They've done as much- if not more, really- as anyone to keep his legacy alive. Honorable mention to Arenas, but I haven't listened to him as much as them.

The reverence they show toward him, the interviews, especially with AI, that touch on these individual interactions with Kobe, go a long way.

It's still a bitch though. It still feels like a fresh gut punch.

Listening to a recent Pau interview, now that shit was therapy. That was hard, but beautiful.

The TMac interview together was a treat.

Watching Shane Battier talk about the mental battle between the two is so fascinating, and in some ways it explains so much about why Lakers fans, myself included, are so intensely attached to him.

If Ionescu goes to the WNBA (I've read suggestions that she may go overseas, but i digress) I plan on watching her. Because Kobe took her under his wing, and mentored her, and she's vowed to be that living extension of his- and Gigi's- legacy.

So I'm all in on her, because Kobe.