Even though he hasn’t been around for quite a while now, Kobe Bryant’s impact on the NBA, the WNBA, and the whole sports community can still be felt everywhere.
The Los Angeles Lakers legend left us all too soon. Ever since he passed away, countless current and former professional players have shared emotional stories about him.
That was the case again when South Carolina coach Dawn Staley sat down with WNBA legend Lisa Leslie for a talk. It didn’t take long before the Kobe topic came up.
Lisa Lesley and Dawn Staley talk about Kobe Bryant
“I know everybody is tragically feeling broken-hearted,” Staley said. “I mean his tragedy, the void. Kobe left a void in every athlete, every person that got a chance to see him, experience him, hear him speak love up on the game as he did, became the girl dad, you know, after he retired.”
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Then, Leslie recalled one time she visited his sister, Shaya, and the young Kobe Bryant was just an aspiring hooper dissecting every single move of Michael Jordan:
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“I would go to the house often and hang out with Shaya and Kobe obviously is in the room,” Leslie said. “He’d be like, ‘Lisa, come here.’ I go upstairs, I’m like, ‘What’s up Kobe.’ He was like, ‘Look, look right here.’ He’s the basketball player, I’m the basketball player and so everything was about (Michael) Jordan. He’s watching Jordan, so I come in there like, ‘Lisa look, look. Check this out.’ So he rewinded. We just sit there and then I’m in the room with him watching Jordan … I was like the family friend who’s visiting.”
It’ll always feel weird and wrong that Kobe isn’t around. At least, his legacy will go on for as long as there’s a basketball bouncing around and someone there to pick it up and shoot it.
