I remember, first, the fog.
Sitting at the back of a taxi descending from my house in Foothills in Lax early in the morning of January 26, 2020, I remember shivered in a fog so thick that I could not see through the car window.
I wondered, how will the taxi driver pass on this subject? While the mist continued to surround the car throughout the 110, I thought it is not an ordinary fog.
Seven o’clock and a cross-country trip later, I was extended to the bed in my Miami hotel room, exhausted from dawn, kissing a nap such that I ignored my suddenly rumbled smartphone. He buzzed, and he burst, and he buzzed, and finally, after a dozen missed calls, I finally sighed and picked him up.
It was the assistant sports editor of Times, Athan Atsales. Her generally calm voice rose to each syllable.
Find out more: A fan of nuggets was hired by Nike to paint a Kobe Bryant wall at Venice Beach. ‘It was an honor’
“Bill, I have very bad news to tell you,” he said, followed by two words that are still obsessive today.
“Kobe is dead.”
I shouted with disbelief, thrown the phone, I am lying over several minutes, then I drove from bed, lit my computer and started to cry the only way I knew how.
I started writing.
Kobe Bryant left.
I scream at the moment, juris in the sky, crying in my keyboard, and I don’t care who knows it.
Five years ago, it was the tortured Lede of the column that was published in the immediate wake of Bryant’s death. That’s all I reprint here. I cannot resolve to read the rest of the column. It still does not seem real, and revisiting my overworked words would make it real, and part of me is still not ready for that.
This is my story. You have yours. Many of you remember exactly where you were this Sunday afternoon when you heard that Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna and seven other people, were killed in a Calabasas helicopter accident wrapped in fog.
At a party. In a church. On your sofa. Somewhere, everywhere, apparently, Los Angeles remembers where. For an endless afternoon, our eyes watered and our hearts beat and our world remained motionless.
You heard. You got together. You cried. You have honored. With flowers and panels and jerseys and love sprinkled through the corners of rue de Thousand Oaks in Newport Beach, you have transformed the region into the largest funeral hall in the world, millions of people in mourning Loss of the most popular athlete in Los Angeles in the first of 41 years. of his life.
It was impossible to digest then. Five years later, it is even more difficult to understand.
So what would you say, we don’t even try? Instead of reliving the horrible events that were constantly told during the last half-receiver, let’s make a sort of different five-year birthday column.
Instead of telling Kobe Bryant’s death, let’s focus on what could have been the rest of his life.
What if Kobe Bryant had lived? What if he had blocked eyes on potential bad weather and had never climbed on this helicopter? And if Kobe Bryant was now a businessman and filmmaker and author and author of 46 years living in Newport and handling influence everywhere in Los Angeles, what would it look like?
It is obviously impossible to say, but, knowing his Mamba mentality and covering him closely, I can guess in complete safety that he would have transformed what has become a terribly trivial local basketball scene in something spectacular again.
By losing our North Star, we have not only lost a memorable past, but also a brilliant future.
This is what could have been.
The Lakers would have been suitors in the perennial championship.
Bryant would have evolved into an influential advisor to the owner of the Lakers, Jeanie Buss, and, although he would never have supplanted her close friend, Rob Pelinka, he would have constantly been in the ear of Pelinka.
“Do not break the 2020 championship team!” Do not negotiate the winning pieces against Russell Westbrook! Find more guys like Robert Horry and Rick Fox! Find people who do not create a new culture, but add to the existing culture! »»
In other words, if Kobe Bryant was still there, Klutch Sports Group will no longer direct the Lakers.
Ty read would be the Lakers coach.
JJ Redick does an admirable job, he largely surpassed the predictions of criticism like this and he could be the Lakers coach for a long time.
But Bryant loved reading, considered him one of the best minds of the game and would have given his personal mission to steal it from Steve Ballmer long before Redick was available.
And, oh yes, Lue would have brought Brian Shaw with him, and Derek Fisher would have somehow found a seat on this same bench.
LeBron James Finally, would have been adopted by Lakers fans as one of their own.
Bryant would have made it happen.
In our last interview nine days before his death, Bryant asked me to help get there, saying: “When LeBron came to Los Angeles, he is now a laker. It is part of our fraternity, part of our fraternity, and we must kiss him in this way. »»
If Kobe was alive, James would have spent the last years of his career walking in his arm with him at sunset, Bryant commenting on each of James, Bryant presenting himself to attend many heroic of James.
Instead of joining Kobe, however, James was forced to replace him mainly, and you know that this will never happen.
Without the visible support of Bryant, James’ inheritance is stronger in Cleveland and its impact was larger in Miami. He will never be considered a real laker, simply because he is not Kobe.
Find out more: The video shows a side rarely seen by Kobe Bryant, arouses special memories of those who knew him
This tournament banner in season? Are you kidding me?
Yes, the NBA would have always formed the Lakers to raise this silly banner last year after winning the first tournament in the League season.
But a day later, Bryant would have convinced the Lakers to cover him.
“What is there to be happy?” Job is not finished, “he said after being questioned by local broadcaster Ted Sobel about his gaze after the Lakers had taken a two game lead against Orlando in the 2009 final .
Bryant liked nothing wrong, anything artificial, everything that interfered with serious affairs to win a championship. About this tournament thing, he would have said, not in his rafters.
There would never be three Kobe Bryant statues ahead of Crypto.com Arena.
A statue of him during the 81 -point match? Yes. His wife, Vanessa, said that he had actually designed this one. Another statue of him with Gigi? Absolutely. He was the father of the ultimate daughter.
But there are currently plans for a third statue of Kobe Bryant, three times more than anyone, with his main statue larger than that of others, and he would never have supported for this.
He was always arrogant but never self-promoter. He liked to win but he would never rub someone’s face. And he loved the legends of the Lakers so much that he would be embarrassed to receive more attention.
He would have said something like: “Do you want to erect a third statue of me?” Give this space to Pau Gasol. »»
Bryant would become the owner of what would become the best franchise in the WNBA, the sparks of Los Angeles.
The affinity of Bryant for women’s basketball has been well documented. He has attended many university and professional games with Gianna. He said once he thought three female players – Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Elena Delle gives – could play in the NBA.
Find out more: Vanessa Bryant announces the Kobe and Gianna wall book just before the 5th anniversary of the helicopter accident
He taught Sabrina Ionescu to grandeur, her impact as she even talked about his service to celebrate life. He described the big Jewell Loyd as “little sister”.
There is no way that he would have tolerated to live in the same city in the city of the train which is the sparks. Once the best deductible in the league, sparks have become a ruler without rudder with constant changes in leadership, no real stars and have only recently announced plans for a new center of practice after being relegated to temporary changing rooms in a community college.
Here is guessing that he would have finally bought the team from a group led by Dodger and transformed them into titlists.
And in the 2028 draft, when the time came for the first choice of his team, there would have been no questions.
“The Sparks select, from the University of Connecticut, Gianna Bryant.”
God, I miss it.
Register for our weekly newsletter on everything related to Lakers.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.