Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
Speaker 1: the show where America is the star and the American people.
Speaker 1: Up next, you're going to be hearing stories about the
Speaker 1: late great Kobe Bryant. He died in a tragic helicopter
Speaker 1: crash along with his daughter, and we're sharing with you
Speaker 1: eulogies from his memorial service in February of twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: He broke all kinds of records, third in the history
Speaker 1: of the NBA in scoring until Lebron James passed him.
Speaker 1: Also five NBA championships. Very few players have managed that. Also,
Speaker 1: there's his fall from grace, real life problems with his
Speaker 1: marriage on top of that, very public problems, and his
Speaker 1: eventual redemption. We're going to share with you some of
Speaker 1: the eulogies from that day of his memorial service back
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. First up is Sabrina and Unescu and
Speaker 1: she was at the time a star player at the
Speaker 1: University of Oregon. She ended up becoming a mentor to
Speaker 1: Kobe's daughter Gianna otherwise known as Jiji. And Bryant, well,
Speaker 1: he was Sabrina's mentor. Let's take a listen to Sabrina
Speaker 1: and Unescu.
Speaker 2: Growing up, I only knew one way to play the
Speaker 2: game of basketball, fierce, with obsessive focus. I was unapologetically competitive.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be the best. I love the work
Speaker 2: even when it was hard, especially if it was hard.
Speaker 2: I knew I was different, that my drive was different.
Speaker 2: I grew up watching Kobe Bryant game after game, ring
Speaker 2: after ring, living his greatness without apology. I wanted to
Speaker 2: be just like him, to love every part of the competition,
Speaker 2: to be the first to show up, in the last
Speaker 2: to leave, to love the grind, to be your best
Speaker 2: when you don't feel your best, and make other people
Speaker 2: around you the best version of themselves. And to wake
Speaker 2: up and do it again the next day. That's what
Speaker 2: I did, wake up, grind and get better. A year ago,
Speaker 2: my team Oregon was playing at usc The morning of
Speaker 2: the game, our coaches told us that there was a
Speaker 2: surprise for the day. I was thinking Nike sent us
Speaker 2: some new shoes or swag or something. Kobe walks in
Speaker 2: with his daughter, Gianna and two of her teammates. They
Speaker 2: sat courtside while my jaw sat dropped, and that was
Speaker 2: the first.
Speaker 3: Time I met Kobe.
Speaker 2: Kobe, Gigi and her teammates came into the locker room
Speaker 2: after the game. He congratulated us on the wind, but said,
Speaker 2: and I'll never forget. Don't shoot yourselves in the foot.
Speaker 2: He met, don't settle. The national championship wasn't far and
Speaker 2: our goal was to win it all. I remember Gigi
Speaker 2: excited and smiling in the locker room. I'd always watch
Speaker 2: a ton of film of her playing basketball. She had
Speaker 2: a fade away better than mine. I asked her where
Speaker 2: she wanted to play ball in college, and she said Yukon.
Speaker 2: She had the will and determination to be able to
Speaker 2: play wherever she wanted. She and her teammates hung out
Speaker 2: with us for a while, starstrucked in a little shy,
Speaker 2: but always observing whichever school she would come to choose.
Speaker 2: It didn't matter if I represented the present of the
Speaker 2: women's game. Gigi was the future, and Kobe knew it.
Speaker 2: So we decided to build the future together. I worked
Speaker 2: out twice with Gigi over the summer. I'd gone down
Speaker 2: to help Kobe coach his team. Gigi had so much
Speaker 2: of her dad's skill set. You could tell the amount
Speaker 2: of hours they spent in the gym practicing her moves.
Speaker 2: She smiled all the time, but when it was game time,
Speaker 2: she was ready to kill. I remember one time someone
Speaker 2: grabbed her jersey and she sort of just knocked him
Speaker 2: down and then stepped right over him. Me and Kobe
Speaker 2: looked at each other, smiling, and he goes, I don't
Speaker 2: know where she learned that from. I laughed and said,
Speaker 2: I do. You can't teach that, and definitely not at
Speaker 2: her age. Kobe was right, she had it. She always
Speaker 2: wanted to learn to go to every game she could college, NBA, WNBA.
