Speaker 1: The morning process for those who admired and loved Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant took on many forms, most of which were in
Speaker 1: a very public way. There are hundreds of murals fainted
Speaker 1: by artists who were inspired not because he is a
Speaker 1: basketball player, but because Kobe was an artist too. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Gregory, and this is the death and life of
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant. Jimmy Kimmel was a close friend of Bryant's,
Speaker 1: and Bryant was a frequent guest on Kimmel's late night
Speaker 1: talk show. Kimmel would go on to host Bryant's memorial
Speaker 1: at Staples Center and spoke about the many murals created
Speaker 1: to honor his friend, and not just in l A
Speaker 1: across the country and Kobe's hometown Philadelphia, in Italy, in India,
Speaker 1: the Philippines, China, York, Phoenix, Boston, for God's sake, in
Speaker 1: places where he would be booed on the court, Kobe
Speaker 1: has missed. So we're here at Venice Boulevard in Mid City.
Speaker 1: Mike Asner says he's a Kobe Bryant super fan, which
Speaker 1: includes his love for the murals painted of Bryant. Bryant's
Speaker 1: daughter Gianna, the Lakers in Los Angeles. This is a
Speaker 1: very well known mural by an artist Gustavo who goes
Speaker 1: by g Z dot j R. It's the Leave a
Speaker 1: Legacy mural that was done actually with the Lakers before
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year and gusted an amazing job. He
Speaker 1: added Kobe and the trophies after they won the championship. Um.
Speaker 1: So this is one of the most famous murals throughout
Speaker 1: the world and people have come here to reflect and
Speaker 1: to show their respect and gratitude. I mean, you're looking at,
Speaker 1: from my opinion, a beautiful work of art. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of messages here Slee around social justice and uh,
Speaker 1: you know what this team has, what the city and
Speaker 1: what the world has gone through. But you know, this team,
Speaker 1: specifically for me as a huge Lakers fan, means a
Speaker 1: great deal overcoming adversity all year, um, pushing for what
Speaker 1: I believe is right in the world. And you know,
Speaker 1: they won the championship and this reflects them winning that championship.
Speaker 1: After learning that Briant's death, Asner says he was so
Speaker 1: moved he had to do something, anything, to honor Bryant.
Speaker 1: So he decided to create a website which shows the
Speaker 1: locations of all the known murals of Bryant around the world.
Speaker 1: And it started with an Instagram page at Kobe Mural
Speaker 1: uh than at Kobe mural dot com website, and at
Speaker 1: this point there's an interactive map with over four murals
Speaker 1: around the world. And my whole purpose here is just
Speaker 1: to make it easy for fans. It's not money making operation,
Speaker 1: it's not a business. It's just purely out of love
Speaker 1: for the fans, the families, and obviously Cobe and the Lakers.
Speaker 1: So how do you know where the murals are at?
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. In the beginning, it took a
Speaker 1: lot of work to find them and just to get
Speaker 1: the accurate information because it's hard to get accurate information
Speaker 1: sometimes um these days. So in the beginning I would
Speaker 1: really dig and scour and try to find these locations.
Speaker 1: But over time fans are not reaching out to me,
Speaker 1: which is really impressive and beautiful. Um. It's been a
Speaker 1: really nice community of fans around the world, every corner
Speaker 1: of the world, who at this point, when they're working
Speaker 1: on something, they notify me, and then I'm just going
Speaker 1: to notify the fans. So you know, there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of greater things on social media sometimes, but this
Speaker 1: is one nice positive from my perspective, to bring us
Speaker 1: together to do something to get back and um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just grateful to the artists and fans around the world.
Speaker 1: I assume l A has the most murals. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to keep track, but um, we're over four
Speaker 1: hundred throughout the world. I believe about two d fifty
Speaker 1: plus in southern California. That includes Orange County where I'm from,
Speaker 1: up to Los Angeles. Um, you know, there's murals all
Speaker 1: over the country and United States, but almost every corner
Speaker 1: of the world there's a mural. And what's really cool
Speaker 1: is we've seen a lot of murals where he grew
Speaker 1: up in Italy and he spent time in France. He
Speaker 1: would travel to China and Asia in the off season
Speaker 1: and left a really big impression there. So I'm just
Speaker 1: amazed and humbled and grateful for this work that's being done.
