I hate The Lakers. And that hate was born in that 00-02 championship run. That Blazer squad was my favorite at the time, and then that Kings squad in the years following. I was in high school at the time, and as I grew more mature in my watching of the game, I hated Kobe's volume shooting. Hated the way he treated teammates (I see you Smush lol). I could not have been happier when the Pistons one that title. When the Celtics one that title. I remember trying to go out to the club the night the Lakers won in '09 with my roommate and both of us were so down, we couldn't even enjoy ourselves. Once his career was winding down though, that hate subsided. I made sure to go watch his last game at the Target Center, because you couldn't deny the guy was a legend of the game. In retirement, I actually really came to like Kobe. Without that hate clouding my eyes, I was really drawn to his intellect. Listening to him breakdown the game on that Details series was endlessly fascinating to me and I was really interested in him going into commentating at some point. I was shocked that I had truly began to like someone I had spent so many years hating.

Hearing of his death was absolutely shocking. The flurry of texts between me and my friends as news was breaking is something I won't soon forget. At first, I thought it had to have been an Onion type article. LeBron passes Kobe, Kobe can't go on. And then I saw it was TMZ. But the servers had to have been overloaded or something because the page was down. Then smaller and local news outlets started picking it up... but all with the still down TMZ as their source. It had to be a mistake. That's why the page was down. And as the news was confirmed my first thought was those poor (Bryant) girls. And then it came out that Gianna was on the helicopter as well.

Learning about Kobe was flooring. But Gigi... man that shit gutted me. That's what I'm most torn up about. In all those years I spent hating Kobe, seeing his family, his girls, always brought a smile to my face. We watched those kids grow up between the press conferences post-game with them on his lap, climbing all over him, to them sitting courtside, and seeing Kobe go straight to them or them running straight to him after the big wins. Seeing Gianna come into her own over the past months and seeing the bond they shared had been so beautiful. For her life to be cut short at 13... that shit just ain't fair.

I can't imagine what this is like for Vanessa and Natalia. Peace to both of them. Peace to the babies as well. Peace to everyone involved. I feel bad that I don't have much to say for them, because their lives are just as meaningful. Such a fucking tragedy.