Speaker 2: Kobe was helping worth that because he saw it in her,
Speaker 2: just like he saw in me. His vision for others
Speaker 2: is always bigger than what they imagine for themselves. His
Speaker 2: vision for me was way bigger than my own. More importantly,
Speaker 2: he didn't just show up in my life and leave.
Speaker 3: He stayed.
Speaker 2: We kept in touch, always texting, calls, game visits. I'd
Speaker 2: drop a triple double and have a text from him,
Speaker 2: A noble triple double I see with a fleximoji. Another game,
Speaker 2: another text, YO, beast mode or easy money. He taught
Speaker 2: me his step back. He told me that if I
Speaker 2: could bring that to my game, it'd be over Fanny
Speaker 2: Defender trying to guard me. He was giving me the
Speaker 2: blueprint he was given Gigi the same blueprint. He made
Speaker 2: it so that the outsiders who at worked everyone else,
Speaker 2: who were driven to be just a little bit different
Speaker 2: every single day, to make those around them, behind them
Speaker 2: and above them a little bit better every single day.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be a part of the generation that
Speaker 2: changed basketball for Gigi and her teammates were being born
Speaker 2: female didn't mean being born behind where greatness wasn't divided
Speaker 2: by j You have too much to give to say silent.
Speaker 3: That's what he.
Speaker 2: Lived through Gigi, through me, through his investment in women's basketball.
Speaker 2: That was his next great act. A girl dad. Basketball
Speaker 2: in many ways was just a metaphor. I still text
Speaker 2: them even though he's not here. The last one I
Speaker 2: sent him said, I miss you. May you rest in peace,
Speaker 2: my dear friend. The texts go through, but no response.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I find myself still waiting. It's so strange to
Speaker 2: describe him or Gigi in the past tense. You don't
Speaker 2: get used to that. The week after the accident, I
Speaker 2: was in Colorado. I had a game, and like I
Speaker 2: do before every game, I prayed. This time I was
Speaker 2: thinking about Kobe and Gigi. His voice is still in
Speaker 2: my head, even if his body is not on this earth,
Speaker 2: And all I wanted was a sign that in some
Speaker 2: way he still heard me too. I looked off into
Speaker 2: the sky and there it was a beautiful golden sunset,
Speaker 2: the boldest yellow lakers yellow, and further in the distance,
Speaker 2: a helico. There was my sign that he will forever
Speaker 2: be with me. The last line from one of his books,
Speaker 2: walk until the darkness is a memory, and you become
Speaker 2: the sun on the next traveler's horizon. I ask each
Speaker 2: of you, every girl, dad, every human here with a voice,
Speaker 2: a platform and a heart, to not let his son
Speaker 2: set shine for us, for our sport, where he once
Speaker 2: did invest in us with the same passion and drive
Speaker 2: and respect and love as he did his own daughter.
Speaker 2: In the end, she was a sun just starting to rise,
Speaker 2: and God did she glow. May their light forever shine.
Speaker 2: Kobe and Gigi. I love you forever, Thank you.
Speaker 1: And you've been listening to Sabrina ian Escu, And what
Speaker 1: a story she tells. She says, I wake up, I grind,
Speaker 1: I get better. That might as well have been Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant's life motto too. And my goodness. His last and
Speaker 1: ultimate role was sabrine and nailed. He was a girl.
Speaker 1: Dad is next great act basketball a mere metaphor when
Speaker 1: we come back more of the remarkable eulogies delivered on
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant's behalf Here on Our American Stories, liehbib here,
Speaker 1: the host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
Speaker 1: we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
Speaker 1: from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
Speaker 1: can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
Speaker 1: to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
Speaker 1: you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
Speaker 1: com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
Speaker 1: a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give.
Speaker 1: And we returned to our American Stories and our look
Speaker 1: back at basketball legend Kobe Bryant's memorial service. And often
Speaker 1: there's no better way to get to know who a
Speaker 1: person was by the nature and quality of the eulogies
Speaker 1: delivered on their behalf. Earlier, we heard from a great
Speaker 1: college ballplayer, Sabrina Yunescu, and this next speaker is another
Speaker 1: powerful one who was a remarkable player as well. Dianna Trazi,
Speaker 1: by the way, a three time NCAA and w NBA champion.
