March 9, 2021 • 29 mins
Kobe Bryant left an indelible mark in the African American community. The Mayor of Los Angeles, non-profit executives and many others say when it came to philanthropy and mentoring, Bryant was one of the few celebrities who walked the walk and talked the talk. In this episode we meet the executive director of a shelter for young homeless people, a place Bryant donated his time and money; we meet a civil rights leader from the African American community who speaks about Bryant’s duty as a role model for young Black men; we talk to a close friend of Bryant’s.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Kobe Bryant's talents on the court were obvious and unmatched,
But what about his work off the court. He's talked
about the need to combat violence in the community. He
also talked about police abuse and police misconduct, so he
was talking about violence across the board. That to me
indicated someone that had a social consciousness, of social awareness.
(00:34):
I'm Steve Gregory and this is the death and life
of Kobe Bryant. Well known writer and civil rights leader
Earl o'fari Hutchinson lives in Los Angeles and says he's
(00:56):
not much of a basketball fan, but he is a
fan of Iyant, mostly for what Briant wasn't known for
would intrigue me was oftentimes was miss with individuals like
a Kobe Bryant, namely what do they do off the court?
One thing that struck me and and reading some of
the common charities and some of the articles in pieces
(01:17):
after Kobe, you know, after the tragedy, he made a
statement and this is what really caught my eye, and
ear he said, life is more I'm paraphrasing, life is
more than just putting the ball in a hoop. Now
I reflected on that and I said wait a minute,
there's some depth here, there's some consciousness here, there's some understanding. Look,
(01:39):
I gotta have a life, and there's a world outside
the sports arena, the basketball court, the superstar celebrity thing
that you know, most people relate to him as namely,
I have to deal with people or I want to
deal with people namely, and many people have problems and
we long checklist of things from you know, I mean housing,
(01:59):
the eats, food, um, poverty, all the things that you
know confront many, many people. So it seemed to me
that Kobe Bryant was getting something about I want to help.
I want to be a part of that. I want
to use my fame, in my celebrity hood, I want
to use that for good, um, to help humanity. That's
(02:22):
what intrigued me about him, and that's what I wanted
to write about. So I began looking at things and
I remember from a personal experience, UM Nipsey Hustle. Kobe
Nipsey was doing things, well, a number of things in
the community, but one thing he was really trying to
deal with the whole issue of violence in the community.
So they had a series of forums that Nipsey Hustle
(02:44):
put on. Kobe became to that and he talked about,
you know, the need to combat violence in the community,
and he also went a little bit further. He also
talked about police abuse and police misconduct and police find
So he was talking about violence across the board. And
so that to me indicated someone that had a social consciousness,
(03:05):
a social awareness. I felt that that is the thing
that needed to be spotlighted. I felt I did not
want to see that get lost in the adulation and
the recriminations, uh, and the tears and the sadness and
the tragedy, which I mean is legitimate, But I thought
there was more than Kobe Bryant, and quite frankly still
do okayr L Los Angeles is ONOD syndicated radio personality.
(03:38):
Kurt Alexander, otherwise known as Big Boy, was a close
friend of Bryan Bryant was a frequent guest on Alexander's
morning show, Big Boy's Neighborhood here in Los Angeles. Alexander
says Bryant was more to l A than just basketball.
You know what, man, It gave it gave people something
to believe in. And not only was there something shiny
(03:59):
like Kobe always said you know, hard work. You know,
we rooted for him, and so many people love Kobe Bryant.
But it's different when it's your own too, and and
it's an example being shown to the world, and it's
a positive example. It's a person that works hard. So
we would see those kind of things that I've done
(04:21):
a lot of things with Kobe that was you know,
it wasn't about radio. It was about feeding the community,
you know, taking care of the home. It's like Kobe
was very big on that. I was taken her back
by really how authentic his interest and commitment to and
(04:47):
the homelessness was. Another Carmichael is the executive director of
My Friend's Place in Hollywood, a nonprofit dedicated to helping
young people who were dealing with homelessness. Carmichael remembers how
Brian became interested in her organization so many years ago.
Um I think when he and Vanessa were leaving the
Staples Center and really starting to see homelessness right outside
(05:14):
in the Staples Center. Like right, I can only imagine
what it was like to win a game, being that
state of euphoria, being a champion for Los Angeles, a
revered person, and then to pull out and see people
sleeping on the sidewalk. I can like, I think that
contrast really caught his attention. Um and as he went on,
(05:38):
I think what was a learning journey about what the
issue was and looking for organizations that were effective and
having impact in their exploration of the youth population. I
was told that all heads nodded towards my friends place.
