RIP Kobe Bryant 1/26/19

[Greg]

I did see DM give passing reference to Kobe's passing in the Steve Anderson thread, but I had more thoughts. I was surprised to see it since I have feeling most of you only pay casual notice to the big Five of American sports.

I was never a big fan Kobe, because he always came off as such a jerk. Plus, he spent a lot of time breaking the hearts of my Boston Celtics. It also bugged me that he wins five NBA championships and then has the nerve to win an Academy Award. Stay in your own lane, Bryant.

But he was a great player, no doubt about it. And he has rehabbed his image in retirement. It was amazing to see all the testimonials pouring in on all the news channels yesterday. In a weird way, his death gave us some respite from the ongoing White House dumpster fire. But it wasn't the way I wanted to be distracted.

[thatguy]

A friend asked me: how many basketball stars must die to take our attention away from the impeachment trial?

—tg

[Drunk Monk]

He was a great fan of Bruce Lee and made some dope Bruce Lee themed kicks.  

I think our token millennial here at the office is on the verge of tears.  He's our alleged IT dude. He was going on earlier on how Kobe influenced his entire generation in every field. No disrespect to Kobe but if he brings it up, I'm so very tempted to say 'he was a football player, was he?'

[Greg]

Ouch. One of the rebuttals I've been seeing on Twitter is about the rape incident in 2003.

[cranefly]

Never a fan of Kobe on or off the court, but what a ghastly way to go.
Come to think of it, most ways are ghastly.
The father/daughter aspect chills me, and the whole tragedy is haunting me more than I'd expect it to.


Don, in our Tai Chi practice group, went up in one of those WWII vintage aircraft touring the Bay Area last summer.  He said it was fun.
Then a week later I saw that one of them had crashed on the East Coast while giving a tour.
When I mentioned it to him, he said, Oh, yeah.  That was the one I was on.
He seemed entirely unfazed by it.  Maybe that's the way to live life.  Don't worry the stuff that didn't happen.  But to me it seemed a chilling close call for him.

Back to Kobe, I'll say this.  He was a remarkable football player.

[Drunk Monk]

i've kinda wanted to ride in a chopper.  kinda.  then there was bill graham's chopper death, which hit me a lot harder.

here are kobe's bruce shoes.  i kinda wanted a pair of those too.  



there are actually a lot of bruce shoes.

see http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/show...-Lee-shoes

[Greg]

Nice. You look like you could use a new pair of shoes. I'm sure they are inexpensive.

I've ridden in an open cockpit chopper when my friend was learning to fly and he needed the hours.

[Drunk Monk]

I've ridden in an open cockpit chopper when my friend was learning to fly and he needed the hours.

FTW.  I concede the day.  

But tomorrow is another day.