Speaker 4: In nineteen ninety six, I was a lanky, awkward freshman
Speaker 4: in high school, obsessively shooting night after night in my driveway.
Speaker 4: On the nights the Lakers played, I would miss a
Speaker 4: second of the game. Every time out, every commercial, I
Speaker 4: run to the front yard to imitate my favorite Laker, Kobe.
Speaker 4: On a few lucky occasions, my dad would come home
Speaker 4: from work. He was a metal sheet worker in Los Angeles,
Speaker 4: and he'd come home.
Speaker 3: With Laker tickets.
Speaker 4: Watching Kobe play at the Great Western Form as a
Speaker 4: rookie made this little girl believe she could be a
Speaker 4: Laker one day. It was like getting to know myself
Speaker 4: every single day. He made it okay to play with
Speaker 4: an edge that borderlined crazy early on St.
Speaker 3: Mama.
Speaker 4: Mentality was in full effect. Years later, when I spent
Speaker 4: time with Kobe at the two thousand and eight Olympics,
Speaker 4: I learned firsthand that it just wasn't limited to the
Speaker 4: basketball court. His competitive fire ran through his veins, just
Speaker 4: like many of us today. Every single workout I end
Speaker 4: the same way with the Kobe game winner. Three hard
Speaker 4: dribbles going right, left foot plant, pivot, swing right, leg through, elevate, square.
Speaker 3: Up, follow through, five in a row, and I got
Speaker 3: to go home.
Speaker 4: It's that exact same shot that won us a championship
Speaker 4: in Phoenix in twenty fourteen. Kobe's willingness to do the
Speaker 4: hard work and make the sacrifice every single day inspired
Speaker 4: me and resonated with the city of Los Angeles. We
Speaker 4: struggled together, we grew together, we celebrated victories together. The
Speaker 4: same passion we all recognized in Kobe obviously inherited. Her
Speaker 4: skill was undeniable at an early age. I mean, who
Speaker 4: has a turnaray fadeaway jumper at eleven? Lebron barely got
Speaker 4: it today, But it was her curiosity about the game
Speaker 4: that was pushing her to pick up the basketball every
Speaker 4: single day. Gigi was in the midst of the best
Speaker 4: times as a basketball player's career. No responsibilities, no expectations,
Speaker 4: just basketball with your best friends. Every weekend was a
Speaker 4: new adventure, an opportunity to learn how to work and
Speaker 4: grow together as a unit. As a young kid, there's
Speaker 4: nothing you looked forward to more than long hut summer
Speaker 4: days in the gym with your homies. The same way
Speaker 4: Kobe inspired a generation of basketball players. Gigian turned Kobe's
Speaker 4: interest in coaching and teaching the game. I'm sure I'm
Speaker 4: at the only one who received the text from Kobe
Speaker 4: asking what drills they were doing when they were thirteen. GG,
Speaker 4: in many ways represents the future of women's basketball, a
Speaker 4: future where a young woman aspires to play in the
Speaker 4: WNBA the same way I wanted to be a Laker.
Speaker 4: GG already had goals to play for Yukon that inhself
Speaker 4: showed her fearless mentality. She represents a time where a
Speaker 4: young girl doesn't need permission to play. Her skill would
Speaker 4: command respect. The last time I saw Gigi, the mamas
Speaker 4: were in Phoenix for a big AU tournament. Kobe brought
Speaker 4: them to the locker room to watch practice. I always
Speaker 4: remember the look on Gig's face. It was a look
Speaker 4: of excitement, a look of belonging, a look of fierce determination.
Speaker 4: As a daughter, a sister, wife and mother. There we
Speaker 4: embrace Vanessa, Natalia Bianca and Capri. We promised to carry
Speaker 4: Gigi's legacy. Kobe Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Nukam.
Speaker 3: When Mucho.
Speaker 1: And you were listening to Diana Tarasi and that Yukon
Speaker 1: Star and Yukon well the dominant NCAA power in women's
Speaker 1: college basketball. And that's where Kobe's daughter wanted to go.
