Kobe history: 4/12/13: The night a god became man

There will always be two moments in my life I remember because they happened weeks after each other: The night I got my DUI and the night Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles three years ago last night.

For me, going through what I went through, it felt like my world ended. I was lost and felt like a complete failure. I felt as if I had plans and goals that all ended in one night.

I have never met Kobe Bryant and I probably never will now, but if I did I would tell him on that night of that infamous Warriors/Lakers game in 2013,  we shared a moment where we both didn’t know what our future would hold. We were scared, we were alone and in that moment, I realized just how much this man influenced me. He raised me. He was my hero and that night when he fell, it felt like I was lost too.

Growing up, my heroes were always these larger than life characters. Batman, Spider-Man, James Bond, etc. I never grew up with a real father figure. I had a father of course, who loved me and tried the best he could to mold me into some kind of a decent man despite my best efforts at times.

I had a great childhood and loving parents, but as I was practically allergic to playing sports and had little ambition to do anything, I never had a mentor or coach who pushed me to be great.

Kobe Bryant’s work ethic always was that extra force I needed, and it is something I still use as inspiration to this day.

I am 30 years old and I have spent the last 20 years of my life being raised by Kobe Bryant. I was a diehard Laker fan growing up and as I became a more avid sports fan, Kobe was always my hero. He was my Batman. His amazing skill level and dedication to his craft was the main reason I decided to pursue writing again. The times in interviews when he would talk about late night/early morning training sessions, ice baths, workouts and sacrificing time with his wife and family, all drove me to become the writer/designer people see. I related to the long nights and lonesome evening in my newsroom developing my skills, in Kobe I saw the rewards of that sacrifice and it was what I wanted for myself as well.

He embodied what success looked like when you worked for it and gave it your all. I grew up wanting to be a success from a complete stranger.

When he spoke about his day-to-day routine, it made me want to be better. But truth be told I never applied myself. If Kobe Bryant met me today he’d laugh at how little I have applied myself and he would be right for doing so.

Let’s go back to the night of the Warriors/Lakers game three years ago:

I was miserable and at some bar & grill to try and forget the ordeal I had gone through weeks ago. I felt like a complete failure. I had worked so hard and tried to pull myself together to achieve some kind of successful life and despite that, it took was one night, one bad move, one bad choice, to take all that away from me. I was a mess and the night that the Lakers were in playoff contention against a high caliber team. I needed my hero more than ever to help me forget about my life for a night.

That game was already a nail biter and nothing could have saved me more than the the idea of the Lakers defeating the Warriors and moving into the Western Conference finals. I needed this more than ever and then, early in the third quarter, he fell.

My hero, my inspiration, my hope, became human and collapsed onto the floor. I have seen him come back from broken fingers, sprains, injuries. But somehow this night was different.

He got up and continued playing, but with six minutes left in the 3rd quarter he fell yet again.

He looked confused, scared and hurt: feelings I had grown up with all my life, but never under the eyes of millions of fans around the world, and a sold out crowd of diehard fans in the the center of one of the biggest sports arenas in California.

This game began to be more than about basketball.

I was watching him limp across the court, hearing Mychal Thompson and Stu Lantz say the worst words for any Laker fan to hear: “Kobe’s hurt and I don’t know if he can continue…”

Despite the pain, the hurt and the embarrassment, he rose again. I was moved beyond words, I was inspired, I was hopeful. He came back with a vengeance and played the rest of the game as a man possessed by one goal: not winning but the be the best. With less than four minutes left in the 4th quarter, Bryant brought the Lakers back with a tying score of 107-107 against the now reigning, record breaking Golden State Warriors.

The crowd at Staples Center, the fans around the city, the small bar in Pomona, the atmosphere all over was electric.

For Laker fans, this was our moment, our hero had delivered and it was time to put this game away and move on to the first round of the finals.

Then it happened.

A little less than three minutes to go, in the deciding minutes of a paramount game that could bring the Lakers within a shot of a playoff run, he fell again.

This time he fell hard.

There’s a moment if you look at the footage again where Bryant knew something we all were dreading. Like the mighty Greek god Achilles, Bryant was taken down by the one weakness in his armor–his ankle.

Months later Kobe would go on to say about that moment, “I was trying to feel if the tendon is there or if it’s gone. I realized it wasn’t there. I was literally trying to pull the tendon up, so hopefully I could walk and kind of hobble through the last two and a half minutes and try to play.”

I will forever be haunted by that moment, because his face, that look of slight panic and fear was a face I had made only weeks earlier under the flashing of red and blue lights in my rearview mirror. The jig was up, life had handed both he and I the most severe of hard lessons.

The Lakers were down by two points and we needed our champion to come through. Despite the pain and struggle of knowing he was against the ropes, he rose for one last time.

Bryant stood there at the free throw line, defeated, in pain, knowing he was finished.

In that moment he had two choices: fight, or walk away. He chose to stay.

Bryant nailed two crucial points in the final minutes of what was a defining moment for the team, the city, the fans who depended on him to defy the odds, and the lonely fan sitting in a bar in Pomona who needed this Laker win more than anything.

He then did what no one wanted or expected him to: he walked off court. Knowing full well that athletes of his age and caliber rarely walk away from an Achilles injury, Kobe Bryant walked off and waved to the city he sacrificed 18+ years of his life for.

He didn’t let us down. He didn’t owe us anything in that moment, yet he gave us the respect of walking away from the game he loved while also putting the team in a spot to clinch a victory.

The Lakers won that night 118-116, getting into the Western Conference finals but lost later in the first round, being swept 4-0 to the San Antonio Spurs.

He has had countless moments and highlights in his 20 year career, but the game against the Warriors was the night I realized that there will never be another player like Kobe Bryant. What we had all seen that night was an amazing moment in television history that transcended the world of sports.

It was watching human tenacity and perseverance unfold on live T.V.

Kobe is a figure who embodies the diehard, relentless work ethic that inspired men to land on the moon, build the transcontinental railroad and always strive to be more. He is the American goal, not a dream, but the result of knowing your worth and working toward something to achieve greatness.

Anyone can dream, it takes a certain breed to work that dream to a goal. Kobe is of that breed.

For one Laker fan in Pomona who saw their own life as a failure, seeing him rise again after being kicked down so many times, despite how selfish he could have been in that moment still come through for his team and his city was the inspiration I needed that night to be a better person.

I soon enrolled in school after that game. Despite how the odds were stacked against me and how I knew I would that the road ahead would be a long, painful future, I decided to rise.

Having grown up seeing Kobe defy the odds time and time again, the night he fell and stood up on an career-ending ankle injury to show the world that no pain or tribulation can ever keep you from being your personal best, is the reason why I am here today being able to write this article for you now.

Despite being let down and defeated, Kobe rehabilitated his injury, came back and has stuck through one of the most turbulent times in Lakers history for his final NBA seasons.

He deserved a return to greatness, with a playoff caliber team, and what he got was season after season of lackluster effort and heartbreaking losses.

Yet, even in failure he did not accept defeat.

Tonight will be a difficult and emotional day for me when the game against the Utah Jazz draws to a close. Next year I will not have my hero there to see as an inspiration and yet I will know in my heart that my need to excel and be great will be because of him.

I have spent the better part of my adult life seeing this man defy professional and personal odds. His ethos and mentality go beyond the game and on one night, three years ago, gave one lonely, miserable guy the inspiration to reach for greatness.

What he has meant to people like me around the world, to drive and succeed goes far beyond sports and basketball.

He is my hero and my champion. This season’s failure was not the one he deserved and yet he still gave his all.

Thank you Kobe, for an amazing 20 years. Thank you for showing me that one bad night does not define who a person is, but how you get up and get back in the game does.

Beyond the rings, the championships, the nicknames and the glory, you were the hero this city needed and the hero I needed.

I will never get to thank you. I can only hope this article is enough.