Speaker 1: But every artist has their own unique style and perspective,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes us really special. It's not the
Speaker 1: same thing everywhere. It's really unique. Each time something goes
Speaker 1: up and one of those artists goes by our tune,
Speaker 1: our tune, whose real name is art Goes to Kochikian,
Speaker 1: says he was so moved by Brian's death he painted
Speaker 1: an entire mural on the wall of a business in
Speaker 1: Studio City within twenty four hours afterward of the fatal
Speaker 1: crash went public. I got out of the shower and
Speaker 1: when I got out, Um, first thing I noticed my
Speaker 1: phone was going off and it was about Kobe and
Speaker 1: the first article I see in the second and I'm
Speaker 1: opening up different social media's and every single post was
Speaker 1: about it. And I just I just lay down on
Speaker 1: the bed for a while and I'm you know, obviously
Speaker 1: it's a big inspiration for me, and I was just
Speaker 1: trying to wrap my head around it and trying to
Speaker 1: figure out if it was real or fake. I kind
Speaker 1: of first thought maybe it was fake, but then when
Speaker 1: I seen all those posts, I was like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: sh this is real. Um yeah, I just and and
Speaker 1: and I had a I had a date right then.
Speaker 1: That's what I was taking a shower. So I went
Speaker 1: to meet this girl in Beverly Hills. And when I
Speaker 1: got there, I'm like, you know, I kept on thinking
Speaker 1: about Wow, Kobe said, Kobe's did and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: gotta do something about this. So I left the date
Speaker 1: so I could go start the mirror, and I started
Speaker 1: that night, and I pulled the twenty four our session.
Speaker 1: I went and took a little baby nap, came back
Speaker 1: another two hours, and I finished the whole thing without
Speaker 1: even knowing twenty four is without even thinking twenty four
Speaker 1: is Kobe's number and two was her number. Gness, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I just jumped on it because I thought I something
Speaker 1: you had to jump on right away. I mean, I
Speaker 1: forget about the inspiration. You know, I've done many murals
Speaker 1: about Kobe, but it was just this guy demands the respect.
Speaker 1: You know, he's he's all about l a he has
Speaker 1: l A he. He brought a lot of pride and
Speaker 1: inspiration to the city and the whole Mamba mentality. Millions
Speaker 1: of people are talking about it, practicing it. You know,
Speaker 1: he had a big impact. He is l a he.
Speaker 1: I I looked at him as one of our idols.
Speaker 1: I guess if Michelangelo was alive, Kobe would get a statue.
Speaker 1: You know, it sounds like he was not only an
Speaker 1: inspiration to you as an athlete, but just as a person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. You know, he was a good role model,
Speaker 1: good father. I just had a baby girl, so I'm
Speaker 1: a girl dad too. Now you felt compelled to put
Speaker 1: something on canvas, in this case the side of a building.
Speaker 1: So where did you paint this and what did you
Speaker 1: decide to do? Um? I I had already painted the
Speaker 1: whole side of that that wall, that business, and it
Speaker 1: was the front facing wall left and I we were
Speaker 1: gonna paint something else. They wanted a Marilyn Morrow, I believe,
Speaker 1: and I just wasn't really feeling a Marilyn Morow. So
Speaker 1: I kind of took the weekend off. I went to Vegas,
Speaker 1: got drunk, came back, and that's when Kobe happened, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, it's it's almost like you can't make
Speaker 1: this up. You know, the signs already pointed where what
Speaker 1: I should paint there, so that wall was ready to go.
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to paint what I was supposed
Speaker 1: to paint. And when Kobe died, I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 1: painting anything else but this. And I even told the
Speaker 1: guys I was painting for, I'm like, I'm gonna paint Kobe.
Speaker 1: And at first they were like, oh, you don't know
Speaker 1: let's talk about it. And I'm like, it's either I
Speaker 1: paint Kobe. I'm not painting anything, you know, And that's
Speaker 1: how pretty much they were like, okay, let's start on that.