Speaker 1: And Kobe well, he told her the sky is the limit,
Speaker 1: and he got her to know that program, and got
Speaker 1: her to know the coach of that program, the great
Speaker 1: Geno Ariama. And what what interested Gino is that Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant had talked to him often, not about how to
Speaker 1: become a great player. That Kobe was now in a
Speaker 1: new role as a dad and as a husband and father,
Speaker 1: and that was the role of coach. And is anyone
Speaker 1: who's ever watched Kobe knows or knows about him, knows
Speaker 1: he wasn't always the most coachable athlete. Let's hear Gino.
Speaker 5: How ironic that he would talk to me about coaching.
Speaker 5: The uncoachable one wants to talk about coaching. Probably the
Speaker 5: most uncoachable player in the NBA during his career wants
Speaker 5: to know about coaching. And I wanted to know why
Speaker 5: he said, I'm coaching my daughter's team. I said, oh
Speaker 5: my god, that poor kid. So when I watched highlights
Speaker 5: of her playing and on about the third or fourth
Speaker 5: time she touched the ball, Jianna passed it when she
Speaker 5: was open. I thought, she's not listening to her father.
Speaker 5: So he would call and say, what kind of defensive
Speaker 5: drills should I do? We have practice tonight, We're going
Speaker 5: to work on defense. What do you think is the
Speaker 5: most important thing in teaching?
Speaker 6: Man?
Speaker 5: The man further proof he never listened to one word
Speaker 5: any of his coaches told him. So I try to
Speaker 5: explain them, I said, Kobe, they're thirteen years old. I
Speaker 5: think you ought to just say, hey, you know, see
Speaker 5: the kid with the ball, try not to let her
Speaker 5: go by you, and see if you're guarding the other
Speaker 5: guys hate see the kid with the ball over there,
Speaker 5: don't let her throw the ball to your guy. Keep
Speaker 5: it kind of simple, you know. He said, No, I
Speaker 5: want to know, like, what are the rotations when they drive?
Speaker 5: I said, come on, come on, come on. So these
Speaker 5: are the conversations that we have, both as basketball people
Speaker 5: and as dads who have ever coached their kids. If
Speaker 5: you've ever been in that situation, like a lot of
Speaker 5: people here in this room probably have been. And I
Speaker 5: remember when Gigi came, as you saw on that video,
Speaker 5: she came to the very first game that she came to,
Speaker 5: and she came into the locker room and here she is,
Speaker 5: and the look on her face, the smile, the way
Speaker 5: her eyes just took everything in, how excited she was
Speaker 5: to be around in.
Speaker 3: Her mind, royalty.
Speaker 5: It's ironic her father's royalty, and she's excited to be
Speaker 5: around royalty that looks just like what she wants to be.
Speaker 5: And the most impressive thing about that point in time
Speaker 5: was how Kobe stepped as far back as he could
Speaker 5: so anyone taking pictures, anyone there would not know that
Speaker 5: this was Kobe Bryan's daughter. This was her moment, This
Speaker 5: is where her time to shine. This was her time
Speaker 5: to experience all the things that he's experienced his whole life.
Speaker 5: He was being dad, he wasn't being Kobe Bryant, and
Speaker 5: he was allowing gg to be gg, not Kobe Bryant's daughter.
Speaker 5: In today's day and age, that's a hell of a
Speaker 5: thing for parents to be able to do.
Speaker 1: More Kobe Bryant's stories. We're hearing some of the eulogies.
Speaker 1: It was a remarkable memorial service in twenty twenty. More
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant's stories when we return here on our American stories,
Speaker 1: and we returned to our American stories and our look
Speaker 1: back at Kobe Bryant's memorial service. And these stories, boy,
Speaker 1: they're worth replaying, repeating, and retelling. As most people know
Speaker 1: the basketball accolades, they don't know the life he lived
Speaker 1: and how he redeemed himself after some terrible, terrible missteps
Speaker 1: with his wife and his family. You've heard a lot
Speaker 1: about fatherhood over this broadcast. You're about to hear a
Speaker 1: little bit about Kobe the husband. Up next is Kobe's widow,
Speaker 1: Vanessa Bryant.