(06:01):
I feel incredibly like honored and grateful that the community
pointed Kobe and Vanessa our direction because their impact here
uh continues to this day. I knew that he understood
those young people, and I could see his sense of
(06:23):
responsibility of not using them for that moment. And then
he came back, and then he brought his community in
like right as it wasn't only about he and Vanessa
in that moment and having a stage to talk about
their interests in philanthropy and their launch of their family foundation,
(06:47):
which was beautiful unto itself. But then he invited his
friends and associates that our leaders in Los Angeles that
had the resources is to be able to invest in
organizations to be a part of the game changing of it.
So yes, he off the walk and he invited people
(07:10):
to step up alongside of him coming up a look
at how Bryant's darkest days were a wake up called
to young black men everywhere as the death and life
of Kobe Bryant continued. Earl Lafari Hutchinson is a well
(07:51):
known author, commentator, and civil rights leader in Los Angeles.
Hutchinson says he's not much of a fan of basketball,
but considers Bryant a role model, especially for young African
American men. He points out that Brian's sexual assault case
in Colorado became a pivotal moment for a lot of reasons.
It was a blessing and the curse. The curse was
if you're talking about the accusation of rape in the
(08:13):
trial in Colorado, that was a curas that had happened.
The blessing it is that had happened. Now it sounds
like what are you saying. I'm saying exactly that it
happened at the time. So basically you're talking about a
young guy who faced the situation that was essentially it
could have been career threatening. Um certainly it was not
(08:37):
life affirming, but it was threatening and it was a
wake up call for him. And I know we all
noticed after that decades after that. Uh, Kobe was an
examply individual. I mean it really was a thing to
wait a minute, this happened early. It caught him when
it was early. It was a shock. It was a
(08:58):
wake up call. And I think that did was it
alerted him. Look, I am a role model. Millions of
people watch me, millions of people judge me, and more importantly,
millions of people look up to me. So I've got
to start acting responsibly. I've got to start acting responsibly
first and foremost in the home, my wife, my family.
(09:19):
And then also too, I have I have an obligation
to the fans. You know, the fans. Um even though
they over inflate. I feel athletes and their importance grossly
over inflate them. But it is what it is. So
the fact is they are idolatrized, these superstar athletes. People
(09:39):
do look up to them, and especially I think Kobe
was aware that so many young African American males were
looking to him because the identification with basketball, sports and
so forth. So I think all of that came together
in kind of a perfect storm. Um, I have to
be a good role model. Um. I learned a lesson,
and he asked he did learn from that, Because you know,
(10:02):
we have seen a number of celebrities and a number
of athletes that continue to do things, continue to shoot
themselves in the foot, continue to be their own worst enemies.
They haven't learned a damn thing. But he was different.
He did learn from that, and the proof of that
is it never happened again. I don't remember anything after
that of anything that we could call scandal, personal, involving morals, uh,
(10:28):
involving political, involving social, any kind of scandal. I don't
recall any of that. So Kobe had almost a two
decade run after that of basically exemplary behavior. But I
think the more important thing is he made up his mind.
I have to learn from this going forward. I still
got a lot of years left with my basketball career,
(10:50):
and I'm going to be looked up to in the
role model. I have to live up to that responsibility.
In many communities, especially the African American communities, because he
was looked up to, they loved this man, They really
respected him. Um, they really identified with him. When I
say they, I mean a lot of young African American males,
I mean they saw him as as emblematic of a
(11:11):
good role model and also a giant sports figure, somebody
that we definitely want to emulate. So I think that
is a void right there. Um, Individuals like a Kobe
Bryant in many ways are very unique and they're almost
I know it's a cliche to say this, but there
are almost irreplaceable in the sense of who can really
(11:31):
step in where they were. Now. That's not to say
that others aren't coming along, but if we've noticed one
thing I haven't seen since the debt were even during
the life of Kobe and of course the death of
Kobe um the kind of agulation that a sports figure
slash community figure. And that's what I put behind Kobe
(11:55):
Bryant had. That's why you saw this great outpouring, uh
of I mean sense of loss. And so I think
over time that loss is going to continue to resonate
because he is irreplaceable. Hutchinson wrote about Bryant's life being
more than basketball and that's how he wants to remember him.