Speaker 1: What came to you? What was the first image that
Speaker 1: came to you that you had to paint. I wanted to,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to showing the image of Kobe kind
Speaker 1: of looking up in the sky where in a way
Speaker 1: saying that here I come. And uh, when I found
Speaker 1: a good picture that match said it was the one
Speaker 1: where he's biting his jersey. It's iconic picture. Then uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was already planning for the mural. And
Speaker 1: that's when I found out Gig died. I didn't I
Speaker 1: didn't know Gig died that first. Then when I found
Speaker 1: a gig died that, I'm like, wow, there's no way
Speaker 1: I can't put her in this. It would almost be
Speaker 1: disrespect for their family, you know. So, um, I just
Speaker 1: started searchings pictures kind of looking upward, and I on
Speaker 1: two images that kind of matched, and and then the
Speaker 1: rest I just sorry, I don't know what the mirror
Speaker 1: is gonna look like. I never know what my mirror
Speaker 1: is gonna look like because chances are while I'm doing it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a bright idea and it's gonna shift course,
Speaker 1: but the main concept is still going to be there.
Speaker 1: That's why I don't like to do a mural knowing
Speaker 1: what I'm It's just to me, it's boring because you
Speaker 1: want my creativity and spend of an hour or a
Speaker 1: couple of hours while I'm sketching it, or you want
Speaker 1: my creativity for a whole week while I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: painting it. So last minute I could get a bright idea,
Speaker 1: and as I'm painting, I'm getting more ideas coming at me.
Speaker 1: So it was a very fluid process for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I never know what it's gonna look like, not not
Speaker 1: even the canvas pieces. So twenty four hours. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the final thing you painted when you said okay,
Speaker 1: I'm done and you step back. It was the shading
Speaker 1: on the jersey and I stepped back and I was like,
Speaker 1: well that looks good. It's almost life like. And I
Speaker 1: mean that experience was so cool. Every time I looked up,
Speaker 1: and I mean every time I looked back, there was
Speaker 1: like thirty to fifty people were taking pictures. You know,
Speaker 1: you could you could see I'm causing traffic. People are swart,
Speaker 1: you know, breaking their neck, just slowing down the traffic,
Speaker 1: looking trying to swear from the second lane to pull
Speaker 1: over so they could come take pictures. People you know,
Speaker 1: bringing candles, lighting on flowers, memorials, pictures and just posting
Speaker 1: by the wall. It just it just turned into a memorial.
Speaker 1: It was. It was kind of cool just seeing that process.
Speaker 1: You know, you do a lot of murals and not
Speaker 1: too many get that same kind of attention, and that
Speaker 1: just tells you the importance of the guy you're painting.
Speaker 1: You know, I've done many murals and nothing was really
Speaker 1: to that caliber. Because within like that twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: I had almost about five six news stations pull up
Speaker 1: behind me. When you were I'm sure you were in
Speaker 1: the zone. You were doing your thing, you say, you
Speaker 1: step back and looked at it, and and then are
Speaker 1: you ever completely satisfied with your final product? No, I'm
Speaker 1: never satisfied because I always feel like that could be
Speaker 1: more done. But sometimes you just gotta learn to know
Speaker 1: when and enough is enough. You know, sometimes too much
Speaker 1: is too much and it can be overkilled. But um,
Speaker 1: you know I got this saying my favorite pieces my
Speaker 1: next piece. So I'm never really looking forward to the
Speaker 1: one I'm doing. I'm looking for the looking forward for
Speaker 1: the next one. I've done many Kobes, but ever since
Speaker 1: he passed away, I've done two one the other ones
Speaker 1: on las Anega in Venice. It's like high it's Kobe
Speaker 1: daughter and he's got angel wings and the angel wings
Speaker 1: is turning into hands and wrapping around gianna Um. It's
Speaker 1: on Global Motor Sports. Is that satisfaction for you when
Speaker 1: people want to take their pictures in front of it
Speaker 1: and they look at it. Some got emotional. A guy spoke,
Speaker 1: we got teary eyed. Yeah. Matt Barnes pulled up. He
Speaker 1: got tear eyed too. Um, you know, he played with him.
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of people got teary eyed.
