The Black Mamba is no more, and the amazement is immense. "My mind is racing and I'm incredulous"sums up the former glory of the Lakers Magic Johnson on Twitter. Yet on Sunday January 26, former American basketball champion Kobe Bryant died. He was 41 years old. His helicopter, the "Mamba chopper" he had used so many times to commute between his home and the lair of the Los Angeles Lakers, his franchise forever, crashed, in the hills of Calabasas, to the north from the Californian metropolis. None of the nine passengers, including the player and his daughter Gianna, survived the accident. And one of the greatest basketball players in history, as competitive as individualist and with a chiaroscuro career, is gone.
"Dear basketball. " In November 2015, it was in a missive, ode to his sport, published on The Player’s Tribune, that Kobe Bryant announced his retirement from future prosecution. Embarking on a farewell tour, he recounts his love at first sight for the orange ball, from the age of 6 years. Because Kobe Bryant has always loved telling stories, starting with his own.
The son of a short-lived NBA basketball player, Kobe Bean Bryant grew up where his father's contracts brought him. In Italy, first, where the kid acquired solid fundamentals, a short stint through Mulhouse, before enrolling in a high school in Philadelphia. Best high school student in the country, he jumps the university box to register, at 17, in the NBA Draft, this lottery allowing the worst teams to recover the best young people. Selected in thirteenth position by the Charlotte Hornets, he was immediately transferred to the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the biggest teams in the League. According to his biographer Roland Lazenby, this change of address – and of the market – was maneuvered behind the scenes by Adidas, its sponsor, in search of the "new Michael Jordan".
Kobe carbon copy of Jordan
Wanting to be a carbon copy of Jordan – to the point of learning his gestures during a match -, Kobe is the player who flew closest to "His Airness". Elegant on the floor, tireless competitor, his aerial arabesques earned him the Slam Dunk Contest in his first year in the League. "I don't mind being compared to Jordan. I intend to be as good as him, " He said. But learning the NBA game takes time for the impetuous young man, whose self-confidence is overflowing.
