By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-01-27 06:08:58
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
今天是科比·布莱恩特(Kobe Bryant)和他的女儿吉安娜(Gianna)不幸离世五周年纪念日。
今天并非一个值得纪念的日子。五年前的2020年1月26日，我们刚刚结束每周日的晨间篮球赛，其中一名球员查看了手机。就在我们打球的时候，科比·布莱恩特和其他八人在距离我们帕利塞德高中比赛地点仅几英里的圣莫尼卡山脉的直升机坠毁事故中丧生，我们就是这样得知这个消息的。他们当时正前往参加一场篮球锦标赛，科比的女儿吉安娜将在那场比赛中上场。科比现在应该46岁了，他的女儿吉安娜也应该18岁了，正准备去某个大学打篮球。
在我从震惊中恢复过来，能够整理思绪之后，我写了这篇帖子*:
在科比·布莱恩特的整个NBA职业生涯中，我一直住在洛杉矶。他的职业生涯始于1996年秋季，当时他18岁，刚从费城附近的劳尔梅里恩高中毕业就加入了 湖人队 。科比的高中距离哈弗福德学院大约三英里，我在那里打了四年篮球，之后才搬到洛杉矶。科比跟随我来到洛杉矶后，他的职业生涯一直延续到2016年春天，那时岁月不饶人，他的双腿已无力支撑，于是他选择了退役。
在他的整个职业生涯中，科比痴迷于比赛，每年夏天都在努力提高自己，为了追求胜利，他竭尽所能地压榨自己的身体。他还很难与任何不和他一样充满激情的人相处，尤其是队友。随着科比职业生涯的结束，我们中的一些人担心他将如何过渡到“平民生活”。
事实证明，我们的担心是多余的。科比的职业生涯转型非常出色。他只是将对篮球的热情转移到了投篮之外的其他追求上。他明智地决定将他的热情（和知识）转移到与篮球相关的领域。他在ESPN网站上对球员的评估提供了令人难以置信的洞察力。他获得奥斯卡奖的电影本身就是一封写给篮球的情书。最重要的是，他能够将他热爱篮球的这份爱传递给他的女儿们，在她们的旅行队中指导她们（以及她们的小队友）。
去年春天，我参加了在斯台普斯中心举行的球迷见面日，科比是特邀发言人。我从未见过他如此平静地对待自己的生活。他对自己新的项目、湖人队和他的家庭都充满热情。他快乐、深思熟虑、风趣幽默，同时对自己的现状感到舒适自在。不幸的是，他还描述了在职业生涯的最后几年里，能够乘坐直升机往返于主场比赛和家之间，让他更容易有时间陪伴女儿们。
所有这些都让周日早上的悲剧显得如此令人震惊，尤其是随着时间的推移，消息越来越糟糕。最初的报道宣布科比在直升机坠毁事故中丧生后，我们又听说科比的女儿也在直升机上，然后又听说一位队友和她的父母也遇难了，然后死亡人数不是5人，而是9人，其中包括一位助理篮球教练，她是一位三个孩子的母亲，还有一位优秀的大学棒球教练和他的妻子和女儿。这场损失引起了巨大的反响，尤其是在洛杉矶。
年轻的湖人球迷在斯台普斯中心内外看着科比长大，而不再年轻的球迷则看着科比经历了他的起起落落，成为我们成年生活的背景。在洛杉矶，我们中的一些人有幸与他直接接触。我的朋友彼得曾与科比一起从事他的音乐事业。我的儿子帕布罗在科比得到81分的比赛现场，他还保留着那场比赛的门票。帕布罗在乔治城大学打篮球时，他的好友阿尚蒂在科比的夏季训练营工作时认识了科比。我公司的一位合伙人今天早上告诉我，他11岁的女儿和科比的女儿吉吉在同一个俱乐部打球，她们彼此都很熟悉，而且她原本准备在周日和吉吉参加同一场锦标赛，但在所有比赛都被取消之前。
我的朋友道格向一家慈善机构捐款，获得了与科比玩“HORSE”投篮游戏的机会。道格对科比的竞争力有着深刻的了解，他早早地取得了“HOR”对“H”的领先——就在这时，科比的整个举止都变了，道格得以目睹了“科比的眼神”。道格告诉我，当他看到那个眼神时，他转向他的儿子汤米说：“汤米，好好看看那个眼神。那是科比要爆发的眼神。”科比不会输，即使比赛只是一场慈善捐赠的友谊赛——而他确实没有输。
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道格是在周日早上9点左右告诉我的，就在我们开始每周的比赛之前。科比和其他人于上午9点06分从奥兰治县乘坐直升机起飞。
虽然我从未见过科比，但我曾在斯台普斯中心见证过科比的两个经典时刻。在2006年的季后赛中，湖人队在与实力强大的 菲尼克斯太阳队 的系列赛中以2-1领先。这并不是一支强大的湖人队——除了科比之外，唯一一个高于平均水平的球员是卡戴珊之前的拉马尔·奥多姆。那一年湖人队的首发阵容还包括斯马什·帕克、夸梅·布朗以及克里斯·米姆或布莱恩·库克。科比在加时赛结束时的压哨跳投赢得了比赛， 创造了一个让在场所有人都难以忘怀的时刻 ——比赛结束后，观众们站着欢呼了10多分钟。
我也在场见证了科比的最后一场比赛，他得到了60分，包括在第四节也是最后一节得到了23分，以一场惊人的胜利击败了 犹他爵士队 。这只是湖人队那个赛季的第17场胜利，他们以17胜65负的战绩结束了那个赛季。（顺便提一句，现效力于马刺队的特雷·莱尔斯在那场比赛中为爵士队首发，出场39分钟。）就像十年前战胜太阳队一样，这是一个令人难忘的夜晚，或许是那个糟糕的赛季中湖人球迷唯一的亮点。科比的最后一场比赛是在斯台普斯中心举行的，与周日的格莱美颁奖典礼在同一地点，这是一个令人心酸的巧合。