Speaker 1: There was some lady that pulled up Marrow. She had
Speaker 1: that Lakers ring and she had some sort of connection
Speaker 1: with the family and the Lakers Championship ring. Uh. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you see a lot of people tearing up. And they
Speaker 1: were coming up to me shaking my hand, thank you
Speaker 1: for doing this, and I'm like, thank you for loving it,
Speaker 1: you know, like to me, this is more of an obligation,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: keep bringing up Michelisba. We do our part. We just
Speaker 1: painting outside and stead inside. When you talk about inspiration,
Speaker 1: he were talking a lot about you felt compelled to
Speaker 1: do this within twenty four hours. You even broke a
Speaker 1: date to do this. I mean, he must have been
Speaker 1: a pretty powerful influence on you. Yeah. Yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: really get the motivation to jump up and paint too often.
Speaker 1: So if I finished that whole wall and matter one day,
Speaker 1: I just it's cool, you know, I enjoy it. And
Speaker 1: and even though it was like three am, nobody was
Speaker 1: around and there was no wind, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, these two huge like gusts the wind and
Speaker 1: leaves going everywhere, and and then it just stopped again.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, was that something? Like? Was that something was?
Speaker 1: It was Kobe Angiana just breezing by over here, but
Speaker 1: it was it was crazy. My whole body just got
Speaker 1: goose bumps. So were you by yourself overnight doing this? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was already Usually during the daytime, at nighttime people
Speaker 1: are there, But overnight that's the only time I'll get peace,
Speaker 1: the only time I could actually focus. That's what my
Speaker 1: phone is off and people are not asking questions, and
Speaker 1: you know, I can actually focus on the project the hand.
Speaker 1: What's that like when you're by yourself and your thoughts
Speaker 1: and you're painting a portrait of someone who just died
Speaker 1: hours earlier. Oh, you do do a lot of thinking.
Speaker 1: Like I cried throughout that over neither um just thinking
Speaker 1: about it. But um, I like it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think most artists are nocturnal. They should be producing artwork
Speaker 1: at night. So, like I said, that's the only time
Speaker 1: you can actually get some peace, peace and quiet and
Speaker 1: peace of mind. Way you know, you have no distractions.
Speaker 1: The text message can be a distraction if I'm painting. Um,
Speaker 1: so when there's no distractions, you can literally be locked
Speaker 1: in your zone for five hours and not notice five
Speaker 1: hours just went by. Do you continue to do copy
Speaker 1: inspired portraits from your I had like fifty people asking
Speaker 1: me to do Kobe stuff, and I just refused them. Um.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to just be a generic artist that
Speaker 1: just keeps going around doing Kobe for higher I just thought,
Speaker 1: if I was gonna do him, I was gonna pick
Speaker 1: and choose where I wanted it, what location, If it
Speaker 1: was gonna you know, make an impact or not not
Speaker 1: to feel right. Yeah. Yeah, And and art it's basically
Speaker 1: by feel right. Like recently I did a mural and
Speaker 1: it was just a great mural, but I did not
Speaker 1: like it because of the location, because it was not
Speaker 1: on the big street, even though it's commissioned. It's like,
Speaker 1: deep down inside, you're like, this artwork does not belong
Speaker 1: on this street. This artwork belongs on somewhere where people
Speaker 1: could actually enjoy it, you know, take pictures of it.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, you definitely got to feel it out.
Speaker 1: I like the reactions to people. Murals like our Tuns
Speaker 1: continue to attract fans. What brought you to this location?
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryan was one of my favorite players. One of
Speaker 1: the most visited murals is tucked away in an alley
Speaker 1: about a block away from the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Speaker 1: A group of four friends recently traveled from Detroit, Michigan,
Speaker 1: to visit l A and one of the things on
Speaker 1: their list a visit to this mural. Meet Gabby, Marcel Milano,
Speaker 1: and a guy who calls himself Cheese. They all agree
Speaker 1: that Bryant was an inspiration, and here's how they felt
Speaker 1: about seeing the mural. For the first time, told as
Speaker 1: best as possible through their face coverings home. Just like
Speaker 1: being able to like to take his drive from like
Speaker 1: how he was on the court and put it into
Speaker 1: his family now. It was really just like the most
Speaker 1: important thing I just liked about the man um. I
Speaker 1: just see a man that was passionate about his craft
Speaker 1: and what he does and put his all into it.
Speaker 1: I see greatness. Kobe Bryant. Was this the epitome of
Speaker 1: hard work and dedication and definitely an inspiration even like
Speaker 1: someone I thought was like I just broke my hands.