He also says Bryant was a unique role model. I mean,
(12:17):
we talked about African American young males visa v basketball
players in the basketball and corps only because you know,
the NBA is what s the players anyway, African American,
so there's an identification there. But Kobe touched the nerve.
He was not only in this country. He was global.
(12:38):
He had an impact beyond the borders of the United States.
So that that means, and that tells me one thing.
If you're a youth in Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Serbia, uh Germany, Nigeria, Taiwan, Brazil,
you know about the Kobe, you can identify with the
(13:00):
Kobe um and I think that's why there was so
much drama and sadness, you know, after the tragity that
took his LFE, because that identification was global with him.
When you really think about it, how many sports figures
have that global identification. I mean you can really could
him on one hand and still maybe have two or
(13:21):
three fingers left over. But Kobe was one of them.
He was unique in that sense. So, yes, he did
touch a nerve across a lot of strata, and not
just among young people, you know, everybody. I mean, the course,
the arenas aren't filled by you know, nineteen and eighteen
and seventeen and sixteen year old A lot of mature
quote unquote mature adults so let's say older adults, they
(13:44):
identified with the Kobe too, so men and women. So
I think that, Um, I think that again is a
tribute to not only his legacy, but the impact that
he had. I don't think one of the things. I
don't think that Kobe would have continued to have that
land seen impact and that and that great residence across
a lot of lines, especially among women, if there wasn't
(14:06):
a sense that Kobe had done as Maya Colpa, I
made a mistake, a bad mistake, but in this case,
I'm gonna try to redeem myself by being the best
person I can be. And I think because of that,
if you notice a lot of women were not hard
on Kobe at the end. Um. Yeah, it was brought
(14:27):
up about what happened in Colorado, the rape accusation and
the trial, but you know that passed. Most of the
focus I saw on Kobe was really two things. One Um,
of course, basketball on the court, I mean that dominated,
But also thought there was a subtext to that. Individuals
like I brought up namely coldly the humanitarian coobly Kobe
(14:50):
the role model for actually doing good and giving back
to the community. I thought that was there too, and
I thought that was emphasized, maybe not as much as
basketball in sports, but nonetheless it was still in the mix.
Heather Carmichael's the executive director of My Friend's Place, a
nonprofit shelter for young homeless people. She says Briant's impact
on the organization will be felt for years. I think
(15:13):
they're Los Angeles will forever feel his absence. But his
action I think created momentum and built bridges in ways
that I can't really speak to it as a void
(15:35):
um for my Friends Place, because he opened eyes, he
opened doors, he opened people's hearts in ways that I
don't think can be shut again. I guess like on
an individual level, some people might have turned away, but
(15:57):
it was a game changer for or a champion to say,
look at this issue, we cannot tolerate Los Angeles to
not pull this into greater focus and greater action. So yeah,
(16:20):
I don't sense the void there. And he was one
of the early kind of champions to like associate his name,
And you know, I think folks that have stages have
contemplated how to associate their names with different causes, and
(16:42):
I just feel like maybe there risk cause analysis hadn't
afforded people to like really think about the brilliance of
associating themselves with such a humanitarian issue in our own backyard.
(17:05):
And I never saw his hesitation to do that right,
And maybe there was a lot of contemplation that came
before um I got to meet him and his team
and Vanessa. But the moment he stepped into my Friend's place,
(17:26):
I got to see that fire in his eye and
the the willingness, and it just like everything made sense,
Like there's this extraordinary moment of like I was hesitant,
Like right, I didn't know Kobe. And my role in
my responsibility uh here at my friends place is to
(17:49):
ensure that we offer the young people the greatest amount
of protection that we can as it comes to our
community association shion with both the community and young people.
So I, I admittedly was a little bit suspect, But again,
the moment they walked in the door, I saw his
(18:11):
genuine interest in being a champion for ending homelessness. And
then he sat at this table with these young people
that saw him as hero. He could have maintained that
edge with them, but he sat at that table as
someone that was genuinely like taking these young people in
(18:37):
one their admiration for him, But he didn't stop there.
He listened to who they were, what their dreams were,
and what the consequences of their circumstances of being homeless,
and he synthesized the that those experiences and then turned
(18:57):
to the media that a way did him as he
announced their family foundation, and he expressed what he heard
from those young people in such real connected not artificial,
not like objectifying. He understood what homelessness meant to those
(19:23):
young people, but also didn't diminish them to their circumstances.
