Kobe Stories (And the Nike Zoom Kobe V)

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Kobe has inspired a lot of Lakers fans. Not as much with his exploits (although those don’t hurt) but more with his work ethic. His passion for perfection. His will. Fans know he is not perfect, but that is simply a reminder he doesn’t live on a pedistal to be worshiped — he got where he is with hours alone in the weight room and in the gym — it was desire as much or more than natural gifts. That is what matters. That is what inspires.

Reader Kunal is among those, and he is off to Hollywood today to be at the Nike Basketball Presents Live with Kobe Bryant hosted by George Lopez (along with his father). But that doesn’t mean you have to miss it.

The entire event is streaming live on Facebook, just follow this link.

And, enjoy the stories.

Kunal: A couple of summers ago during the Kobe trade demand fiasco I learned that he would work out at my school’s gym at UCI early in the mornings. Since I had absolutely nothing to do that summer I started going to the gym at daybreak around 6:30 AM hoping I would be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him or something.

In the mornings it was just me and some local firefighters, so I figured if Kobe does come he would come around that time. 5 weeks passed and 3 times he was there but I missed him because those were my break days from the gym.

Just when I was about to give up hope it happened. He walked in through the door with two bodyguards/trainers/randoms and went to the squat rack. My heart stopped, I was literally like 6 feet away from my hero, a guy whose work ethic had influenced me in many facets of life. After a few seconds of being paralyzed I tried to act cool and pretend like I wasn’t looking at him, but I would peek over every minute or so just to see if he was still there. I wanted to talk to him or get him to acknowledge me somehow but I was too afraid of messing up his workout and him giving me the death stare. So I lurked around just watching him lift and do some ab work and balancing drills.

Time passes and he is about to leave, before doing so he busts out a few one armed pull ups. I have no idea what came over me but I decided I was going to do them too. So as he walked away I tried it on the same bar, bad idea. I slipped and fell flat on my behind and knocked over a stand of towels next to me. Kobe looks back and laughs and says “Keep at it” and did the head nod thing. He walked out and I probably laid there for a good 5 minutes because I was giddy that Kobe talked to me, and also sore as heck for falling.

I know it is naive to think in this day in age that athletes are role models but even though they are human and exhibit shades of gray like the rest of us they have the ability to inspire greatness. Kobe does that for me, and his words have motivated me since.

DJ-F.L.A.S.H. I’m from Vancouver but went to high school in Victoria, BC, and if you didn’t know, a guy named Steve Nash made his name in Victoria in a school called St. Michael’s, we’d play in their gym and you’d see all these Nash tributes in the rafters etc., why am I telling you all this? Well, everyone with any basketball knowledge on east coast Canada is a Suns “fan”.

The year Nash won his second MVP (I just call it “Kobe’s magical season”, 81pts, 35 ppg, and the shit that’s about to happen next), in my dorm we’d all watched the Suns-Lakers series together, all 50 macho rugby/hockey/basketball/football players in one living room, and I’d get the dirtiest looks from people when I’d cheer a Lakers basket, although I did have one more Laker fan to cheer with, he wasn’t as outgoing as me so I’d get most of the hate (especially when Kobe baptized Nash with that dunk, they kicked me outta the living room after that, suckers).

So it’s game four, by then I have a cast on my ankle because I’d just fractured it in a rugby game (got hit by two 250lb guys from both sides), the only benefit from not being able to walk for 3 months is that the Suns fans didn’t have the heart to kick me out anymore.

With the Lakers down 2 with less than 10 to play, I basically did the Laker’s commentary, that’s if you replace actual commentary with all profanities, so you can imagine what came out of my mouth when Smush got that steal (people use him like a punch line now, but Laker fans never forget the steal), and Kobe made a floater that would make Tony Parker ashamed of himself.
So OT, jumpball, Walton vs Nash, Luke almost tips it out of bounds but Kobe retrieves it, and I could feel the atmosphere in the whole room change in an instant, it’s like everyone in the room was about to be interrogated by Jack Bauer.

Bang! Game winner! Then came my first “defying laws of physics/medicine moment”, ’cause I swear to god I jumped like 40 inches (with the cast on my ankle) to chest bump the only other Laker fan in the room, and we both almost fell on our asses, but we couldn’t stop screaming.

It turns out that one ankle injury led to several back and hip injuries and basically ended my basketball career during my first season with the University of Toronto varsity team, (although I don’t think the chest bump did anything because I jumped off the opposite foot), but whenever I get down on myself for not being able to play anymore, I’d think of that Kobe moment and the biggest smirk will show up on my face, people on the subway look at me like I’m crazy but all I could hear is “final seconds, Bryant for the win, BAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!”