Speaker 7: He isn't going to be here to drop Bianca Capri
Speaker 7: off at pre k or kindergarten. He isn't going to
Speaker 7: be here to tell me to get a grip V
Speaker 7: when we have to leave the kindergarten classroom, or show
Speaker 7: up to our daughter's doctor's visits for my own moral support.
Speaker 7: He isn't going to be able to walk our girls
Speaker 7: down the aisle or spin me around on the dance
Speaker 7: floor while singing p YT to me. But I want
Speaker 7: my daughters to know and remember the amazing person husband
Speaker 7: and father. He was the kind of man that wanted
Speaker 7: to teach the future generations to be better and keep
Speaker 7: them from making his own mistakes. He always liked working
Speaker 7: and doing projects to improve kids' lives. He taught us
Speaker 7: all valuable lessons about life and sports through his NBA career,
Speaker 7: his books, his show Detail, and his Punies podcast series,
Speaker 7: and were so thankful he let those lessons and stories
Speaker 7: behind for us. He was thoughtful and wrote the best
Speaker 7: love letters and cards. And Gigi had his wonderful ability
Speaker 7: to express her feelings into paper and make you feel
Speaker 7: her love through her words. She was thoughtful like him.
Speaker 7: They were so easy to love. Everyone naturally gravitated towards them.
Speaker 7: They were funny, happy, silly, and they loved life. They
Speaker 7: were so full of joy and adventure. God knew they
Speaker 7: couldn't be on this earth without each other. He had
Speaker 7: to bring them home to Heaven together. Babe, you take
Speaker 7: care of our Chi Chi and I got Nanny Baby
Speaker 7: and Coco. We're still the best team. We love and
Speaker 7: miss you Boo Boo and Chee Chee. May you both
Speaker 7: rest in peace and have fun in heaven until we
Speaker 7: meet again one day. We love you both and miss
Speaker 7: you forever and always.
Speaker 1: Mommy, And there was almost nothing to say, and what
Speaker 1: class and what beauty. And we have to remember there
Speaker 1: was a time in Kobe's life where he hit bottom.
Speaker 1: There were sexual assault charges, a lot of people, probably
Speaker 1: in her years, saying dump him, what did he do?
Speaker 1: The charges were dropped and Kobe had to rehabilitate himself,
Speaker 1: not just in front of a few people, but the
Speaker 1: whole world. And his wife hung in there and they
Speaker 1: had a life together. There was forgiveness, and there was
Speaker 1: clearly redemption. He came to the NBA when he was
Speaker 1: seventeen years old. His parents had to sign his contract.
Speaker 1: He wasn't old enough, came right out of high school.
Speaker 1: And by the way, part of that redemption was playing
Speaker 1: with the Redeemed Team under Mike Shryzhewsky, which I wrote
Speaker 1: about in a piece in Newsweek. He had been a
Speaker 1: young guy, got a lot of attention, but ultimately became
Speaker 1: the villain in his own story. He'd run Shaquille O'Neill
Speaker 1: off the team, He'd run Phil Jackson off the team,
Speaker 1: and then he'd almost run his own own family into
Speaker 1: the ground. But to watch a man come back and
Speaker 1: fix it and heal it and grow and get better,
Speaker 1: we all watch this. And he once wrote about this,
Speaker 1: actually because he was a remarkable writer, and here's what
Speaker 1: he wrote about it as he was retiring. No hero
Speaker 1: is perfect and no villain is completely void of heroic intentions.
Speaker 3: We all live.
Speaker 1: As both, he wrote on his website on the day
Speaker 1: he retired. What sets the good ones apart is how
Speaker 1: they use their inner villain to create something epic and beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's living as a hero villain. The hero villain channels
Speaker 1: fear of rejection, anger, self doubt and turns it all
Speaker 1: into strength and courage and power and determination and love.
Speaker 1: And those are words of a guy who also, in
Speaker 1: his last act here on this earth, took communion with
Speaker 1: his daughter at his local Catholic church and prayed with
Speaker 1: her before stepping on that helicopter. Up next to the
Speaker 1: memorial service was Rob Polenka, not only Kobe's agent for
Speaker 1: his entire career, but a close personal friend, vacation together
Speaker 1: mentor pal, and in the end, a guy, well, two
Speaker 1: guys who loved each other. He's now the general manager
Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Lakers. And here is Rob Polenka
Speaker 1: on Kobe the husband.
