LATE LA LAKERS STAR KOBE BRYANT TRANSCENDED GAME
Behind the scenes, basketball savant was a giving human being
Relentless defender. Creative scorer. Unbelievably well-conditioned athlete. Kobe Bryant was all those things, but to watch him at times was to wonder: Is there a personality hiding inside the perfect physique for his sport of choice, or is he just a basketball robot, programmed to excel in the NBA, dating to his days as a youth in Italy, watching with his father Joe “Jellybean” Bryant tapes of Michael Jordan, studying everything from Michael’s jumper to his manner of speech during press conferences?
To reach the answer to that, it’s always good to find someone in the shadows, far, far away from fellow-celebrity status.
Yes, Mark Jacoby, a member of the stat crew for all of Kobe’s 20 years with the Lakers, assured me in a telephone interview Sunday, there was a human being inside the basketball machine.
Jacoby was eating dinner one night in the press room when someone told him, “Kobe wants to see you.” When Jacoby arrived at the locker room, Kobe wasn’t there, but someone with six tickets to his suite for that night’s game was waiting for him. Jacoby called home, told wife Maggie that just this once she was going to have to let their children blow off their homework so they could watch the Lakers play the Heat from Kobe’s suite.
Another time, Jacoby said, a reporter from Asia with a microphone bowed to Kobe, who got such a kick out of that gesture he grabbed a brand-new pair of sneakers and signed them to her.
“C’mon Kobe, five years I’ve known you and I get nothing?” Jacoby kidded him.
Bryant unlaced the sneakers he had just worn in the game, signed them and handed them to him. He signed the freshly printed, unofficial box score from his 81-point game, too.
“I don’t know if he even knew my name, but he always treated me great,” Jacoby said.
It didn’t show in his game face, but he even had a sense of humor.
“One time I told him I needed a stock tip and wanted to know if he was going to sign with Nike or Adidas,” Jacoby said. “He said, ‘Oh, that’s very Martha Stewart of you.’ ”
Then there was the time Jacoby was walking from the parking lot to the entrance to the Staples Center. Bryant rolled down his window, said, “Hop in,” and drove him down into the tunnel of the building.
Jacoby said it was well known that Bryant would take a helicopter ride from his Orange County home for a morning workout with his trainer and be back home in time to take his children to school. One of his and wife Vanessa’s four children, Gigi, 13, died with her father and seven others in a helicopter crash Sunday in Calabasas, California. Passengers on the 101 Freeway, including Jacoby’s son Will, saw smoke rising as they listened to radio reports of the NBA legend’s shocking death.
Where Kobe ranks among basketball’s alltime greats is a subjective matter. The numbers paint a picture of dominance: Five NBA titles, 18-time All-Star, 11-time first-team All-NBA, nine-time firstteam All-Defense selection, four-time All-Star MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP.
He rode shotgun to Shaquille O’Neal for the first three titles (2001, 2002, 2003), but didn’t have as much talent around him in the final two (2009, 2010). Pau Gasol was the only other All-Star on the roster.
For the Lakers to win with those rosters, Bryant’s irrepressible will, his obsessive competitive spirit, was going to have to be contagious. Clearly, it was, and coach Phil Jackson earned his 10th and 11th rings.
Terry Lyons of Newton, former NBA VP/international communications, witnessed Bryant, a twotime Olympic gold medalist at practice, games and bus rides.
“Work ethic beyond our wildest dreams,” Lyons said. “On and off the court, he was 100% dedicated to the game.”
In the summer of 2007, in preparation for Bryant’s first Olympics, Lyons said, “Kobe and Jason Kidd’s presence on the team changed the vibe so much. When they joined the team it was two different worlds, two different levels of play, of professionalism, of practice, of concentration.”
At age 37, Byrant scored 60 points in his final NBA game. That it took him 50 shots to get those points was proof he was not leaving the game too soon. His life ended way prematurely at age 41.