Isolate: Its august 22nd 2007 I’m back home from college for my brother’s wedding two days later. I’m one of 5 brothers and all of us have been Lakers fans for as long as we can remember and in turn HUGE Kobe fans because we’re all fairly young and don’t remember much before the mid to early ‘90’s. It was during the summer which means no Lakers games, so we were up late watching one of the FIBA America tournament games that were held in Las Vegas. When out of nowhere I scrapped all of my plans for my brothers Bachelor party and decided we were all going to pile into a car and drive the 4ish hours to Vegas to see Kobe in person at the game the next night. So the next morning we all piled into the car and headed to Vegas. We never told him exactly what we were doing, just that we were going to Vegas. (You could only imagine what he was thinking). Then when we pulled up the Thomas and Mac center on the UNLV campus he realized what was going on and started jumping up and down like a kid in a candy shop. We walk in and our tickets put us 12 rows behind the U.S.A. bench, close enough to actually hear Kobe, Lebron, Melo, Wade and everyone else talking. It just so happened to be Kobe’s birthday and when he got to the free-throw line for his first FT I looked at my brothers and we all started singing “Happy Birthday” as loud as we could, by the time we actually said “Happy birthday dear Kobe” everyone in the crowd had joined in, when we finished he looked up and winked at us. We’re all between 18-25 and we were all as giddy as kids. Best bachelor party ever!

Brian Q: I got my Bachelor’s degree last summer. It goes without saying that I had a roller-coaster of emotions going through me, between the exultation that I was going to complete something my parents couldn’t, and the jitters that come with upcoming post-grad life. I knew the were years of hard work put into school, and the ups and down with following the Lakers all the time, were coming to a head.

At the same time that our Lakers were making their run in the WC and NBA Finals, I was finishing off classes. With all the talk of Kobe’s incensed determination, I tried using that same fuel to cap off the best quarter grades I had since I started college. To top it all off, the Lakers played Game 5 the same day as my family’s graduation party (for me and other cousins that graduated). All of us were gathered at the TV, and when Kobe started jumping around in the wane of the 4th, it was like we both grew up, broke past that barrier of the past 4, 5 years, and got our degrees. Sharing that moment, even through a TV screen, will be a memory I carry forever.

Jodial: I’ve taken my wife to see the Lakers at Staples twice. The first time was in the spring of 2001, an afternoon game against the Knicks which the Knicks won by a point or two – I remember Fisher missed a shot at the buzzer. Kobe got hurt in the first quarter of that game and left without scoring a point – he went on to miss a bunch of games after that (this was while the team was struggling before they got it together and steamrolled the league in the playoffs).

The second time I took my wife to a Laker game was January 2006, against Toronto. You probably remember what Kobe did in that game. We were sitting about 10 rows back, even with the free throw line in front of the visitors’ bench, watching Kobe drop 55 on the Raptors in the second half from just a few feet away. Still the most amazing athletic performance I’ve ever seen. 0, 81. I tell my wife, “Kobe averages 40 when you go to a game.”

Bree: I have been a Lakers fan my whole life. You know when your little, you like whatever your parents like. Well thank goodness my dads a Lakers fan! Anyways, I would try to watch every game I had access to, so one year, my dad surprised me with Lakers tickets when they came to play the Jazz in Utah. I was so freaking excited to see them and my favorite player Kobe! I asked my dad if we can drive around downtown Salt Lake looking for their hotel and get maybe an autograph or just see him up close. So we found out where they stayed, so when their bus arrived for shoot around, my dad told me to go sit casually in the lobby and maybe see if I can get my jersey signed without any notice from the hotel staff kicking me out. So I was sitting waiting all chill, and all of a sudden Lakers players were coming out of the elevators one by one. Still felt calm but had huge knots in my stomached. Then Shaq came out and I’m like he really is a big dude! But then when I turned my head back to the elevator, Kobe was walking with a team official going over something. I totally froze and couldn’t speak! I was able to stand and I just had my jersey in my hand. And all of a sudden, he stopped and came over to me and said, “would you like me to sign that for ya?” I still couldn’t say anything! So he smiled and took the jersey and signed it. I started to cry like a baby and he looked at me and put his arm around me and padded my back and said, “it’s ok, have a good one!” with a smile and went towards the bus. So then I was able to walk out of the hotel with my jersey in my hand to show my dad and hopefully contain my emotions after my amazing experience. My dad was so happy for me.

Rafael: One day me and my family went to Disneyland and as I walked out of a ride with my daughter I bumped into to Kobe. I was wearing my Laker jacket and he said I had a nice jacket and went his way. This was a really cool moment and just seeing Kobe tower over me was awesome.

Michelle: I grew up watching Kobe and the Lakers. I mean I had the first shoes designed for Kobe, the crazy 8’s. I would think wearing those shoes would give me the talent on the court just like Kobe. I was probably 9 at the time. There are so many memories dealing with Kobe, it’s hard to choose.

It was the 2000 WCF Game 7 against the Portland Trailblazers. That day I had to go to a wedding reception at a restaurant and I was pretty bummed that I was going to miss the game. I mean come on it was Game 7! I’m walking to the restaurant with my family and my cousin stops me and goes “{don’t worry, we brought our mini TV, we just have to get a table with a plug.” We go in there, plug the TV watch the whole game. We had literally the bride and groom and about 50 people including the waiters surrounding the table watching the game. They literally gave me the mic to hold against the speakers so everyone could hear and mind you the TV was so small yet everyone was around it. Then it happens, Kobe does a cross over on Pippen, goes down the middle, and throws an ally-oop to Shaq and the whole room is yelling and screaming. Everyone’s in good cheers, hugging everyone, and the energy was just amazing. Seriously the guests at the reception were hugging the waiters.

Whenever I see that clip of the infamous Kobe-to-Shaq, I think of where I was at and I get a mental picture of everyone’s face when we saw that play. I look at Kobe now and see how much he’s grown to be the best in the league and I’m glad I was able to witness the greatness in the making throughout the years.