For Decades, Kobe Bryant Defined the Lakers. He Shaped Their Future, Too.

Few players saw Bryant’s impact on the Lakers the way Shaquille O’Neal did. O’Neal, now a TNT analyst, formed a Lakers duo with Bryant that was widely acknowledged as one of the top tandems in basketball history.

O’Neal said in a message posted on Twitter that there were “no words to express the pain” he was going through over losing Bryant and Bryant’s daughter, and that he loved Bryant and would miss him. “My condolences goes out to the Bryant family and the families of the other passengers on board,” he wrote.

Other Lakers greats expressed their admiration as well. Magic Johnson, arguably the only player who matches Bryant in contributions to the franchise, posted, “Laker Nation, the game of basketball our city, will never be the same without Kobe.” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared in a Twitter video wearing a purple Lakers sweatshirt and wrote: “Most people will remember Kobe as the magnificent athlete who inspired a whole generation of basketball players. But I will always remember him as a man who was much more than an athlete.”

During his playing career, Bryant began experimenting with endeavors outside of basketball that he would channel his competitiveness into after retirement. He co-founded an investment firm, Bryant Stibel Co., that reportedly now manages more than $2 billion. He also collaborated with Spike Lee on the 2009 documentary “Kobe Doin’ Work.”

When Bryant announced his retirement in 2015, he did so not through a statement or an interview, but in a poem titled “Dear Basketball.” It began: “From the moment I started rolling my dad’s tube socks; And shooting imaginary game-winning shots; In the Great Western Forum; I knew one thing was real: I fell in love with you.”

Two years later, Bryant turned “Dear Basketball” into an animated short film, which won an Academy Award.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/sports/basketball/kobe-bryant-death-reactions.html?emc=rss&partner=rss