He saw them in very whole ways, just like I
bet he did with every young person he mentored on
a court. He won my heart in that moment coming up.
Those who worked with him knew him and knew of him.
(19:44):
Remember the day of the helicopter crash as the death
in Life of Kobe Bryant continues, m Kurt Alexander, otherwise
(20:05):
known as Big Boy. It was a close friend of Bryant's.
We heard earlier about the friendship the two shared, but
he also remembers the morning of the crash. You know
it was. It was a Sunday, and Kanye West does
the thing called uh uh Sunday What what? What is it?
It's uh Sunday Sunday Service. Sun cleverly hited there in
the Sunday service. So I was at Sunday Service with
(20:26):
you know, with my family and Kanye and everybody, and
we were just happy to be driving home. And I
was driving. My wife was sitting next to me, and
she said she got a phone call and I heard
her say Kobe died. And instantly I'm like looking at her,
like Kobe die and this she was like, what happened?
In my head? You know, your mind goes so fast.
(20:47):
I'm thinking so many different scenarios and is this a
real phone call? But it was my daughter calling from
one car to the car that we were in, which
was behind my daughter's car as far as you know,
being with their friends. When I heard that, it just
felt so surreal. It just felt unbelievable. Like from that
(21:08):
point on, I don't even remember any of the words.
I don't remember the traffic, I don't remember what was
the next you know lane, you know the road that
we were getting off of. Like everything became just just
a blur. Because Kobe is one of those guys that
you just felt like he was gonna live forever or
you know, like it wasn't gonna be you know, an
(21:28):
instant thing when you get a phone call while you're
riding with your family. So that was on a Sunday.
What was your show like on that Monday? Horrible? My
show was horrible. It was because it was live, it
was Los Angeles. It was putting people on that probably
never thought they would be on the air before because
(21:49):
they didn't thought they had didn't have a reason, and
they never thought that they would be on the air
talking about Kobe Bryant. We just opened up the phone
lines and we let the people speak, and you heard,
I mean not just from us, because we were in
here bawling. We were crying. You heard it in every
phone call. There was no phone tap that day. There
(22:10):
was no funniness, there was you know, it was just
it was we were all very emotional that day. And
and and it's crazy because I have shows. This is
my twenty seventh year of radio, and I have shows
that I can remember, and that's called back to me
all the time. The day my mom passed and I
(22:32):
came on air to announce that my mother died, Tupac
passing Nipsey, Hustle, passing Kobe Bryant passing out. Of all
the shows that I've done, those are the shows that
always come back, you know. And with pocket was I
announced to Los Angeles. So people remember that, old man,
when you announced when not eleven happened, we were live.
(22:54):
We announced that people had some time with Nipsey, people
have some time with Kobe. And no matter if it
was you know, eighteen hours the next day or something
like that, people were very emotional on air with us.
We we didn't know how to we even now I
can't digest it. So the next day we weren't ready,
(23:16):
you know, but it was beautiful, not beautiful radio. It
was a beautiful day to also celebrate. But the day
that we just steve we came together. You could feel it.
You could feel it. You I mean everyone in the room.
Of course, this is you know, pre pandemic. So everyone
in the room just red eyed. Everybody's crying, the callers
(23:39):
like and just silence on, letting people take their time.
You know. It was it was. It was a show
that I would never forget. Their car Michael worked with
Bryant and his wife Vanessa, my friend's Place, a shelter
for young homeless people. She too remembers hearing about the accident.
(24:02):
I was training my friends Place runs the l A
Marathon as one of our fundraising and community building endeavors
um I it was my first full marathon, and I
was out training and my phone. I could feel the
texts coming through, but you know, I'm listening to music.
(24:24):
I'm trying to, like go on a really long run,
and finally I just stopped and took in those texts
and standing in the middle of I don't even remember
where I think I might have been in the still
a and just being overwhelmed and so sad for Vanessa
(24:48):
and her family, and just like feeling the collective loss
for Los Angeles. I didn't know that I would be
so impacted. Um, but really, you know, one being touched
by his being nous and his generosity and the bigness
(25:12):
of his presence and just the realness of his kindness
and how that is as like it's a part of
our social fabric. And I guess I felt that tear
in that moment. Author and civil rights leader Earlfari Hutchinson
(25:34):
says he was in his car inside his garage when
he heard about the helicopter crash and he couldn't believe it.
