BOOMER SHOCK AT KOBE LOSS
TOWNSVILLE basketball icon Peter Crawford is still coming to terms with the death of Kobe Bryant. At first he didn’t think it was real.
A legend of the sport, Bryant was someone Crawford always idolised despite starting their careers at a similar time. But at times the relationship was not always one of love.
Crawford still believes it was the class of Kobe that ousted his Boomers side from the London Olympics in 2012 when they were on track for a medal. The Australian point guard watched on from the bench as Kobe tore strips off a fatiguing Boomers in the final quarter.
The American hit four straight three-pointers as the Americans turned a three-point lead midway through the third quarter to a 119-86 victory.
“He screwed that game up for us. I didn’t get on the court but I have refused to watch that game again,” Crawford said.
“He just came on and hit three threes in a row to turn the game on its head. I just sat there thinking ‘this f-ker’.
“That was just the class of him. You are so close, but still so far away. He could take the game away from you like that.”
But Crawford already knew of the gravitas that Kobe had. The day before that epic encounter he had run into the American superstar at airport security.
They were about to be opponents, but it didn’t stop Kobe from taking a photo with Crawford and his family and sharing a couple of kind words. Even for Crawford, who had only met him the once, the pain of his loss was still being felt.
“I thought it was fake at first, it is just so upsetting” he said.
“He was such a competitive player, but you saw the softer side of him the past couple of years.
“He was the pinnacle of our sport. It is just upsetting to see someone who did it all have his life cut short. Players like Kobe, they are immortal and it never comes to your mind they won’t be there one day.”
KOBE Bryant was one of the most decorated players in basketball history, a man who transcended the sport.
Bryant, 41, was killed in a helicopter crash alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in Calabasas, California, yesterday.
He spent his entire 20-year NBA career at the Los Angeles Lakers and became one of the most recognisable figures in the United States.
The double Olympic champion – who was an 18time NBA All-star – retired from basketball in 2016 but that was far from the end of the Kobe Bryant story.
He launched a multimedia company and in 2018 won an Academy Award for best short animated film entitled Dear Basketball.
Bryant was born in Philadelphia in August 1978 to father Joe, a professional basketball player, and mother Pam. His parents named him after the famous beef of the Kobe region in Japan, which they supposedly saw on a restaurant menu.
Bryant spent eight years between the ages of six and 14 living in Italy, as his father played in the Italian Basketball League.
But the Lakers seemed an inevitable destination after a stellar high school career.
He was selected by the Charlotte Hornets as the 13th pick in the first round of the NBA draft in June 1996 and was traded to the Lakers within a fortnight. Bryant, a 1.98m guard, became the youngest player in NBA history at that time – aged 18 years, two months and 11 days.
“I was a scrawny kid,” he said. “I knew for me to get any type of edge whatsoever I had to be more prepared than the person I was matching up against.”
That will to win saw Bryant quickly make his mark.
The Lakers won three consecutive NBA titles between 2000 and 2002 as Bryant averaged over 25 points per game and had a career-high 46.9 per cent in shooting.
In 2002, he was named All-star MVP for the first time – an achievement he would repeat in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
Bryant’s reputation was tainted in 2003 when he was charged with the sexual assault of a 19-year-old hotel worker. The case was dropped by prosecutors after the accuser refused to testify at trial.
Bryant later apologised, and a separate civil lawsuit against him was settled privately.
Bryant scored 81 points in a 122-104 win over Toronto Raptors in 2006 and won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a member of the United States team.
Having lost finals in 2004 and 2008, the Lakers were back in the winning groove to win consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010.
That took Bryant’s NBA titles to five and he was named Finals MVP in both years. Bryant became the Lakers’ all-time leading points scorer in 2010 and won a second Olympic gold medal at London in 2012.
Bryant finished with 33,643 points – fourth on the NBA all-time list behind Kareem Abdul-jabbar, Karl Malone and Lebron James – 7047 rebounds and 6306 assists.