Speaker 8: When God made Kobe, the next great act of his
Speaker 8: was to fashion Vanessa. I know this because they are
Speaker 8: matched perfectly together, and I've had a front row seat
Speaker 8: to being witness to their love for twenty years. I
Speaker 8: remember all the way back to their wedding day in
Speaker 8: two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: In typical Kobe.
Speaker 8: Fashion, he wanted to master every detail of that day
Speaker 8: to reflect his love for Vanessa. One of the things
Speaker 8: he was most excited about was carrying Vanessa in his
Speaker 8: arms over the threshold of their home as a husband
Speaker 8: and wife for the first time. Vanessa brought out Kobe's
Speaker 8: romantic side like nobody else in the world could. He
Speaker 8: loved to celebrate holidays with her, her Birthday, anniversary, and
Speaker 8: especially Valentine's Day. Often he would call me to brainstorm
Speaker 8: his incredible ideas for special gifts and romantic occasions with her.
Speaker 8: He even loved to write poems and letters to her
Speaker 8: and make them into beautiful keepsake books. Simply put, Kobe's
Speaker 8: love for Vanessa was the energy for his life. One
Speaker 8: particular story captures the depth of Kobe's love for Vanessa.
Speaker 8: There was a stretch of days when work travel was
Speaker 8: causing Kobe to be away from Vanessa for longer than
Speaker 8: he wanted. He called me to explain how hard this
Speaker 8: stretch was for him. One night on the phone, Kobe
Speaker 8: noticed there was a grand piano in the hotel suite
Speaker 8: he was staying in. He set it sat by a
Speaker 8: tall window under the moonlit sky.
Speaker 3: During one of.
Speaker 8: Our calls, he shared an idea with me. He said
Speaker 8: he hadn't been sleeping much at night because he was
Speaker 8: missing me and the.
Speaker 3: Girl so much while he was away.
Speaker 8: He wanted to live in his love for Vanessa, so
Speaker 8: at night, under the moonlit sky, he vowed to teach
Speaker 8: himself by ear to play the first movement of Beethoven's
Speaker 8: Moonlit Sonata. When he told me this, I thought there's
Speaker 8: no way. I knew he wasn't a trained musician and
Speaker 8: that was a really difficult piece of music to play.
Speaker 8: But Kobe's passion and love for Vanessa, combined with the
Speaker 8: patience and focus that only the Black Mamba has, made
Speaker 8: this seemingly impossible goal a reality. That next morning, Kobe
Speaker 8: called and played me the first few measures the next
Speaker 8: morning more by the end of the week, he had
Speaker 8: the entire piece mastered, and he played it for me
Speaker 8: over the phone without a mistake. In my heart, I
Speaker 8: knew that moment was one of Kobe's grandest feats for
Speaker 8: his deepest love. Kobe had mastered one of the greatest
Speaker 8: piano movements ever written as a symbol of one of
Speaker 8: the most beautiful loves.
Speaker 3: The world has ever seen.
Speaker 8: To close, I will say this, just as the sun
Speaker 8: lights the moon to guide us through the night, Kobe
Speaker 8: and GG will continue to shine light in all of us.
Speaker 8: But unlike the sun, Kobe and Gg's fuel will never
Speaker 8: ever burn out because their light is eternal. Yes, the
Speaker 8: axis of our world shifted that frightful morning a few
Speaker 8: weeks back, but with Kobe and Gigi's moonlight, we will
Speaker 8: never have to live in the darkness of night again.
Speaker 8: We will all journey on until one day we will
Speaker 8: be in heaven together again, and this time it will
Speaker 8: be forever. I love you, dear Kobe and precious Gig.
