For me personally, Kobe's the reason I stepped onto a basketball court in the first place. The reason I actually wanted to toss a ball into a net and doing that kept me out of a lot of shit. Most of us who watched Kobe growing up went to the gym or a local street court which kept us out of a lot of bullshit. My age group that's the main guy we watched on TV if we were fans of the sport. My first basketball jersey was the #8 Lakers jersey one of my family member's relatives gave me after they passed. Me and my cousin used to compete with each other because when I was younger, my guy was Paul Pierce and his was Kobe so Lakers/Celtics stats was all we knew lol. This is even before music was my #1 love. When the Lakers won the championship in 2009 after the Celtics won in 2008, we had to just end the debate and look at them both as great players...
But strangely it makes me think of this place and how we all argue back and forth but at the end of the day who's really mad at each other when the only thing we do is bring out the best in each other? Most of us learned how to write punchlines just using LB because they were feuding with one guy and put their pen to work...
I mean it's funny because I don't blame you guys for all of the future Kobe Bryant punchlines you'll think of and use in your battles. I mean hey, do ya thing.
Anyways, This one definitely did hit me hard. The sport will never be the same. he may not be one of your idols or role models but he damn sure was huge part of the reason most of any community, black white Asian, stepped on a court and shot a ball. I definitely will be off of here after Illmania. I got music to make and release so I can start my own journey of greatness.
