For the rest of our lives, many of us will remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news that Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and one of the most legendary athletes of all time, had been killed.
On the afternoon of January 26, 2020, the world plunged into collective shock and disbelief. The image of Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, became frozen in my consciousness, and most of us didn’t know how to process such a senseless tragedy. Some subjects are so profound that words alone cannot justify the matter. One of my heroes, Kobe, had the kind of genius and skills I could learn from. His talent, devotion to winning, work ethic, fearlessness, and instinct in clutch moments was inspiring. The values he talked about were the same ones I wanted to cultivate in myself. Curiosity. Observation. Discipline. Curiosity was undoubtedly one of his most underrated qualities, and he had an insatiable desire to explore and learn.
Kobe retired from the NBA in 2016. Two years later, he won an Academy Award for Dear Basketball, a short film based on his love letter to basketball. He created an entertainment company, Granity Studios, wrote children’s books and produced animated stories. (Granity, a word Kobe made, is a combination of greater than infinite.) In a way, it seemed like we were getting to know him better. As a fan, I expected that Kobe would develop new strengths and expand his humanitarian work in retirement. In a primal sense, Kobe was an artist who wanted to keep adding to his body of work, inspire the next generation, and help design a kinder, more intelligent, and more beautiful world.
Kobe revered the journey and the sacrifices that must be made on the road to excellence. His skill and intelligence blurred the line between reality and fantasy. When it comes to training, his legacy reminds me that you should always add something new to your game and that familiarity is a dangerously subtle kind of death. The body and mind need new challenges and the appropriate nourishment for growth and refinement. It was good for me to see the Mamba Mentality for so many years as a young boy and the harmonization between discipline, creativity, passion, instinct, negativity, darkness, and living life boldly and unapologetically, with all of those things coming into rhythm.
Kobe’s example shows us that devotion to excellence can keep you away from the stranglehold of complacency and that false things usually disappear when you focus on what’s important. In other words, life becomes more enriched by eliminating the things that betray your true self. Irenaeus, a philosopher and theologian from the second century, once said, “The glory of God is in the human person fully alive.” You should do whatever it takes to avoid going to your deathbed with regrets about not trying to achieve the dreams in your heart. True fulfillment is not in succeeding but in having tried in the first place. In some traditions, the unlived life is one of the greatest sins ever.
Nobody can tell you with certainty what will happen in your future. Sometimes, it’s easy for us to get caught up in the comforting lie that death only shows up at the end of life. All the media, pictures, and advertisements we see can create the illusion of immortality, yet time can deliver anything at any moment to anyone's door. Time is the only thing we have. It’s more valuable than money, but it’s easier to blow recklessly because it’s invisible. If you learn to use it properly, you amplify your life; if you don’t, it becomes a source of regret. How Kobe lived makes you think he understood the fleeting nature of life. He knew fear and the expectations of others shouldn’t influence the trajectory of destiny. Life can run right next to you, unseen, or it can be a continuous act of transcendence.
Kobe sharpened my appreciation for looking at things carefully, on and off the court, because they might never look the same again. Many of us are too busy to pay attention to life and only realize the value of time once we’ve wasted it. You have to make time to see the people you love. We have a finite number of moments, and you can’t have them back. The Roman philosopher Seneca says life isn’t short, and people are so wasteful with it that they fail to realize it’s passing by. Seneca says life is “sufficiently generous” if you know how to invest in your time, like adopting the Mamba Mentality to grow and achieve.
Along those lines, Darwin said, “A man who dares to waste an hour has not discovered the value of his life.” Fill the time with things that nourish the memory, spirit, and lifestyle. Use your money to buy more time, allowing yourself to rise anew and accomplish more. Kobe’s absence will always be felt. Sylvia Plath says that the absence of the deceased turns into something that “grows beside you like a tree.” We’re guests who have received blessings and the underrated power to bless each other.
Death, the ultimate companion, the invisible friend walking with us since arrival, will always be waiting, and once you recognize that, you might find great liberation in discovering a passion and living out everything within.
Kobe Bryant’s vitality and love of life influenced many people worldwide. His death reverberated through place and time, and he will never be forgotten. May God encompass and protect the families of the bereaved and the rest of us. The people we lose may no longer be with us in the visible world, but now they’re angels, and we know them by name.