And uh, I'm, you know, doing a little surfing on
my cell phone looking at some of the news. Now
here's here's where it gets. Really I'm laughing. I mean
I'm laughing almost because it's there's apothos here about this.
(25:56):
So I catched his news item Sunday. This is Sunday.
I catch his news item. Uh, Kobe Bryant killed in
the crash. I laughed. I'll tell you why I laugh
because you know, on the internet you get so much
of this stuff. Celebrities dies, celebrities doing that. I mean,
I've seen so much of that. People are, you know,
with their sardonic humor, they put all this crap up there.
(26:17):
So I said it. So I laughed at it. I said,
God but um, and I've kind of dismissed it. But
about five or ten minutes later on online and of
course the c ann headline, and then that was a shock.
What I thought was a gag, a very poor chase gag,
a very sard donni you know, pathological gag that somebody
(26:41):
put it I thought put on the internet. Well it
turned out to be the truth. It was a shock.
I said, this cannot be. It cannot be for several reasons. One,
I mean, when you look at Kobe, I mean, it's
not like he's you know, ninety years old, you know,
in the walker and a wheel chair. When you look
at him, you still thinking of me as a young
guy on the work. I mean, that's the image of
you have you have with with Kobe. That was the
(27:04):
first thing that was the biggest part of the shot.
He would be one of the last people on the
planet I would think would go that way. The second
thing is the way he died right in our own backyard,
right here in l A County. So all of these
things came together. I think that that really dramatized, at
least in my mind, the shock aspect of it. And
I have to confess, you know, I'm an NFL guy.
(27:26):
Football is my thing, you know, not really basketball. Um,
you know, I'd pay some attention to it. But still
it touched me from a human standpoint only because not
the sports, not the sports, just the tragedy of a
young man in the prime of life losing his life
like that and doubling down his daughter and dub tripling
(27:51):
down you. It wasn't just them. He had others involved
too in the crash, so it was a loss of
It was a tragedy all the way around and affected
many families, Kobe Bryant and many of the other families
that were in that helicopter with him, So um, that
really magnified the tragedy. To me, coming up in episode eight,
(28:17):
I think there's two legacies that Coby leaves behind. One
is of grit, and then I think the second, though
he didn't express it as such, was love. The legacy
of a man, father, husband in basketball legend. The Death
and Life of Kobe Bryant is a production of t
(28:38):
f I News at I Heeart Media, Los Angeles for
the I Heart podcast network.
Kobe Bryant's talents on the court were obvious and unmatched,
But what about his work off the court. He's talked
about the need to combat violence in the community. He
also talked about police abuse and police misconduct, so he
was talking about violence across the board. That to me
indicated someone that had a social consciousness, of social awareness.
(00:34):
I'm Steve Gregory and this is the death and life
of Kobe Bryant. Well known writer and civil rights leader
Earl o'fari Hutchinson lives in Los Angeles and says he's
(00:56):
not much of a basketball fan, but he is a
fan of Iyant, mostly for what Briant wasn't known for
would intrigue me was oftentimes was miss with individuals like
a Kobe Bryant, namely what do they do off the court?
One thing that struck me and and reading some of
the common charities and some of the articles in pieces
(01:17):
after Kobe, you know, after the tragedy, he made a
statement and this is what really caught my eye, and
ear he said, life is more I'm paraphrasing, life is
more than just putting the ball in a hoop. Now
I reflected on that and I said wait a minute,
there's some depth here, there's some consciousness here, there's some understanding. Look,
(01:39):
I gotta have a life, and there's a world outside
the sports arena, the basketball court, the superstar celebrity thing
that you know, most people relate to him as namely,
I have to deal with people or I want to
deal with people namely, and many people have problems and
we long checklist of things from you know, I mean housing,
(01:59):
the eats, food, um, poverty, all the things that you
know confront many, many people. So it seemed to me
that Kobe Bryant was getting something about I want to help.
I want to be a part of that. I want
to use my fame, in my celebrity hood, I want
to use that for good, um, to help humanity. That's
(02:22):
what intrigued me about him, and that's what I wanted
to write about. So I began looking at things and
I remember from a personal experience, UM Nipsey Hustle. Kobe
Nipsey was doing things, well, a number of things in
the community, but one thing he was really trying to
deal with the whole issue of violence in the community.