马刺队 的球迷对科比·布莱恩特有着不同的看法。布鲁斯·鲍文的球衣悬挂在球馆上空，主要是因为他拥有独特的防守能力，能够盯防或者至少能够限制住科比。就像科怀·伦纳德一样，科比是在选秀日交易了一位受欢迎的老将之后进入联盟的——乔治·希尔换来了科怀，弗拉德·迪瓦茨换来了科比。在勒布朗·詹姆斯出现之前，科比是他那一代球员中唯一一个可以与伟大的蒂姆·邓肯竞争“最佳球员”称号的球员。他们两人都属于少数几个在同一支球队效力整个职业生涯的球员。当这两名球员都处于巅峰时期时，他们的球队为争夺西部霸主地位而战。
所有这些都让球队在周日下午马刺队对阵 猛龙队 的比赛开始前 向科比致敬 的举动显得格外感人。为了纪念科比的24号球衣，两队在比赛开始时都故意制造了24秒违例，以此表达对这位篮球场上，乃至任何其他比赛中最顽强竞争者之一的敬意。联盟中的其他球队也纷纷效仿。我们都希望科比和其他八位遇难者能够看到这一幕。
点击查看原文：Remembering Kobe Bryant five years later
Remembering Kobe Bryant five years later
Today is the 5th anniversary of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna’s tragic passing.
Today is not a good anniversary. Five years ago, on January 26, 2020, we had just finished our weekly Sunday morning game when one of the players checked his cell phone. That is how we all learned that while we were playing basketball, Kobe Bryant and eight others had died in a helicopter crash in the Santa Monica Mountains, mere miles from our Palisades High game. They were on their way to a basketball tournament in which Kobe’s daughter was going to play. Kobe would be 46 years old now, and his daughter Gianna would be 18, and about to go play college basketball somewhere.
After I recovered from the shock and was able to get my thoughts together, I wrote this post:
I have lived in Los Angeles throughout Kobe Bryant’s NBA career. His career began in the fall of 1996 when he joined the Lakers as an 18-year old right out of Lower Merion High near Philadelphia. Kobe’s high school was about three miles from Haverford College, where I played basketball for four years before moving to Los Angeles. After he followed me to LA, Kobe’s career stretched to the spring of 2016, when Father Time caught up with his legs and he retired.
Throughout his career, Kobe was obsessed with the game, with improving each summer, and with wringing everything possible from his body in the pursuit of wins. He also had difficulty dealing with anyone, teammates in particular, who did not share his passion. As Kobe’s career wound down, some of us were concerned with how he would transition to “civilian life”.
