My Life As A Kobe Fan

Kobe Bean Bryant has been a part of my life since I was 8 years old, and over the past 17 years, no other athlete, musician, or celebrity has had as much of an impact on my life as him. From the minute I started following the NBA and the Lakers, Kobe has always been there and to think that it's actually coming to an end is unbelievable. See Kobe for me has always been more than just a basketball player; he's been an entertainer, a superhero, a god to me. He is my Michael Jordan. I always believed that Kobe was immortal and could do anything, which is silly because he’s only human. When I played basketball, I tried to play like Kobe (not very successfully),  and I wanted to be just like him growing up as a kid. I've always enjoyed reading articles about Kobe, watching his interviews, and seeing what other players thought about him, anything I could consume to learn more about him. I wanted to know as much information about him so that I could understand the person that was wearing that #24 (or #8) Lakers jersey. This has always helped me appreciate Kobe more as a player. Whether it was reading about his workout habits, his studying of past players, the psycho competitiveness,  or his determination to be the best, I always came away inspired. That’s what you want your role models to be right? an inspiration. Learning about how much time and effort he puts in to get ready for the games that I watched was really motivating for me. To see all of the injuries and obstacles that he has had to over come in his 20 year career and to still be willing to go out and perform is just incredible.

Over the years, Kobe has provided me with tons of joyful memories from watching him play basketball that will be with me forever. Through the good times and the bad times, I've always supported Kobe 100%. The good times, which include the 5 championships (2010 is my favorite), the numerous game winning shots, the great performances, and the bad times, the sexual assault case, the aftermath of the Shaq trade, the past few injury ruined seasons, my faith in him never waivered.

Seeing Kobe struggle these last few years has been tough, especially with the three season ending injuries that he sustained. When the Lakers acquired Steve Nash & Dwight Howard I told myself that I was going to watch every single game and I almost accomplished that thanks to a few illegal streaming sites (Sorry NBA! I made it up this year though!). I watched almost all of the final healthy season that Kobe had and it was incredible to see despite the failure that is usually associated with it. To see someone push himself to the limit and sometimes beyond it so that the team would make the playoffs was unbelievable (I even bet my beard that we would make the playoffs after the bad start). When the Achilles injury happened, there was no doubt in my mind that Kobe would come back and be the great Kobe that I had seen forever. To see him walk back on the floor and knock down those two free throws against the Warriors then walk off of the court all with a torn Achilles is something I will never forget.

Which reminds me of first time I ever went to go see Kobe play in person. It was Valentines Day 2011 (my girlfriend at the time knew how much I loved Kobe and the Lakers so she understood me not spending that day with her), when I arrived in Charlotte, it was reported that Kobe was dealing with an illness and might not play. Now for someone who's traveled from 5 hours away to come see him play I would have been disappointed if he didn’t play. But of course Kobe played, and I like to tell myself that he played that night because he thought that someone like me was in the crowd that came just to see him, and maybe some of that is true. Despite seeing the Lakers lose to the Bobcats (remember them?) I was just happy to see my favorite player play in person. Kobe fought through his illness and played because he knew the responsibility of being a superstar in the NBA. That is one of the lasting impressions that I will always have about watching Kobe play is that I never felt cheated, I knew that he was giving all he had every time regardless of how he physically felt.

I wish I could have seen Kobe play at his peak in person but I was much too young then to buy my own tickets. I should have tried to talk my parents into getting me tickets so that I could go see him play in DC the one time every season that they played there. Luckily, I got to attend 10 games in his last 5 years in the league and all of the money I spent to do so was well worth it (even though I only saw 3 wins out of those 10 games but that’s fine).

 (chart of Kobe's performances of the games I attended)

	PTS	FGM	FGA	FTM	FTA	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	MINS	SCORE
2/14/2011 @CHA	20	8	20	3	4	5	2	0	1	5	34	L 89-109
3/7/2012 @WAS	30	9	31	9	9	5	4	4	1	1	40	L 101-106
3/12/2013 @ORL	11	4	14	1	2	7	8	2	0	3	36	W 106-97
1/13/2015 MIA	12	3	19	4	4	6	7	1	0	2	31	L 75-78
1/15/2015 CLE	19	7	14	2	3	6	17	0	0	3	32	L 102-109
12/2/2015 @WAS	31	10	24	7	8	2	3	1	0	2	36	W 108-104
12/28/2015 @CHA	20	5	20	7	8	4	2	0	0	3	32	L 98-108
3/6/2016 GS	12	4	14	4	4	2	3	0	0	3	24	W 112-95
3/10/2016 CLE	26	11	16	1	2	5	2	1	1	0	32	L 108-120
3/13/2016 NY	14	5	15	3	4	2	0	1	0	1	27	L 87-90

This season, his 20th and final one, I was fortunately able to attend 5 games. As soon as he announced he was retiring I made it my goal to go see my favorite player as many times as I possibly could. I was glad that every game I went to, his body allowed him to play those nights. At each game I attended this season, the love and appreciation that Kobe received from the fans (both home and away) was really tremendous. Watching all of the tributes from teams and players around the league has been great. It just shows the impact and influence that he has had on the league, it's players, and fans.

With his legendary career finally coming to an end tonight I can’t imagine an NBA without him. I wish Kobe could have ended his career with the Lakers being a title contender and chasing his 6^th ring with a deep playoff run for one last time. But maybe it was better for it to happen this way so that he could truly enjoy a farewell tour. It’s going to be tough for me to watch his final game tonight, I might just cry when it's over. After the final buzzer sounds, a little bit of my love for the game of basketball will walk off the court with Kobe when the game is finished.

 There is more that I could add about how he has affected my life but I don't really know how to put it into words, so I guess I'll just end with this...

Thank You Kobe... For Everything