DENVER — Austin River’s face was completely red as he sat down on the Rockets bench, his face buried in a towel, tears streaming down his face. The more he tried to wipe them away, the more they arrived in droves. Tipoff was in less than 10 minutes and the rest of his teammates were on the court getting final shots in and trying their hardest to take their minds elsewhere, but Rivers just didn’t seem to have the strength. Not now. He was completely shattered. As the unfortunate news of Kobe Bryant’s passing filled Pepsi Center, the scope of reactions ranged from disbelief to confusion to utter shock. The security checkpoint was silent as a few media members filed in, arena attendants scrambling through their phones, trying to make sense of what had happened. “Rough day, man,” one of the employees said as he tried to focus on his job and not what was going on around him. A few feet away, a group of excited children played near the Rockets team bus parked by the loading dock, oblivious to the news that had broken some 30 minutes earlier. One day, they would know the impact and importance of today, but right now they gathered in innocence. Nuggets guard Gary Harris made his way through the tunnel with a blank look on his face. Russell Westbrook, typically animated and excited before games, didn’t say a word as he went through his last-minute routine. Michael Frazier, who was Bryant’s teammate nearly five years ago, didn’t even have the focus to take practice shots, standing under the basket as basketballs fell around him, shaking his head.
There are very few moments in the world of sports where everything seems to come to a halt. Today was one of those days. Early Sunday, news broke that Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash, which was confirmed by Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. “It was pretty somber before the game with that devastating news,” Mike D’Antoni said. “It shook guys a lot. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, Vanessa and the kids. Just an unbelievable tragedy.” None of what happened Sunday felt real. It didn’t feel real when the Nuggets played a brief tribute to Kobe, it didn’t feel real during the moment of silence, and it didn’t feel real when cheers of “Kobe! Kobe!” rang out in the arena. The Rockets lost to the Nuggets 117-110, but it feels irrelevant. We could talk about Westbrook’s continued strong play and his 32-point, seven-rebound, seven-assist game, including 22 points in the second half. We could talk about the second unit continuing to produce, chipping in 30 points between Danuel House, Rivers and Thabo Sefolosha. We could talk about Eric Gordon’s poor shooting game. We could talk about the team not having an answer for Jerami Grant. We could talk about D’Antoni ripping into Ben McLemore for key missed defensive rotation in the fourth quarter, leaving Michael Porter Jr. wide open.
But right now, none of that matters. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how either team had enough focus or spirit to play the game. Elsewhere in the league, there were mini-tributes to Kobe’s legacy — taking back-to-back 24-second violations during the Spurs-Raptors contest, along with an 8-second violation during Grizzlies-Suns. For most of the evening, Harden sat still beside the coaching staff. Other than a few times when he got up to congratulate teammates for a good play, he was motionless, his heart hurting far more than his sore thigh. “Once the game starts, it’s what they do,” D’Antoni said. “I think it’s tough for both teams. It wasn’t an easy afternoon. We played hard. We just didn’t play well enough.” I tried my hardest to pay attention during the course of this game, I really did. From the time I got the news in an Uber headed to the arena to the opening tip, my mind was a blur. Kobe was literally congratulating LeBron James hours earlier on passing him on the all-time scoring chart. None of this makes any sense right now, and it won’t get easier in the days, weeks or months to come. The game of basketball suffered a huge loss Sunday. The player’s locker room door was closed for a while following the game, as teammates tried to process the day’s emotions as best as they could. Once opened, the room was silent. Tyson Chandler dressed quickly and took off for the exits, having spent the first quarter in tears on the bench. Rivers fought back tears as he walked to his locker, reaching for another towel. Westbrook sat by his locker shaking his head in bewilderment, his mind miles away from his game performance. Harden sat beside him, going through his phone as he fiddled with his sock, answering the numerous texts and phone calls he had received over the course of the game.