It turns out that our concern was unfounded. Kobe transitioned wonderfully to his post-career life. He simply transferred his passion towards basketball to pursuits other than making jump shots. He wisely decided to transition his passion (and knowledge) to basketball related areas. He offered incredible insight to evaluating players on the ESPN website. His Oscar winning film was a love letter to the game itself. And most importantly, he was able to transfer his love of the game to his daughters, mentoring them (and their young teammates) on their travel teams.
Last spring I attended a Fan Access Day at the Staples Center at which Kobe was the featured speaker. I had never seen him so at peace with his life. He was passionate about his new projects, the Lakers and his family. He was simultaneously happy, thoughtful, funny and comfortable in his own skin. Ominously, he also described how the ability to take a helicopter to and from home games in his last few years made it easier for him to spend time with his daughters.
All of which made Sunday morning’s tragedy so stunning, especially as the news got worse as the day went on. After the first reports announced that Kobe had perished in a helicopter crash, we then heard that Kobe’s daughter was also on the helicopter, then that a teammate and her parent also died, then that the death toll was not 5, but 9, including an assistant basketball coach who was the mother of three small children, and a wonderful college baseball coach and his wife and daughter. The loss reverberated, especially here in Los Angeles.
Young Lakers fans grew up with Kobe as a constant in and around the Staples Center, while non-young fans had watched Kobe, through his ups and downs, as the accompanying background to our adulthoods. Being in Los Angeles, some of us were lucky enough to have direct contact with him. My friend Peter worked with Kobe on his music career. My son Pablo was at Kobe’s 81 point game, and still has the ticket. While playing basketball at Georgetown, Pablo’s close friend Ashanti got to know Kobe while working at Kobe’s summer camps. A partner at my firm just told me this morning that his 11-year daughter plays in the same club group with Kobe’s daughter Gigi, knows both of them well, and she was all set to play in the same tournament with Gigi on Sunday before all games were cancelled.
My friend Doug donated money to a charity which gave him the right to play HORSE against Kobe. In a great insight into Kobe’s competitiveness, Doug took an early HOR to H lead – at which point Kobe’s entire demeanor changed and Doug was able to witness the “Kobe look”. Doug told me that when he saw that look, he turned to his son Tommy and said, “Tommy, study that look. That’s Kobe about to go off.” Kobe was not going to lose, even if the competition was a friendly game of HORSE in a charity give-away – and he did not.
Doug told me that story at about 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning, just before we started our weekly game. Kobe and the others took off in the helicopter from Orange County at 9:06 a.m.
While I never got to meet Kobe, I was there at Staples Center for two classic Kobe moments. In the 2006 playoffs, the Lakers were up 2 – 1 in their series over the heavily favored Phoenix Suns. This was not a strong Laker team — other than Kobe, the only other above-average player was pre-Kardashian Lamar Odom. The Lakers’ starting line-up that year also included Smush Parker, Kwame Brown and either Chris Mihm or Brian Cook. Kobe’s jumper at the buzzer in overtime won the game, creating a moment that anyone present will not forget – the crowd remained standing and cheering for over 10 minutes after the game.
I was also there for Kobe’s last game, when he scored 60 points, including 23 in his fourth and final quarter, for a stunning win over the Utah Jazz. It was only the 17th win in the Lakers season, as they finished the season 17-65. (As a side-note, present Spur Trey Lyles started for the Jazz in that game and played 39 minutes.) As with the win over the Suns ten years earlier, it was an unforgettable night, perhaps the only highlight of that miserable season for Laker fans. Kobe’s final game was at the Staples Center, the same location as Sunday’s Grammy Awards, a poignant coincidence.
Spurs fans had a different view of Kobe Bryant. Bruce Bowen’s uniform is in the rafters largely because of his unique ability to cover or at least contain him. And like Kawhi Leonard, Kobe came into the league after a draft-day trade for a popular veteran – George Hill for Kawhi, Vlade Divac for Kobe. Before LeBron James came along, Kobe was the only player of his generation who was in the conversation with the Great Tim Duncan as the Best Player in the Game. Both are among the rare few to play their entire career with the same team. While both players were in their primes, those two teams battled for supremacy of the West.
All of which makes the teams’ tribute to Kobe Sunday afternoon at the start of the Spurs’ game against the Raptors especially touching. When the teams each took a 24-second clock violation to start the game, in honor of Kobe’s number 24 jersey, they showed great respect for one of the fiercest competitors to play basketball, or any other game. Other teams around the league followed suit. We all just wish Kobe, and the eight others, could have been around to see it.
By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock