Kobe

I'm still in shock about the tragic deaths of Kobe, his daughter, and the remaining victims of the  helicopter crash. Like many, I am surprised by the impact of Kobe's death on my own heart, given that I had never met him.

Growing up, being a Lakers fan was everything to me. In a volatile household, the Lakers bonded our family in a special way. As a kid, the moods of my days were dictated by the W or L the night before. Even though my dad was a fan, he was one of those fans...always talking shit about the Lakers, which drove me and my brothers crazy! I poured over newspaper clippings and made several scrap books to document their team journey from my own perspective.

Kobe was my first poster. He was still #8, with his mini afro, windmill dunk, with the silhouette of the renaissance man as the background. Kobe was truly renaissance to me. He pushed boundaries. Defied possibilities. He was brilliant on the court. He had a natural finesse. No one's swish sounded smoother than his. But pure talent never stopped him from working his tail off to be even better. His grit was deeply inspiring. His unapologetic nature was equally fierce. He was human and had deep flaws. He wasn't a great mentor because he spent every second trying to become his best version, even through the very last second of his final game. When he finally retired, he lightened up and we got to see a different part of him. Again, he showed his complexity as a human being, demonstrating that all of us are many things at once, constantly evolving and capable of reinvention or revealing our true selves in different ways.

Kobe had the relentless belief in self. No one's opinion about him mattered more than his own. No one's voice was louder than his inner voice. He measured his success using his internal scorecard. I admired this most about Kobe because the unshakeable belief in self was one that I couldn't hold consistently for myself.

Kobe's death has added a layer of grief to the clouds I've been navigating over the last few months. This tragedy reminds me again that at any second, you can lose someone you love so deeply. If we could only hold this truth of impermanence in every breath we take, we would love more freely, more attentively, and more expansively.

Thank you Kobe, for your final swish.