“This is such a great loss, you know,” Rivers said. “He’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game, and more importantly, what he’s meant for the youth of basketball and sports. I gotta be honest — I’m a competitor and obviously we cared about losing tonight, but I gotta be honest with you, it wasn’t on my mind when we lost. You go back to reality and the facts are we lost somebody that meant so much to all of us. And then, you hear about his daughter. As a father, I’ve said many prayers for that family and I’m going to continue to do so. It looked like he was the happiest he’s ever been after basketball. Him and Gigi’s relationship, I mean everybody saw it — it’s all he posted about. And this was tough. I don’t know how we played today. I would start thinking about the game and it would just snap back into my mind. We get to play tomorrow and I’m sure Utah will do the tribute, and this pain isn’t going to go away any time soon. You don’t even have to be a basketball fan to feel this. One of the most competitive, iconic athletes and honestly more so as a father, what he’s meant to that family. I’m going to pray for Vanessa and the kids and may he rest in peace. This was tough.” Bryant’s accomplishments during his playing career are well-documented, having a Hall of Fame career over the course of 20 seasons, winning five championships, an Olympic gold, and countless other accolades. But it was his post-playing career, his second act that was tragically cut short. We’ll miss Kobe the father, the basketball coach of his daughter Gianna, his budding hoops star. His wife Vanessa is his life partner, but his children were his pride and joy. Beyond bringing them to Lakers games, being actively involved in their everyday lives, Kobe just wanted to be a good father to them, a role model for them, in addition to bringing women’s basketball to the forefront. “He meant a lot to me,” Gordon said. “Best thing after basketball, he’s shown he can be a dad, being with his family. His girls were playing basketball, he was doing the things he was supposed to do. For us to hear this news, hurts to the core.” Regardless of your personal opinion about Bryant, one thing that can’t be disputed is his love for the game, his family, his devotion to his craft and his serial fighting spirit. Kobe wanted to beat you at every aspect of your game and would stop at nothing to prove it to his opponent, but also to himself. “He was put on this Earth to play basketball,” a misty-eyed John Lucas said, before departing.
It's not gonna sink in for a long time. It's Kobe Bryant. Kobe is invincible... Kobe is the man who took two freethrows on a torn achilles and walked off the court. Kobe is the Black Mamba... he is the epitome of "Killer Instinct." This is like Superman dying for most of us. The world is not going to feel right for a long, long time.
Just F$&@“!?/ heart breaking thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of all those that passed.
I’m sorry, but ****ING helicopters. Feel for all those rocked families. 9 lives, if I’m reading this right.
I feel the same. Devastating loss for basketball & his new life. I don't care about the negative. This guy was committed and worked harder than anyone.
Yeah, when I watched Dwight Powell rupture his achilles and powerlessly lay on the floor wincing with no ability to even move his leg, I remembered Kobe shot 2 FTs with a torn achilles. The man was something else.
I’m in full agreement with the sentiment here. Imagine Kobe’s wife hearing about this first via a report from an online gossip outlet? The very thought sickens me. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/26/media/tmz-death-report-kobe-bryant/index.html "It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved one ... perished and you learn about it from TMZ," Villanueva said. "That is just wholly inappropriate." Los Angeles County Undersheriff Tim Murakami also jabbed TMZ in a tweet. "I am saddened that I was gathering facts as a media outlet reported ... Kobe had passed," Murakami wrote. "I understand getting the scoop but please allow us time to make personal notifications to their loved ones. It's very cold to hear of the loss via media. Breaks my heart."
I feel frozen. Attended one if his final games in Houston courtside and had tons of photos which were lost due to Harvey flood. Shock doesn't come close to describing feels
tmz is trash and they always have been but if it wasn’t them it would’ve been someone else. Nature of the beast in our current media landscape.
Don’t blame the aircraft. An aircraft is only going to do what the PIC makes it do. An aircraft isn’t going to make a PIC do his/her pre-flight weather briefing. An aircraft also doesn’t know the PIC’s certifications or limitations. I hate to point fingers this early, but this one is very obvious to me. There is no greater general aviation hazard than a pilot that’s not equipped to fly IFR and they encounter IMC conditions.