Speaker 1: So I remember a photo with him when he was
Speaker 1: shooting with his broken wrists and like still practicing, like
Speaker 1: in his pajamas, you know what I'm saying, So he
Speaker 1: feels inspiration even to this day. It was it was
Speaker 1: the drive. He had everything you've seen him do, he
Speaker 1: put his heart to it, like he literally left everything
Speaker 1: on the floor every night. People hated him and practice
Speaker 1: because he worked so hard. He literally would cut you
Speaker 1: out if you wouldn't work in his hard ast him.
Speaker 1: If you didn't work as hard as him, you couldn't
Speaker 1: play with. For me, it's like how many people really
Speaker 1: looked up to him from the kids to the adults,
Speaker 1: he really had a lot of Like even if you
Speaker 1: look on this wall, you got millions of people signing
Speaker 1: autographs and sending their piece to Kobe. It's a dope man,
Speaker 1: Like he did he did this thing while he was here.
Speaker 1: Everything that he did outside the basketball, he still applied
Speaker 1: the same drive, the same determination. He's still put in
Speaker 1: the same amount of efforts. So the fact that that
Speaker 1: was just his mentality overall was definitely inspiring. And to
Speaker 1: let you know, like you don't have to just stay
Speaker 1: focused on one thing. You can apply the same pressure
Speaker 1: to everything aspect of your life and you know, just
Speaker 1: watch it blossom. So he's definitely that guy. Just watching
Speaker 1: and watching his legacy, And honestly, I've never been like
Speaker 1: a huge basketball fan, but seeing like when he passed
Speaker 1: in how he affected so many people around the world.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, they kind of like put
Speaker 1: something on me like, oh, I gotta go harder. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, I gotta I gotta credit legacy
Speaker 1: just as just as good as his. And the feeling
Speaker 1: of seeing Kobe Bryant for the first time on a
Speaker 1: larger than life mural almost crying literally like that was
Speaker 1: just how much of an inspiration, how dope he was
Speaker 1: to everybody. And it's just like it's an energy right
Speaker 1: here or wherever you see him, it's like it's an
Speaker 1: energy in l a Like honestly, you step here, you
Speaker 1: know him, and like you know everybody that passed that
Speaker 1: was from here, you can feel the energy. Like standing
Speaker 1: in right here, I can feel his energy coming up.
Speaker 1: Another artistic homage to Bryant, and the mayor of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles talks about Bryant's inspiration in philanthropy. As the death
Speaker 1: and life of Kobe Bryant continues, the mural has become
Speaker 1: one of the most popular ways to show love and
Speaker 1: respect to Bryant. The website Kobe mural dot com currently
Speaker 1: lists more than four hundred around the world, most of
Speaker 1: which are in southern California, But within hours of the
Speaker 1: crash that killed Bryant, another type of canvas would fast
Speaker 1: become the place for portraits of Bryant, Bryant's numbers twenty
Speaker 1: four and eight, Bryant's daughter Gianna, and the Black Mambas
Speaker 1: for artists. We're doing about four a day each of us,
Speaker 1: so maybe anywhere, like for sure from ten to twenty
Speaker 1: tattoos a day just for Kobe. Mikey Montoya owns and
Speaker 1: operates Sunny Days Tattoo Parlor and Arcadia that's about an
Speaker 1: hour east of Los Angeles. He and his artist Ricky
Speaker 1: remember learning about the crash ms actually flying in from
Speaker 1: New York and um, we had landed, we had got
Speaker 1: in our vehicle, and then um, we saw it. Actually
Speaker 1: he saw it on social media, so he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: guess what happened. And we just kind of took a pause.
Speaker 1: We were on the freeway and we both like kind
Speaker 1: of silent for a while, and um, kind of in shock.
Speaker 1: That's where it took me. Montoya says, as soon as
Speaker 1: he opened his shop, he knew things were going to
Speaker 1: be different. It seems like every walks of life was
Speaker 1: coming in and wanting to get something, even if they
Speaker 1: couldn't actually afford a tattoo. They were, you know, getting
Speaker 1: the money together to get this number eight or twenty four,
Speaker 1: just a little mamba or anything. The colors. It was
Speaker 1: pretty wild, you know, the people showing their um kind
Speaker 1: of their emotional outlet towards it all, in which I
Speaker 1: had a little bit myself and I these people getting
Speaker 1: it permanently. It was. It was very I don't know,
Speaker 1: like um kind of sad, kind of the most as
Speaker 1: were all over the place, even tattooing it. Not knowing
Speaker 1: these people tattooing it. It's not like their father and mother.
