January 26, 2020

It’ll forever be remembered as one of those “I remember where I was when” days. I myself was already drunk at 9:06 a.m. when the news was released on that eerie Sunday morning.

Growing up I was indifferent to Kobe Bryant. His relentless attitude and hardened work ethic rubbed me the wrong way. But for others those same qualities made him an icon. And an icon he was. Despite what happened in that Eagle, Colorado hotel room in July 2003, Kobe was by all accounts a changed man with a new outlook on life.

His storied career on the court was finished, but his ventures off the court were just beginning. And then he was gone.

It was a tragic day. A year later it’s still tragic and hard to believe. I knew when I started interviewing subjects for this book that Kobe’s death would be spoken about. But what I didn’t realize was just how impactful Kobe was.

I had the pleasure of acquainting Robert Dawkins during my time in New York. For Dawkins that day struck a cord and changed his perspective on this thing we call life, “I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. I was just shocked man. This was back when COVID hadn’t really hit. We’re hearing about it all, but nothing, nothing had really taken a turn for the worse yet. I remember being on the train on my way to work and seeing the first report. I remember thinking this can’t be right.”

To understand Dawkins’ admiration for Kobe we have to go back to his childhood. Dawkins grew up on the East Coast, far far away from where Kobe was making show-stopping plays in sunny Los Angeles.

Dawkins admittedly wasn’t into basketball but another sport that takes just as much attention to detail and tenacity: skateboarding. “One night I was just in the car with my parents, I was like 10, 11 years old, and I saw a silhouette of someone skating in the dark. And I just knew, I was meant to do that. I kept asking for a skateboard, asking for a skateboard. After a few months, my mom got it for me. I just didn’t stop,” said Dawkins.

Dawkins wasn’t infatuated with Kobe just yet, but with another Nike athlete: Paul Rodriguez. Rodriguez like most athletes related to Kobe’s trademark way of life: The Mamba Mentality.

Rodriguez applied The Mamba Mentality to his own sport and Dawkins followed suit “he was like when the sun is up, I’m practicing flat ground tricks. Kick flips, shove its, whatever, just like Kobe’s in the gym three hours before the game and he sweating he’s going hard. The Mamba Mentality is you leave nothing behind, you leave nothing. If there is any part of you that is able to accomplish a higher level of performance, you do it. And there is no ‘I wish I could have done better. I wish I could have tried harder’. It’s about going 110% at any moment. Not because you’re being forced to, but because there’s something within you that strives for excellence and greatness.”

That excellence and greatness was on display every time Kobe touched the ball. Across his 20-year-career Kobe won five NBA championships and made the All-Star team 18 times. School kids from North America to the Middle East yell “Kobe” when they crumble up a piece of paper and aim for the trash can. In typical Kobe fashion he scored 60 points on 50 shots in his final game. All eyes were on Kobe that night, not the Warriors who were going for a record-setting 73rd regular-season win.

This is the same man who made two free throws on a torn achilles. This is the same man who scored 81 points against the man with the best barber in the game: Jalen Rose. And just like that he was gone.

Initially it was just Kobe who was declared dead. As tragic as that was, people could live with that. Kobe accomplished more in his 41 years on this earth than most people could ever fathom. He did what he was placed on this earth to do: ball.

Six other adults also died, but what hurt the most was knowing three bright and beautiful young souls were also taken. Alyssa Altobelli, Payton Chester and Gianna Bryant all with dreams of playing in the WNBA will never get that chance.

Two months later the world goes into an unprecedented lockdown due to the coronavirus. Sports, the one distraction we have from the perils of the world, are paused indefinitely.

Life is weird. People are dying. Politicians are making bone headed moves. Black men and women are being killed unjustly. Protests erupt. Everything seems off.

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, leads the charge in bringing sports back. The NBA’s pride and joy Lebron James is there to calm the masses with one mission on his mind: win for Kobe.

On October 11th, that feat is accomplished as the Los Angeles Lakers win their 17th NBA Championship. It’s a happy ending to a shitty story. Lebron as great as he is is still following that Mamba Mentality.

That’s something Dawkins deeply admires, “notice how LeBron, despite how achieved he is, he still continues to be like nah I got to put in this workout, just like Kobe before me all those past games that I won, that’s great. But this game, I’ve got to go 110%”.

A year later we’re still here. The same issues we experienced in 2020 are still prevalent. I just advise everyone to do what Dawkins told me, “I really hope everyone just cherishes their loved ones and does the best that they can do because you don’t want to look back on your life and say to yourself, damn, I had wasted potential or I could have done better. Everybody go and get yours, man, because nothing is promised.”