Death is not the end of life, forgetting is.
Unconsciously, Kobe Bryant has been gone for two years, and time is strong enough to dispel the joys and sorrows of the past, but when the time to leave black memories in the basketball world arrived on January 27, Kobe Bryant was deeply missed by this world.
Bryant never went away, because the spiritual wealth he left behind has always been there.
Leon Douglas, a teammate of Kobe's father, Joe Bryant, when he played in Italy, still remembers Kobe, who was only 8 years old, traveling with the team bus, talking about his dreams and saying the words.
"When I grow up, I'll show you how really great basketball is played!"
Dreams are almost the illusions that everyone once appeared in their youth, simple and beautiful, at that age, the world touched is very small, but the vision of the future is very large.
The so-called growth is often the process of discovering that dreams are out of reach, when the reality rolls in, the expectations of the past step by step, until there is no trace.
Realize that there are some things you really can't do, and you grow up.
Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, is an "alternative."
When he returned to Philadelphia at the age of 11 to play the Junior Summer League, the staff arranged for the participating players to fill out the form, with a column on the future career plan, and Bryant wrote "NBA".
Out of kindness, the staff asked Kobe to fill in another one.
Bryant was puzzled: "Why? ”
The staff said that every child who plays basketball will imagine entering the NBA, but the successful one is a million, don't pin all your future on this difficult thing to cash in, you have more choices.
Bryant stubbornly shook his head: "Since one in a million people did it, why not me?" ”
Seven years later, Bryant has really done it.
Mattry was the head coach of St. Joseph's University basketball team, and when Bryant played at Laur Merrion High School, he would train with college players at St. Joseph every offseason, and later NBA players. After seeing Bryant's training, Matti made a decision to give Kobe the key to the gym, a treatment that the members of the university team did not receive.
"Bryant is athletically talented, and his mental talent is even more amazing, even more than physical," Mattry said, "they were practicing twice a day, training in the morning, Kobe would come to the stadium two hours early, and by the time everyone was there, Bryant had practiced to the point of sweating." Morning training ends at 12 p.m., and Bryant will practice until two o'clock in the afternoon to rest. The second training was scheduled to end at 7 p.m. and end at 9 p.m., and Kobe Bryant would come at 5 p.m. and would practice until 11 o'clock, every day, and the professional players who trained with him couldn't do it, and there was a reason for this kid's success. ”
It is not difficult to aim high, but it is difficult to be down-to-earth.
O'Neill's autobiography records a chat with 18-year-old Kobe Bryant on a bus after he first arrived at the Lakers.
"Kobe Bryant told me he had a dream, I asked him what it was, he said he was going to be the number one scorer in Lakers history, to win five or six championships, and to be the best player in the NBA."
This dream is more difficult than entering the NBA. Because the competition in this league is extremely cruel, talented players abound, And Bryant's rookie season is not successful, he is just a substitute who averages 15 minutes per game.
Bryant used to be confused, and he used to drive to the door of UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), looking at the students coming in and out, wondering whether he had made the right decision to go from high school to the NBA.
It had been shaken, but Bryant had persevered.
"I had very few opportunities at the time, and that almost drove me crazy. I saw Iverson and Ray Allen get thirty or forty points on the court, and I knew they weren't much better than me, and I just didn't get a chance to show my ability. "But those years were very precious to me because I had to work hard to get the chances." If I get 15 minutes of playing time, I'm going to play those 15 minutes and have to train hard, and I'm very grateful for that experience. ”
In the fifth game of the 1997 Western Conference Semifinals, the Lakers fell behind 1-3 on aggregate, and the loss was out, O'Neal made a full departure in the fourth quarter, and Kobe Bryant took the initiative to take on the key ball at the time of life and death, but the result was three consecutive throws, and the Lakers lost to the Jazz and were eliminated.