Speaker 1: But to me, um, some of my customers were like
Speaker 1: saying that Kobe was like their father, mother or brother
Speaker 1: or whatnot, no matter the gender, it's just the role
Speaker 1: he played. Which I didn't see it like that, but
Speaker 1: now I do, now, you know. It was it was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. We were doing like each artists, say, there
Speaker 1: was four artists. We were doing about four a day
Speaker 1: each of us. So maybe anywhere like for sure, from
Speaker 1: ten to twenty tattoos a day just for Kobe or
Speaker 1: making appointments or just um, even just Laker tattoos they wanted,
Speaker 1: you know, not necessarily just the eight. They wanted Lakers.
Speaker 1: And usually like kind of couples came in either friends
Speaker 1: or a group of friends or you know. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they were all talking about it and it um. It
Speaker 1: struck everybody a little bit differently. It was weird us
Speaker 1: especially the younger age people, like I would say, anywhere
Speaker 1: from like thirty down down. They were really into getting
Speaker 1: the little Kobe tattoos. Montoya's friend Ricky is a tattoo
Speaker 1: artist at the shopping is also a big Kobe Bryant fan.
Speaker 1: Probably his logo itself, the mamba symbol of the one
Speaker 1: of the snake, his his main logo for the night
Speaker 1: for Nike. That was probably the most popular one for everybody.
Speaker 1: The snake itself, the amount of scales, on the amount
Speaker 1: of different shades and and just a very intricate logo.
Speaker 1: Popular requests would have to be his portrait, the one
Speaker 1: especially when he's grabbing his jersey and waving around. I
Speaker 1: forgot which game it was, but anyways, grabbed his jersey
Speaker 1: and he shakes it. That's like probably the most popular
Speaker 1: one that everyone gets. The largest one was probably like
Speaker 1: ankle up to up to the knee. I think it
Speaker 1: was behind the back pass to shock when he was
Speaker 1: number eight. And because Ricky is a big fan of Bryant's,
Speaker 1: he says, doing tattoos of the superstar over and over
Speaker 1: got a little emotional and they'll come in. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: would want to put like an extra effort to a
Speaker 1: little bit more extra time to it just because of
Speaker 1: the emotional connection, just to make sure it comes out
Speaker 1: hundred and just better than the usual tattoo. You know.
Speaker 1: Montoya says people were willing to pay the price most
Speaker 1: simple tattoo for like say the Kobe it would be
Speaker 1: like a hundred dollars and that's like super simple. Maybe
Speaker 1: one color black and a color, and um it could
Speaker 1: go up to like a thousand dollars for the portraits. UM,
Speaker 1: I would say I did more the smaller ones because
Speaker 1: people didn't have that type of money, you know, on
Speaker 1: the spot. But everybody wanted to represent or show their love.
Speaker 1: So a hundred bucks is way easier to come up
Speaker 1: with then a grand, depending on the placement, if it's
Speaker 1: on the neck or which these young kids even we're
Speaker 1: getting them on their neck because they wanted to show,
Speaker 1: you know, the Kobe eight or twenty four or just
Speaker 1: in l A and purple or yellow or gold. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people were getting the Kobe signature too.
Speaker 1: And I had a young, uh guy, maybe like twenty
Speaker 1: years old, and he said that Kobe helped him get
Speaker 1: through high school, that he he like had low self
Speaker 1: esteem and he looked up to Kobe and I guess
Speaker 1: his interviews and and this kid really was the only
Speaker 1: one out of most of them that I tattooed that
Speaker 1: it seemed like it personally really affected him. Not ever
Speaker 1: meeting Kobe or anything, but he told me that this
Speaker 1: guy is like a father to me. So I was like,
Speaker 1: WHOA like after the tattoo, is like, I even kind
Speaker 1: of forgot what I was doing, just listening to this
Speaker 1: kid more interested in his story, you know. Montoya says,
Speaker 1: even more than a year later, he still gets a
Speaker 1: steady stream of requests of Bryant or anything Bryant related
Speaker 1: coming up. The Mayor of Los Angeles talks about Bryant's
Speaker 1: work to end homelessness among young people and Briant's creative
Speaker 1: side would be validated with Hollywood's highest honor. As the
Speaker 1: death and life of Kobe Bryant continues. The grieving process
Speaker 1: for Kobe Bryant's death hit everyone differently with equal emotion.
Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have written
Speaker 1: songs about Briant, painted murals, tattooed themselves, and even named
Speaker 1: their kids after the superstar. And while these people honor
Speaker 1: Briant for what he gave them, a lot of people
Speaker 1: may not realize how Bryant gave back to others, you know,
Speaker 1: And this issue is one that kind of gets pushed
Speaker 1: on the back burner because he's easy to point the
Speaker 1: blame at those who are homeless and saying, well, you
Speaker 1: made that bad decision, this is where you are, it's
Speaker 1: your fault in life. We all make mistakes. What a
Speaker 1: lot of people never saw was that for his philanthropy
Speaker 1: and for his business careers, there was all about making
Speaker 1: something that would make a difference. Los Angeles Mayor Eric
Speaker 1: Garcetti remembers the day he met Bryant. I was a
Speaker 1: council member now and Ronald McDonald House when he was
Speaker 1: there very kind of quietly visiting UM to see the
Speaker 1: expansion of this place that helps families whose kids are
Speaker 1: being treated for cancer at Children's Hospital and some of
Speaker 1: the other hospitals in Hollywood. UM. He was there to
Speaker 1: just kind of give them some inspiration and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this trademark gret that I got, I'm gonna give some
Speaker 1: to you to help you get through this tough moment.
Speaker 1: I got the impression the very little I knew about
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant and watching him, I got the impression he
Speaker 1: was sort of the real deal. When it came to
Speaker 1: helping those that needed help and especially the youth. He
Speaker 1: never wanted to rest on the laurels of hey, I'm
Speaker 1: just a sports star. Anything that he was going to
Speaker 1: put his name to anything he was going to help with.
Speaker 1: He and Vanessa were going to give it there. All.
Speaker 1: My Friend's place is at a place where youth who
Speaker 1: are homeless in Hollywood go during the day, and that
Speaker 1: was the second place I saw Vanessa's real kind of
Speaker 1: passion in Kobe's support of these kids who are you know,
Speaker 1: going through the worst things and been through the worst
Speaker 1: things you could imagine in the foster care system, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, being kicked out of households, lgbt Q youth, UM,
Speaker 1: folks who have been abused, and they really just quietly
Speaker 1: poured their love into that place. UM step up on
Speaker 1: Second which is a place just around the corner and
Speaker 1: down the street on on Vine, and other places where
Speaker 1: you have UM homeless housing and services. They gave a
Speaker 1: lot too. And then Homewalk, which was the signature, you know,
Speaker 1: bringing together of over ten thousand people a year to
Speaker 1: walk and raise money against homelessness. UM. Kobe lent his
Speaker 1: name to be the chair, but he wasn't just kind
Speaker 1: of a chair in name only. He really wanted to
Speaker 1: know the issue, wanted to know how he could help.
Speaker 1: And they put their money and their time where their
Speaker 1: mouths were. Only meeting twice, and he always seemed to
Speaker 1: me the most humble. He had a firm handshake, I remember,
Speaker 1: and I remember that he seemed like he genuinely cared
Speaker 1: about meeting you. He he focused match your eyes with his.
Speaker 1: He came in to visit me after I was mayor
Speaker 1: to tell me a little bit about what he was
Speaker 1: doing on the business side and the studio, the animation
Speaker 1: studio that he was starting, and he was so pumped
Speaker 1: up about it. I mean, his enthusiasm. You could see
Speaker 1: that he had done his research. He wasn't coming to
Speaker 1: meet with the mayor at the beginning. He had done
Speaker 1: his research, He had his pitch. He wanted to bring
Speaker 1: that animation back to Los Angeles where Walt Disney and
Speaker 1: all these great animators had started, and much of it
Speaker 1: had gone to other states or other countries. And so
Speaker 1: he had this deep loyalty too. I mean that's the
Speaker 1: other thing. What other player has played for one team
Speaker 1: their entire career. He loved l a and he gave
Speaker 1: everything to this town. He invested here, he invested time here,
Speaker 1: he gave back here, and he did have just that.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't know that he was shy, but
Speaker 1: he was. There was a certain humility where he didn't
Speaker 1: really care what other people thought. He wanted to connect
Speaker 1: with you, and when you're with him, he was focused
Speaker 1: on you. Is the most important person in the room.
