In Los Angeles, we live in far flung neighborhoods, with thousands of intersections but little overlap. Except where sports is concerned.
The richest fans sit courtside at Staples Center, but they are no more a part of the sports community than legions of anonymous black, white, Latino and Asian fans who work and sweat and yearn and watch games on television, wearing the jerseys of Magic, Kareem, LeBron and Kobe, and believe, always, that winning is not a just possibility but a local birthright.
Kobe Bryant was their guy. Our guy. A guy who made us believe that with enough work and desire, winning is more than a distant dream. A guy who once sat on the end of the bench but became a local hero who delivered great joy.
And, on an eternally gray day, an even greater sense of loss.
The first time I proposed writing about Kobe, I had a colossally bad idea.
L.A. mourns the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
The year was 1997 and I was working for Time Inc., in a job that involved occasional stories for Sports Illustrated. I had begun my career as a sportswriter and always had an eye out for stories to pitch to SI, and I was certain I had a good one.
I wanted to write about what a mistake it had been for Bryant to skip college and turn pro straight out of high school.
I was living in Philadelphia at the time, not far from where Bryant caught the attention of the basketball gods while defying gravity for Lower Merion High School. And I actually felt sorry for Bryant, who spent much of his first season with the Lakers planted on the bench.
He could have been leading a great university to an NCAA title, I thought, and getting a college education, too. Instead, there was no telling how long it might take him to become a contributing member of the Lakers.
More than one editor rejected my pitch, arguing that it was too soon to make such a judgment, and besides, who was I to tell a young phenom how to manage his life?
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ve written a few stories I regret, but that one would have topped the list.
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A Lakers fan sobs at a memorial for Kobe Bryant outside the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo on Sunday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans (from left) Alex Fultz, Eddy Rivas and Rene Alfaro gather with others near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center on Sunday after learning of his death. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Martin Yan, 35, of Diamond Bar stands beside of a mural depicting Kobe Bryant on Lebanon Street northeast of Staples Center. Fans are flocking to the area and having photos taken with the mural. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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The investigation continues Tuesday at the crash site in Calabasas where a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others crashed, killing all aboard. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The pilot was identified by colleagues as Ara Zobayan, 50, of Huntington Beach. (Bernadette McKeever)
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The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter (N72EX) that crashed in Calabasas. (Geraldine Petrovic / Polaris)
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A tribute to Kobe Bryant is projected on the Los Angeles Times building. (Los Angeles Times)
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A couple pay their respects at a memorial at home plate in honor of Orange Coast College head baseball coach John Altobelli, who perished with wife Keri, and daughter, Alyssa, in Sunday’s helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
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Uziel Colon takes a photo of his wife, Maria Home, and daughter Lena with a mural created to honor Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. The mural is by Art Gozukuchikyan on the side of VEM Exotic Rentals on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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People pay tribute to Kobe Bryant outside the gated community in Newport Coast where his family lives. (Don Leach / Los Angeles Times)
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Kinzo Beachem writes on the cement next to a makeshift memorial for former Lakers player Kobe Bryant at L.A. Live plaza in front of Staples Center. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather outside Staples Center in Los Angeles to mourn the death of Kobe Bryant after news spread that Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among the nine killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Emergency responders cover remains at the site of the helicopter crash that killed nine people including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna on Sunday in Calabasas. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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From left, Christopher Pena, 33, and his wife Lizbeth, 30, of Pacoima, mourn with Jose Gutierrez, 33, of La Puente, near the site of the Calabasas helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Nancy Fernandez of Van Nuys lights a candle at a memorial for Kobe Bryant at De Anza Park in Calabasas on Sunday. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans mourn near Staples Center after learning that Lakers great Kobe Bryant had died. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners huddle at L.A. Live, across from Staples Center, site of the home court of Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman kneels at the makeshift memorial to Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A man kisses the ground as Lakers fans gather at a memorial to Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather around a makeshift memorial to Kobe Bryant at L.A. Live on Sunday evening. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Naima Smith, 37, and Swania Hogue, 48, both of Los Angeles, mourn the loss of Kobe Bryant at a vigil in Leimert Park on Sunday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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A Lakers fan touches a memorial for Kobe Bryant outside the Lakers practice facility in El Segundo on Sunday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners gather at the corner of Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street in Calabasas near the site of the helicopter crash. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Naima Smith, 37, lays flowers at a makeshift memorial during a vigil for Kobe Bryant in Leimert Park on Sunday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans stand near a memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center on Sunday after learning of his death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Naima Smith, 37, center, and other fans mourn the death of Kobe Bryant at a vigil in Leimert Park on Sunday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans stand near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center on Sunday after learning of his death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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A screen at L.A. Live on Sunday displays an image of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant following his death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Bryant Hirshman is hugged by his father, Craig, and mother, Elena, near the helicopter crash site in Calabasas that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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People gather on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas near the site of a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Amanda Gordon and her husband, Philip, mourn the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant near the site of a helicopter crash Calabasas that claimed the lives of the Lakers legend, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Jianing Zhang, right, and his girlfriend Cathy Xiao gather with others near the helicopter crash site in Calabasas that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Large Kobe Bryant memorial signs are illuminated at L.A. Live as fans Aldo Luna and his son Ethan of Pomona gather with others paying their respects outside Staples Center. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Lakers fans mourn the death of Kobe Bryant at a makeshift memorial. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans post sticky notes paying tribute to Kobe Bryant on a mural of the former NBA superstar outside Shoe Palace on Melrose Avenue in L.A. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather at a makeshift memorial outside Staples Center to mourn Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather outside Staples Center at a makeshift memorial to Kobe Bryant. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Kobe Bryant’s No. 8 and No. 24 Lakers jerseys hang in the rafters at Staples Center during preparations for the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
A year later, at 19, Bryant was the youngest player ever to suit up in an NBA All-Star game. It was the first of 18 All-Star appearances in a 20-year career that included five titles, and he seemed always to have known his destiny.
I was working on an unrelated story a year or two later and saw Bryant in the Lakers’ locker room, where he was being interviewed by an Italian news crew. I knew that he’d spent part of his childhood in Italy and that he spoke Italian. Still, I recall being impressed by his poise and deft handling of the language.
Of course, we make too much of athletes. We glorify them, idolize them, expect miracles of them. And they of course are human, which means they are deeply flawed.
Bryant was no exception. He was accused in 2003 of raping a 19-year-old hotel worker in Colorado. A civil lawsuit against him was settled confidentially and criminal charges were dropped. Bryant apologized for what had happened, but some fans — particularly women — never forgot.
In 2011 Bryant was fined $100,000 by the NBA for using a homophobic slur on a referee. He later said “that wasn’t cool and was ignorant on my part” and he encouraged others to own up to their own biases.
I didn’t know Bryant. Few of us did. But as a father, a husband, a businessman, a person, he showed repeatedly that he was more than his darkest moments and worst instincts, that he grew, that he understood that his greatness gave him a platform to appeal to our better selves.
He is immortalized now in Los Angeles lore both for his rare combination of talent and relentless commitment to hard work, and for the tragedy of his early death in the helicopter crash in Calabasas that took the life of his teenage daughter and seven others.
When I first saw a social media post on the accident, I hoped it was a mistake or someone’s idea of a sick joke. For a man who devoted so much attention to the detail of his craft, it seemed incomprehensible that he would go down in a helicopter in dense fog on a day when the darkness never lifted. But he did, and the pall that spread across Southern California has traveled around the world.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
