{"id":13271,"date":"2020-02-19T22:16:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T06:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/13271\/news\/nba-legend-kobe-bryant-leaves-a-legacy-on-and-off-the-court\/"},"modified":"2020-05-02T23:33:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T06:33:50","slug":"nba-legend-kobe-bryant-leaves-a-legacy-on-and-off-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/13271\/sports\/nba-legend-kobe-bryant-leaves-a-legacy-on-and-off-the-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Kobe Bryant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Individuals around the sports world and beyond are still struggling to come to terms with the sudden deaths of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California, on Jan. 26.<br \/>\n\u201cWe all took Kobe\u2019s death pretty hard,\u201d said Devin Aye, the head coach of San Jose City College\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team. \u201cI cried. I\u2019m just glad we didn\u2019t have a game that Wednesday because that hit home, and I know the guys took it pretty rough.\u201d<br \/>\nImmediately after the news broke, tributes to Bryant, his daughter and the others who perished in the crash poured in from individuals, not only in the world of sports, but also government officials and entertainment figures.<br \/>\n\u201cHe was somebody that I always respected just because he was so much more than a basketball player. He was highly intelligent, inquisitive, curious,\u201d said San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich on the NBC Sports Chicago\u2019s website.<br \/>\n\u201cWe all know about his competitiveness, but he was a strategist. He was focused. He was driven and would have been successful no matter what he chose to do in life,\u201d Popovich said.<br \/>\nPopovich\u2019s Spurs had battled it out with Bryant\u2019s Lakers in some legendary playoff duels in the 2000s and into the early 2010s.<br \/>\nNBA royalty such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant also paid homage to the victims of the crash.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to comprehend all of this; but just having that time and those moments with Kobe, he\u2019s always about pressing forward said Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant on the Sports Illustrated\u2019s website. \u201cAt this time it\u2019s so hard, just the amount of impact he had on all of us.\u201d<br \/>\nThe impact of this news extended as far as the Oval Office as President Trump and former President Obama both took to Twitter to extend their condolences to the Bryant family.<br \/>\nBryant\u2019s impact on basketball is undeniable.<br \/>\nHe was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school by the Charlotte Hornets, who would later trade him that same night to the Los Angeles Lakers. The rest is history.<br \/>\nBryant was a five-time NBA champion, two-time NBA Finals MVP and 18-time NBA All-Star; these are just a few of his accolades from his storied career that spanned a total of 20 seasons.<br \/>\nBryant\u2019s reach even extended to SJCC\u2019s campus.<br \/>\n\u201cHe\u2019s the reason I started playing basketball,\u201d said Arda Eroglu, guard\/forward for SJCC\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team. \u201cI cried. I was really emotional, and I didn\u2019t take it well. I felt like I knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n    <div class='pullquote sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 sno-animate'>\n                <div class=\"quotebody\">\n                        <div class='largequote'>&ldquo;<\/div>\n                                    <p class='pullquotetext'>At this time it\u2019s so hard, just the amount of impact he had on all of us.<\/p>\n                            <p class='quotespeaker'>&mdash; Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant<\/p>\n                        <div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<style>\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 {\n    display: flex;\n    float: left;\n    margin: 30px 30px 30px 0;\n    width: 50%;\n    border-color: #212121;\n    border-top-width: 0px;\n    border-right-width: 0px;\n    border-bottom-width: 0px;\n    border-left-width: 0px;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 p.pullquotetext,\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 p.quotespeaker {\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 .pullquotepic {\n    width: 33%;\n    margin-left: 25px;\n}\n.sno-story-body .sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 p.pullquotetext {\n    font-size: 22px;\n    line-height: 1.4em;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 .quotebar {\n    background: #cccccc;\n    flex: 0 0 90px;\n    margin-top: -15px;\n    margin-left: -15px;\n    padding-left: 15px;\n    padding-top: 15px;\n    margin-right: 15px;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 .largequote {\n\tcolor: #ffffff;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a34563b18739 .quotebody {\n    width: unset;\n}\n<\/style>\n\n<p>As phenomenal of a basketball player as Bryant was, his impact went beyond the hardwood.<br \/>\n\u201cHe was a big influence, especially to kids that didn\u2019t have father figures. He set the example,\u201d said Jayvon Fisher, guard for SJCC\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team. \u201cHis work ethic and how he didn\u2019t give up is something we all have to keep in mind.\u201d<br \/>\nThis tragedy struck everyone in different ways.<br \/>\nFor anyone involved in the basketball community in any way, Bryant just could not be gone.<br \/>\nJeanie Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, penned a letter to Bryant in an Instagram post a few days after the tragedy.<br \/>\nBuss opened the letter by writing, \u201cKobe, I don\u2019t know how to express what you mean to me, my family and the Los Angeles Lakers.\u201d<br \/>\nMore or less, everyone experienced that same loss for words upon hearing the tragic news that Sunday morning.<br \/>\nMany rooted for Bryant, and many rooted against him; however, the one commonality among those two different groups of basketball fans was the respect harbored for his ridiculous talent.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Individuals around the sports world and beyond are still struggling to come to terms with the sudden deaths of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California, on Jan. 26. \u201cWe all took Kobe\u2019s death pretty hard,\u201d said Devin Aye, the head coach of San Jose City&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1041,40,91,42,1137,93,85,166],"staff_name":[858],"class_list":["post-13271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-city-college-times","tag-journalism","tag-journalism-program","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-san-jose-city-college","tag-sjcc","tag-sports-2","staff_name-mikie-negrete-and-chaniya-trotter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - 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