Speaker 1: And he won an Oscar. Who knew, well, if anybody
Speaker 1: could go from we have to come up with a
Speaker 1: new category, because you know, folks who win the Oscar
Speaker 1: and the Tony and the Emmy and everything else. I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody's won a championship in an Oscar. Maybe maybe,
Speaker 1: maybe it can be corrected, but that's a pretty big
Speaker 1: jump to go from winning a number of championships, five
Speaker 1: championships and then an Oscar. That's a pretty phenomenal run.
Speaker 1: And the oscar goes to Dear Basketball Glen Key. March four,
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant wins an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Speaker 1: The six minute film is based on a poem Bryant
Speaker 1: wrote and was published back backstage, I had the chance
Speaker 1: to ask him about his win and about his collaboration
Speaker 1: with award winning composer John Williams. Former Disney animator Glenn
Speaker 1: Keene also shared in the honor and talks about working
Speaker 1: on the project. Kobe Congratulations and Steve Gregory with my heart.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about how much of this
Speaker 1: project put you out of your comfort zone and what
Speaker 1: was it like working with John Williams. All of it
Speaker 1: put me out of my comfort zone. Um. My, my
Speaker 1: daughter gave me the best piece of advice. I was
Speaker 1: a little word about turning us into a film. I've
Speaker 1: never done that something like that before. And uh, we're
Speaker 1: in a house and we were talking about as a family,
Speaker 1: and my little eleven yeard gihna go as well, Dad,
Speaker 1: you always tell us to go after our dreams. So
Speaker 1: man up. She's eleven. Man up. So I had the
Speaker 1: man up and and go for it. Um. And then
Speaker 1: working with John was incredible. You know, John speaks about
Speaker 1: music as if they're they each key has its own soul,
Speaker 1: and it was amazing to sit with John and to
Speaker 1: sit with Glenn throughout this entire process and here the
Speaker 1: same attention to detail that we each half of our
Speaker 1: craft craft. Um, it's just Um, it's just an amazing
Speaker 1: experience to be able to to work with. I can't
Speaker 1: even mean the guys like he's a real life Obi
Speaker 1: wan kenobi to me. You know, John had written the score.
Speaker 1: He's eighty five years old and wrote the whole thing
Speaker 1: out by hand and pencil, just like the film itself
Speaker 1: has been pencil. Um. He's a he's an old school
Speaker 1: craftsman and with eighty instruments. He wrote that. And the
Speaker 1: day that we were recording it, he was like this
Speaker 1: little kid just so energized, supercharged. What is going on
Speaker 1: with Johnny? He gave me a hug, almost knocked me over.
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, I know I've been retired, but
Speaker 1: I've retired that long man almost knocked me over. And
Speaker 1: he stood up in front of the orchestra and Kobe
Speaker 1: and I sat there. I suddenly realized he's never heard
Speaker 1: the music. He just been hearing it in his head,
Speaker 1: and he wrote it with eighty instruments and recording it
Speaker 1: and he lifted his arms and it was this beautiful
Speaker 1: score of the score that you hear and Kobe, Kobe
Speaker 1: wanted to shout and the red Lake and when it
Speaker 1: was done, John turns to us and says, I promise you,
Speaker 1: it's going to get better. I said, mat, I thought
Speaker 1: we were done. I thought we were done. It was John.
Speaker 1: John was incredible. Boy yeah coming up in episode seven.
Speaker 1: Aside from being a great professional basketball player, a great
Speaker 1: human being that was also African American. Brian's death leaves
Speaker 1: a large void in the African American community and still
Speaker 1: to come Bryant's legacy. The Death and Life of Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant is a production of KFI News at I Heeart Media,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles for the iHeart podcast network.