Bond Over Beethoven Led to Kobe Bryant’s Oscar for ‘Dear Basketball’

“What makes a John Williams piece timeless?” Bryant mused to The Los Angeles Times. “How is he using each instrument? How is he building momentum? As a basketball player, what I found myself doing a lot was essentially conducting a game, right?”

And Bryant confessed to an ulterior motive: each night he would lull his daughters to sleep with Williams’s melodies — especially “Hedwig’s Theme” from the “Harry Potter” films — and he wanted to take a picture with the composer to show them.

“I lay them on my chest and I hum it to them, and the vibrations of it just relaxes them,” Bryant said.

Williams said in a statement Sunday that Bryant’s death was “a terrible and immeasurable loss.”

“During my friendship with Kobe, he was always seeking to define and understand inspiration even while modestly, and almost unknowably, he was an inspiration to countless millions,” Williams said. “His enormous potential contribution to unity, understanding and social justice must now be mourned with him.”

Bryant had plans to create animated projects that would attract African-American audiences — and artists, who are underrepresented in the art form.

“I see so much opportunity to add diversity and bring back the beautiful art of hand-drawn characters that allow the animators to deeply express themselves,” he said in 2017.

On Sunday, Keane said he “can’t help but think about the final shot in ‘Dear Basketball’ of Kobe walking into the light and hearing ‘Love you always, Kobe.’”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/arts/kobe-bryant-oscar-award.html?emc=rss&partner=rss