Speaker 1: And you listen to both Vanessa Bryant, Kobe's wife, and
Speaker 1: Rob Polenka, his agent and ultimately the general manager of
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers, and imagine getting the call not
Speaker 1: about salary, not about trades. Imagine calling your agent talking
Speaker 1: to him about writing or learning a piece of music
Speaker 1: you want to play for the wife you miss, not
Speaker 1: a typical conversation with an agent. I would submit, I'm
Speaker 1: sure Rob would agree. More stories to come up next,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan to talk about his friend Kobe Bryant here
Speaker 1: on our American Stories. And we returned to our American
Speaker 1: stories and the final portion of our look back at
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant's memorial service, and we have saved the best
Speaker 1: for a last. In nineteen ninety six, Michael Jordan faced
Speaker 1: an eighteen year old Kobe Bryant on the court for
Speaker 1: the very first time. Midway through the game, while playing,
Speaker 1: Kobe asked him for some tips on his jump shot.
Speaker 1: Kobe scored thirty three against his wayt idle. That night,
Speaker 1: Jordan scored thirty six and won the game. That they
Speaker 1: developed a sort of father son relationship over time, which
Speaker 1: then developed into a brotherly one. Here's Michael Jordan.
Speaker 6: You know all of us have brothers and sisters. For
Speaker 6: whatever reason, I always tend to get in your stuff,
Speaker 6: your closet, your shoes, everything. It was a nuisance, if
Speaker 6: I can say that word. But that nuisance turned into
Speaker 6: love over a period of time, just because the admiration
Speaker 6: that they had for you as big brothers of big sisters.
Speaker 3: The questions.
Speaker 6: They're wanting to know every little detail about life that
Speaker 6: they were about them. Barker, he used to call me,
Speaker 6: text me eleven thirty two thirty three o'clock in the
Speaker 6: morning talking about post up moves, footwork, and sometimes the triangle.
Speaker 6: At first it was an aggravation, but then it turned
Speaker 6: into a certain passion.
Speaker 3: This kid had passion like you would never know. It's
Speaker 3: an amazing thing about passion.
Speaker 6: If you love something, if you have a strong passion
Speaker 6: for something, you would go to the extreme to try
Speaker 6: to understand or try to get it. Either ice cream, cokes, hamburgers,
Speaker 6: whatever you have a love for you have to walk,
Speaker 6: you would go get it.
Speaker 3: If you have to beg some on it, you would
Speaker 3: go get it.
Speaker 6: What Kobe Bryant was to me was the inspiration that
Speaker 6: someone truly cared about the way I either I played
Speaker 6: the game or the way that he wanted to play
Speaker 6: the game.
Speaker 3: He wanted to be.
Speaker 6: The best basketball player that he could be, and as
Speaker 6: I got to know him, I wanted to be.
Speaker 3: The best big brother that I could be.
Speaker 6: To do that, you had to put up with the aggravation,
Speaker 6: the late night calls, or the dumb questions I took
Speaker 6: great pride as I got to know Kobe Bryant that
Speaker 6: he was just trying to be a better person, a
Speaker 6: better basketball player. We talked about business, we talked about family,
Speaker 6: we talked about everything, and he was just trying to
Speaker 6: be a better person. Now he's got me, I don't
Speaker 6: have to look at another crime meme for the next
Speaker 6: I told my wife I wasn't going to do this
Speaker 6: because I didn't want to see that for the next
Speaker 6: three or four years. That is what Kobe Bryant does
Speaker 6: to me. I'm pretty sure if Vanessa and his friends
Speaker 6: all can say the same thing. He knows how to
Speaker 6: get to you in a way that affects you personally,
Speaker 6: even though if he's being a painting but he always
Speaker 6: ever has sense of love for him and the way
Speaker 6: that he can bring out the best in you, And
Speaker 6: he did that for me. I remember, maybe a couple
Speaker 6: of months ago, he sends me a text and he said,
Speaker 6: I'm trying to teach my daughter.
Speaker 3: Some moods.
Speaker 6: And I don't know what I was thinking or what
Speaker 6: I was working on, But what were you thinking about
Speaker 6: when you were trying to as you were growing up,
Speaker 6: trying to work on your moods. I said what age?
