25 Kobe Moments We Love

Source: Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna Bryant attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center on December 29, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)

I’ll never forget where I was and what I was doing the morning of Jan. 26, 2020, nearly five years ago now. That Sunday started out like any other in college for me, which at the time involved heading over to my newspaper’s office, the Northern Star, to layout and design the sports section pages for Monday’s edition, since I was sports editor. While waiting for one of my pages to be approved, I scrolled through my timeline and stopped in my tracks when I happened upon TMZ’s article: Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash.

I couldn’t comprehend what I read. I felt numb. Kobe at the time was still one of the biggest names in all of sports – he felt larger than life – “there’s no way Kobe Bryant is dead.” Our newsroom froze. The news got worse and worse as more major news outlets confirmed the news and elaborated on the details. His young daughter, Gianna Bryant, along with two of her basketball teammates, three other parents and the pilot died in the crash as well.

If you were a basketball fan in the 2000s and 2010s, you essentially watched Gianna grow up on live TV, a constant presence at Los Angeles Lakers games throughout the latter half of Kobe’s career. We watched the promising 13-year-old basketball player blossom under the tutelage of her father, one of the greatest players to ever live. It was gut-wrenching to hear her young life and those of her teammates ended so abruptly.

I threw out my mostly-planned pages and dedicated Monday’s edition as a tribute to Kobe, one of the foundational pillars of my love for basketball, which indirectly influenced me to pursue a career in media, and why I’m a writer writing this article now.

Kobe wasn’t a perfect man, but after his retirement he went on to do many great things in the short four years after he hung up his Nikes. One of the greatest things about him was how he championed girls and women’s sports, which in my mind helped put women’s basketball at the college and pro levels peak in the 2020s. He embraced being a model father to his four daughters, coining the now popular term “girl dad.”

In remembrance of Bryant, five years since he and eight others tragically lost their lives in the Calabasas, California, crash, here’s 25 “Kobe” moments we love. The world will never forget you, Kobe. Thank you for all the memories you left us, and the inspiration you’ve given to so many that continues to drive them forward today:

25 Kobe Moments We Love: