Three hundred and sixty-three days after Kobe Bryant’s death and 104 days after he won an NBA championship in his honor, Los Angeles Lakers co-captains LeBron James and Anthony Davis reflected on the time that has passed since when the world lost Bryant.
“Man, it’s a saying that time heals everything,” James said after a victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday at United Center, where he played Bryant’s idol, Michael Jordan. “And just as devastating and tragic as it was and still is for everyone involved in it, just the time. And it takes time. Everyone has their own pain process.”
Many of the Lakers and Bryant’s family and close circle of friends are still mourning, almost a year after a helicopter crash that killed Bryant, 41, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
“As we approach his one-year anniversary, it saddens our hearts to realize he’s gone,” Davis said. “I know I still have problems with that, you still can’t believe it.”
With the emotions still raw, the Lakers do not intend to make this Tuesday, January 26, more difficult than it will already be, with an additional emphasis on the anniversary, sources told ESPN. There will be no Black Mamba uniforms worn Monday in Cleveland the day before the anniversary, or Wednesday in Philadelphia the next day. There will be no official tribute, which could draw more attention to the awful details of the accident and cause more trauma than healing.
The Lakers will continue to pay tribute to Bryant in the subtle ways many of her players have done since last season: with pairs of Bryant’s signature sneakers on their feet, a 24-finger sleeve on his hand. James, with Bryant’s nickname unifying the group in each gathering.
“To this day it is’ Mamba on three! “We always bring him in because we still want to acknowledge that he’s part of our organization,” Davis said. “And since the tragedy, we’ve had the mentality that this is bigger than, you know, ourselves.”
James was asked about Bryant during several press conferences later this week and invited a conversation about the life of the Lakers skylight, but he was reluctant to think about the circumstances surrounding Bryant’s death.
“I try not to put myself back in that space of my head, because it’s too dark,” said James, “not just for me, but for our organization and everyone involved.”
Lakers center Marc Gasol, whose older brother Pau teamed up with Bryant to win two championships, was also unprepared to share his thoughts publicly.
“I don’t feel comfortable talking about it,” Gasol said. “I’m sorry. I haven’t really talked about it to this day.”
But do you question how Bryant’s game reflected Jordan? James easily weighed this, even for the sake of Bryant’s basketball legacy.
“I just looked at Kobe for him,” James said. “And obviously you saw a lot of similarities between him and Mike, but I appreciated Kobe’s game for Kobe’s game. The way he played the game, the finesse with which he played, the ball handling skills, the shooting, everything what he possessed on the floor – I respected him for who he was as a player and for what he could bring to the floor.
“The fact that he was able to take some things from MJ and look at some of MJ’s DNA and be able to actually do it – a lot of people are trying to do that, a lot of people would like to be able to take things from some big, implement them in their game and then succeed, they just can not. They don’t have the ability to do it. They do not have the unity to do it, the mentality to do it. he did it and he did it at a high level for a long, long, long time. And you can respect that. “
And Davis marveled at the magnitude of Bryant’s lasting impact, an influence so pervasive that the Lakers’ great man never fully understood it while Bryant was still alive.
“I didn’t know and I know he was very, very well known and popular, but I didn’t know that he affected the lives of so many people outside of basketball,” Davis said. From football, to football, to overseas players, to people who don’t even play sports, I always talk about the ‘Mamba mentality’. I didn’t know how shocking it was all over the world … I didn’t realize how many people it affected all over the world, outside of the basketball community. “
The Lakers this season are looking for a repeat title to match the one dedicated to Bryant’s memory.
“When the tragedy happened, it was more, you know, ‘Let’s do this for him,'” Davis said. “And that’s what we’ve been doing all last year … We know we fought to the end for a goal and it wasn’t just for us. It was for the Bryant family. And we managed to do that.”
While Bryant remains in the minds of the Lakers and in their hearts, James said Bryant will be remembered because he is not only worn by his former franchise, but by people all over the planet where he once prospered.
“There are a lot of things that die in this world, but legends never die and that’s exactly it,” James said. “So it’s about this representation.”