Dear Kobe:
Not long ago, I received your letter entitled “Dear Basketball”. In these lines, I was able to understand everything. I have met your fears, your recurring questions, your doubts as a forced transit to certainties. But I also knew of your desire and character to push the boundaries. To reformulate concepts, to understand that the only evolution that exists is the product of effort. Tenacity and perseverance. I found out about the road, I understood what it means to leave everything for an idea. Only the one who falls in love as you have lived life to the fullest. One who is willing to advance against storms without a shield, to embrace uncertainty and to give his body and soul to an overflowing passion.
Ever since you were a six-year-old throwing socks in your father’s trash, I knew you were destined to be what you were in the end. Your goal was my goal. You gave me your spirit, your soul and your body. You won a lot and you lost too. Many times you wanted to throw in the towel, leave everything and start over. But you didn’t. And that’s why I feel like you’ve never let me down. I asked you for effort, I asked for sacrifice and you gave me back my joy. Every day contemplated a miracle: watching yourself grow was a unique privilege. Push the rod an inch higher to overtake. Hug those around you so that they can make an effort to reach you. Evolves to always go first. Force rivals to drive you away.
You were talented, but not only that: Kobe Bryant, you were the fire. My fire. What is born, grows, radiates, but never dies. That has no time or place. A spark so intense, so pure, that he knew how to seduce friends and strangers. That she infected everyone next to him, that she frustrated everyone in front of her. It wasn’t just what you did, it was how you did it. Dilated pupils, lynx sagacity, stiff jaw and clenched fist. Everyone wanted it, but only you managed to get it.
It’s been a year since you left. I saw your older brother, Michael, crying a lot. I heard Shaq remind you of a sadness that moved me. The fragility of existence has never been more present than in those days of disappointment. But beyond the tears, I could see the awakening: in a match that seemed lost, AD shouted your name to the sky after his prayer turned into a triple winner in the last second. Even LeBron himself fought like no one else for your legacy. He gave himself completely to defend your essence, your message, to make the Lakers, your family, everyone’s team for a few months. For the circle of time to be completed and for redemption to become the skin.
2:27
A story full of successes that made him one of the most historic players in the NBA.
Dear Kobe, let me tell you something: I honestly don’t think you said goodbye to us. I still feel close to me, my thighs tense, telling me that this game, our game, is still being played. That there is still time on the clock and that only those who do not try to give up the fight. That it doesn’t matter the physique if the spirit stays standing. If the soul goes, the flame will never go out. You continue to live, dear son, in every child who starts and pursues a dream, in every fanatic who sweats your shirt in a garden, in every beginner who struggles to be, at least for a while, what you once were.
Dad, who was Kobe Bryant? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Sit down, dear son: I have a great story to tell.
With eternal love
Basketball.