The Wise Man

To know me is to know the only sports I follow are soccer and lacrosse. So the greats in my eyes have names like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Maradona, Pele, Ronaldinho and the list continues.

One day, I'm watching Barcelona play Getafe and we reach halftime and a commercial comes on. "Who's this guy with the bean shaped head that's next to Messi?" That commercial introduced me to another great, Kobe Bryant. Now this of course isn't the first time I've heard of him -when I'm in school, every time I shoot a paper ball into the trash I yell "KOBE!"- but this would turn out to be my formal introduction to him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKGGWzVNE1U

My first thought of course was "well this guy is being put into commercials with arguably the greatest to ever play the game of soccer, so he must be a pretty big deal in his realm." That's when I began to research; I went to YouTube and watched an embarrassing amount of his highlight tapes, and it was almost as if I watched him grow up. His number changed halfway through the videos, his hair changed, he added a few tattoos throughout the years, his teammates changed. With so many things changing, it was nice to see that one thing never even came close to changing; his demeanor.

In every single video you could see he was determined, and his mind was made up. His mission was set and his only objective was to be better than his opponent. In every video I watched, that mission was accomplished.

I even took it a step further and watched somewhat of a documentary type film where Kobe narrated one of his games; he explained his thought process, his mentality and it was almost like listening to the wise man. Kobe was that "a wise man once told me" guy.

I don't know anything about the numbers, his stats, or anything like that, but what I do know, rather is that through that haunting glare, or his stalking silence, that Kobe is relentless and will never apologize for being that. Through highlight tapes Kobe taught me to accomplish my goals, and don't apologize to the people who get left behind. Kobe did what he had to do to be great, and his five championship rings are a testament to that.

I may not have been the biggest fan, I may not even technically be a fan, but I am an admirer. I respect the man, I salute his accomplishments, I adore his passion, and most of all I understand that not only is basketball losing one of its greats, a future Hall of Fame inductee for sure, but the sports world as a whole whole is losing a legend.

Nothing but the greatest respect and admiration for Kobe on Mamba Day.