The game was held in Salt Lake City, and after Kobe Returned to Los Angeles with the team, he put down his luggage and rushed to a nearby high school gym, it was three o'clock in the morning, and Kobe waited until the worker in charge of the early morning cleaning to go to work, entered the stadium and did not come out for a whole day, constantly practicing shooting.
"That day he got off the plane and went to the stadium," ESPN reporter Scupp Jackson said, "in such a high-profile game in a continuous shot of three no sticks, this child did not cry, did not get depressed, did not borrow alcohol to dispel the mess, is to practice shooting again and again, with practical actions to get themselves out of the shadow of failure." ”
The so-called success has never been smooth sailing, but in the wind, frost, rain and snow, with sweat poured out of the courage to move forward.
The 2005-06 season was the peak of Bryant's personal form, averaging 35 points per game to crown the scoring champion. On December 20, 2005, Bryant scored 62 points in the third quarter of the game against the Lone Rangers, while the Lone Rangers scored 61 points in the first three quarters of the team.
Toward the start of the fourth quarter, Lakers coach Phil Jackson sent assistant coach Brian Shaw to ask Kobe if he still wanted to play, and surprisingly, Kobe refused.
"He looked up at the scoreboard and we had a 34-point lead in the first three quarters and said to me, 'No, next time.'" Shaw recalled, "This answer made me a little angry, 'What do you say, now you have a chance to get 70 points, you just have to play for a few minutes, do you know how many people in the history of this league can score 70 points in a single game?'" You want to give up this opportunity? He wasn't impressed, he stuck with his ideas and told me that the next time the team really needed him to take so many points, he would do it. ”
The Lakers eventually won 112-90, and after the game, a reporter asked Kobe Bryant how many points he could get if he played in the fourth quarter, and Kobe shrugged and replied: "80 points." ”
A month later, Bryant scored 81 points against the Raptors. When the game was over, Kobe bryant was calm.
"That's the power of dreams," Bryant said, "a lot of players think 80 points is impossible, 50 points is more realistic, if you feel good, 60 points is the ceiling, but I never set a ceiling for myself, I always thought that 80 points, 90 points, 100 points are all possible." Because I know how much I'm putting in the training ground. ”
How much did you pay? Profit joined the Lakers in the summer of 2005, he hoped to play a good performance, so he designed an offseason special training plan, according to the schedule, arrived at the training hall at 7 a.m., when Profit pushed open the door, he saw Kobe Bryant who was already sweating.
"I went at 7 a.m., but Kobe Bryant started training at about 5 a.m., and he was the only one in the whole arena," Profit said, "You know, Kobe Bryant is not only training offense, but also defense, he averaged nearly 40 points per game that season, and he also had to defend Maddy's stars. ”
Kobe Bryant's dedication to basketball has a beginning and an end, the last game of his career, he finished with 60 points, behind the brilliance of that moment, Is Kobe Bryant's long-term preparation. At that time, Kobe Bryant was already scarred, Achilles tendons, knees, shoulders and other surgical marks left by surgery, so that his shooting action has been deformed, 60 points battle is in such an injury rushing, that is the condensation of Kobe's basketball road, difficult, twists, arrogance, coldness, whether you admire him or not, you will admit that he wrote the most bloody chapter of that basketball era.
Just before that retirement game began, Bryant completed the last pre-game mobilization of his career, and he only said one word to the young teammates in front of him.
'We try to play this game well and that's my wish.'
Dreams, sometimes very fragile, collide with reality will "crush the bones". Dreams, sometimes very strong, will be buried deep in the heart, waiting for us who have lost it, to pick it up again.
Kobe Bryant's dream has never been shelved by him, his career is not perfect, and his life is in the billowing smoke on the slopes of Calabasas, leaving cruel regrets, but in the 41-year journey, he has never given up "becoming the best version of himself", which is Kobe's treasure that transcends time.
We cannot determine the length of life, but we can strive to expand the depth of life and achieve a unique self.
Perhaps, this is the best nostalgia for Kobe.