him and was determined to carry his legacy into the WNBA. When fans would tell Kobe he has to have a boy soon to play basketball and carry on his legacy, Gigi would tell them that she’s got his legacy to carry on. She was going to take care of it.
She was gifted in basketball and should be an inspiration for young athletes. She was only thirteen years old and was as disciplined as a full grown professional athlete.
ESPN reporter, Elle Duncan, shared a story about how Kobe would’ve had five more girls because he enjoyed being a “girl dad” so much. He made it his mission to give women opportunities. He made his daughters realize that they could do anything which resonated with me because my dad has done the same for my sister and I.
Yes, they were both taken too soon. Yes, it feels like this wasn’t supposed to happen. But I think for whatever reason it was meant to happen. Death is never something you want to see happen to someone like Kobe Bryant, let alone to his daughter especially in the way that they perished and at their ages. Kobe started taking helicopters to get to his kids quicker and spend more time with them. He found himself sitting in L.A traffic causing him to miss events like school plays and it became too much to pick them up from school which is something he loved to do. He started taking helicopters because he loved his kids and wanted as much time with them as he could get even if that meant just 20 minutes on their way home.
He died as the person he always wanted to be: a basketball player who used his career to make change. He showed love in everything he did. He loved basketball. He loved working. He loved his family and God. He died a great husband and father. A #girldad.
I believe that we can all find comfort in all of this because Kobe and Gigi went back to heaven together. Now, what we need to do is live the way Kobe did. We need to work hard in everything we do. We need to find the positive in every negative. We need to love.
I’m thinking and praying for Kobe’s loved ones right now especially his wife Vanessa and his three daughters, Natalia, Bianka, and Capri. Let’s continue tossing papers into the trash cans yelling “Kobe!” and let’s live with the Mamba Mentality and honor Kobe and Gigi.