Speaker 6: He says twelve. I said twelve. I was trying to
Speaker 6: play baseball. He sends me a text back saying, laughing
Speaker 6: my ass off, And this is at two o'clock in
Speaker 6: the morning. But the thing about him was we could
Speaker 6: talk about anything that relate to basketball, but we can
Speaker 6: talk about anything that related to life. And we, as
Speaker 6: we grew up in life, rarely have friends that we
Speaker 6: can have conversations like that. Well, it's even rare when
Speaker 6: you can grow up against adversaries and have conversations like that.
Speaker 6: I went and saw Phil Jackson in nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 6: and maybe two thousand, I don't know when Phil was
Speaker 6: here in LA And I walk in and Kobe's sitting
Speaker 6: there and the first thing, I'm in a suit. First
Speaker 6: thing Kobe said, did you bring your shoes? No, I
Speaker 6: wasn't thinking about playing. But his attitude to compete and
Speaker 6: play against someone he felt like he could enhance and
Speaker 6: improve his gamer to me, and that's why I loved
Speaker 6: about the kid.
Speaker 3: Absolutely loved about the kid.
Speaker 6: No matter where he saw me, it was a challenge
Speaker 6: and I admired him because his passion.
Speaker 3: You rarely see.
Speaker 6: Someone who's looking and trying to improve each and every day,
Speaker 6: and not just in sports, but.
Speaker 3: As a parent, as a husband.
Speaker 6: I am inspired by what he's done and what he
Speaker 6: shared with Vanessa, and what he's shared with his kids.
Speaker 6: I have a daughter who is thirty who just became
Speaker 6: a grandparent, and I have two twins.
Speaker 3: I have twins at six.
Speaker 6: I can't wait to get home, to become a girl
Speaker 6: dad and to hug them and to see the love
Speaker 6: that then the smiles that they bring to us as parents.
Speaker 6: He taught me that just by looking at this tonight,
Speaker 6: looking at how he responded and reacted with the people
Speaker 6: they actually loved. These are the things that we will
Speaker 6: continue to learn from. Kobe Bryant to Vanessa Natalia Bianca Capri,
Speaker 6: my wife and our will keep you close in our
Speaker 6: hearts and our prayers.
Speaker 3: We will always be here for you always.
Speaker 6: I also want to offer our condolences and support to
Speaker 6: all the families affected by this enormous tragedy. Kobe gave
Speaker 6: every last ounce of himself to whatever he was doing.
Speaker 3: After basketball.
Speaker 6: He showed a creative side to himself that I didn't
Speaker 6: think any of us knew he had. In retirement, he
Speaker 6: seemed so happy, he found new passions, and he continued
Speaker 6: to get back as a coach in his community. More importantly,
Speaker 6: he was amazing, amazing husband who dedicated himself to his
Speaker 6: family and who loved.
Speaker 3: His daughters with all his heart.
Speaker 6: Kobe never left anything on the court, and I think
Speaker 6: that's what he would want for us to do. No
Speaker 6: one knows how much time we have. That's why we
Speaker 6: must live in the moment. We must enjoy the moment.
Speaker 6: We must reach and see and spend as much time
Speaker 6: as we can with our families and friends and the
Speaker 6: people that we absolutely love. To live in the moment
Speaker 6: means to enjoy each and everyone that we come in
Speaker 6: contact with.
Speaker 3: When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me.
Speaker 6: Died, And as I look at this arena and across
Speaker 6: the globe, a piece of you die. Well, else you
Speaker 6: wouldn't be here. Those are the memories that we have
Speaker 6: to live with and we learn from. I promise you,
Speaker 6: from this day forward, I will live with the memories
Speaker 6: of knowing that I had a little brother that I
Speaker 6: tried to help in everywhere I could.
Speaker 3: Please, Rest in peace, a little Bah.
Speaker 1: And you are listening to Michael Jordan tearing up and
Speaker 1: he is not the kind of guy who cries in public, folks.
Speaker 1: And it happened several times as he went from sort
Speaker 1: of a beanvel speech to just getting right back into
Speaker 1: it about that special relationship be shared and just not
Speaker 1: wanting to cry in front of a bunch of people.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to come home to be a girl dad,
Speaker 1: And that inspired Kobe's life, inspired Jordan to do that.
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant's life memorialized, eulogized on our American stories,