Overwhelming.

[Beginning confession: This is my first writing and blogging of 2020. It is currently June. These images were shot in January. I don’t think anything about 2020 is on time or going as anyone planned, so I’ll just continue…]

Kobe Bryant…

I have to start with my first opinion and impression of the man, admitting that in my senior year of high school, 2001-2002, I was sincerely a Sacramento Kings fan. I simply liked the way they played the game of basketball. Anything dealing with Shaq, Kobe and the Los Angeles Lakers, you could keep it. Mind you, I grew up in Stamford, CT, so there was a geographic distance from all these feelings towards NBA basketball in California.

Fast forward to the year 2020, and on a foggy Sunday morning, an unthinkable accident rocked the city and county of Los Angeles, and all sports fans worldwide. I was walking around Hollywood, CA scrolling through Instagram when Kevin Hart’s page showed a picture of Kobe Bryant, and I thought it was some shoutout for yet another positive accolade that Kobe might have achieved. No. It was the worst news possible instead.

18 years after the Kings -Lakers rivalry all my animosity towards Kobe Bryant had long faded away. He wasn’t a perfect human being, and I don’t condone what he allegedly did…but before his story concluded, I was able to see a human being committed to his family, in particular to his daughter, Gianna, with who he was furthering the world of women’s basketball. I saw a man focused beyond belief, coining the “Mamba mentality,” desiring to master whatever craft he committed himself to. I saw a budding artist and storyteller that, oh, you know, won an Oscar with the first film he ever created, “Dear Basketball.”

What a quick masterpiece of life experience.

Again, this is June, but I remember my perspective back in January being, “what a terrible way to start the decade. It has to get better from here…” (Insert a gigantic laugh track). Kobe was more than a Laker, he was a piece of Los Angeles, so you could absolutely feel the weight of the moment and loss on the entire city: murals immediately on walls, city busses flashing their displays with messages of “RIP Kobe,” LA skyscrapers lit in purple and gold.

Radio stations kept speaking of the sizable tribute that was forming at the plaza of LA Live which contains the famed Staples Center, home of the Lakers (and NHL’s Kings). Shoes, basketballs, flowers, jersey…all left as a tribute to the fallen champion, his 13 year old daughter and the 7 other souls aboard the fated helicopter. I felt the pull and knew I would eventually see it for myself and capture it. “Eventually” was 30 hours later.

There was a hush and reverence among the crowd punctured by occasional “KO-BE” and “M-V-P” chants. There’s not much else to say other than it was overwhelming. Here are a few images of the moment. May all those in the crash Rest in Paradise.