With this tragic loss to our society, Bryant left behind a great basketball career while shedding light on women\’s basketball and athletics. He had two daughters under his belt who had a heavy interest in sports. So, when I see people attacking him and his legacy for past rumors and the controversy around a very outdated case, it breaks my heart. Especially since after the case had been dropped, Bryant had been the biggest advocate for the female sports world. To discuss the possibilities that could be true or not about the case is just disrespectful and completely demoralizing to the families of those that were affected.
How are we going to continue these types of conversations after the man has passed? The woman who accused Kobe of these crimes and put this negative exposure on him even let it go, so that means there is no reason to further speak on the matter. So I tip my cap to Lisa Leslie when she sat down to have an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning asked if his legacy was compromised because of this case? Jones then responds by saying \”it\’s not and he would never be that type of person.\” Further vouching for Kobe by saying that \”we have had time to ask him the questions for years and now that he is gone we shouldn\’t continue to hang this over his head.\” With that statement, I couldn\’t agree more.
Amidst all of the controversy the interview created, the 2020 NBA All-Star game provided a number of tributes befitting this legend. The all-star game featured a brand new Kobe theme celebrating his legacy in the most talented pick-up game of basketball on the planet. Over the all-star weekend, to further contribute to the many memories that Bryant gave us, the NBA named the all-star MVP award after Kobe to commemorate his great performances. Keying in on the fourth quarter of play in this year\’s all-star game there was no game clock in this last quarter of play. The target score was determined by the leading teams score and then adding 24 to whatever amount of points they had to equal the target score to honor the great Kobe Bryant. Many would agree this accomplished the goal of rising the competitive nature which has been lacking from this all-star game for some time now.
Kawhi Leonard outshone everyone and received the first Kobe Bryant MVP Award. Lakers all-star center/power forward was caught wearing the Nike Kobe 5 Protro \”Lakers\” that are expected to hit stores sometime next month. Furthermore, every member of team Giannis wore the number 24 to honor Kobe as he wore that number in the second half of his career. Also to honor Gigi, Team Lebron encompassed the number 2 as that was her youth basketball number. The jerseys did not cease to end their commemoration there as there was a patch to salute all nine members of the tragic crash.