So they had a series of forums that Nipsey Hustle
(02:44):
put on. Kobe became to that and he talked about,
you know, the need to combat violence in the community,
and he also went a little bit further. He also
talked about police abuse and police misconduct and police find
So he was talking about violence across the board. And
so that to me indicated someone that had a social consciousness,
(03:05):
a social awareness. I felt that that is the thing
that needed to be spotlighted. I felt I did not
want to see that get lost in the adulation and
the recriminations, uh, and the tears and the sadness and
the tragedy, which I mean is legitimate, But I thought
there was more than Kobe Bryant, and quite frankly still
do okayr L Los Angeles is ONOD syndicated radio personality.
(03:38):
Kurt Alexander, otherwise known as Big Boy, was a close
friend of Bryan Bryant was a frequent guest on Alexander's
morning show, Big Boy's Neighborhood here in Los Angeles. Alexander
says Bryant was more to l A than just basketball.
You know what, man, It gave it gave people something
to believe in. And not only was there something shiny
(03:59):
like Kobe always said you know, hard work. You know,
we rooted for him, and so many people love Kobe Bryant.
But it's different when it's your own too, and and
it's an example being shown to the world, and it's
a positive example. It's a person that works hard. So
we would see those kind of things that I've done
(04:21):
a lot of things with Kobe that was you know,
it wasn't about radio. It was about feeding the community,
you know, taking care of the home. It's like Kobe
was very big on that. I was taken her back
by really how authentic his interest and commitment to and
(04:47):
the homelessness was. Another Carmichael is the executive director of
My Friend's Place in Hollywood, a nonprofit dedicated to helping
young people who were dealing with homelessness. Carmichael remembers how
Brian became interested in her organization so many years ago.
Um I think when he and Vanessa were leaving the
Staples Center and really starting to see homelessness right outside
(05:14):
in the Staples Center. Like right, I can only imagine
what it was like to win a game, being that
state of euphoria, being a champion for Los Angeles, a
revered person, and then to pull out and see people
sleeping on the sidewalk. I can like, I think that
contrast really caught his attention. Um and as he went on,
(05:38):
I think what was a learning journey about what the
issue was and looking for organizations that were effective and
having impact in their exploration of the youth population. I
was told that all heads nodded towards my friends place.
(06:01):
I feel incredibly like honored and grateful that the community
pointed Kobe and Vanessa our direction because their impact here
uh continues to this day. I knew that he understood
those young people, and I could see his sense of
(06:23):
responsibility of not using them for that moment. And then
he came back, and then he brought his community in
like right as it wasn't only about he and Vanessa
in that moment and having a stage to talk about
their interests in philanthropy and their launch of their family foundation,
(06:47):
which was beautiful unto itself. But then he invited his
friends and associates that our leaders in Los Angeles that
had the resources is to be able to invest in
organizations to be a part of the game changing of it.
So yes, he off the walk and he invited people
(07:10):
to step up alongside of him coming up a look
at how Bryant's darkest days were a wake up called
to young black men everywhere as the death and life
of Kobe Bryant continued. Earl Lafari Hutchinson is a well
(07:51):
known author, commentator, and civil rights leader in Los Angeles.
Hutchinson says he's not much of a fan of basketball,
but considers Bryant a role model, especially for young African
American men. He points out that Brian's sexual assault case
in Colorado became a pivotal moment for a lot of reasons.
It was a blessing and the curse. The curse was
if you're talking about the accusation of rape in the
(08:13):
trial in Colorado, that was a curas that had happened.
The blessing it is that had happened. Now it sounds
like what are you saying. I'm saying exactly that it
happened at the time. So basically you're talking about a
young guy who faced the situation that was essentially it
could have been career threatening. Um certainly it was not
(08:37):
life affirming, but it was threatening and it was a
wake up call for him. And I know we all
noticed after that decades after that. Uh, Kobe was an
examply individual. I mean it really was a thing to
wait a minute, this happened early. It caught him when
it was early. It was a shock. It was a
(08:58):
wake up call. And I think that did was it
alerted him. Look, I am a role model. Millions of
people watch me, millions of people judge me, and more importantly,
millions of people look up to me. So I've got
to start acting responsibly. I've got to start acting responsibly
first and foremost in the home, my wife, my family.
(09:19):
And then also too, I have I have an obligation
to the fans. You know, the fans. Um even though
they over inflate. I feel athletes and their importance grossly
over inflate them. But it is what it is. So
the fact is they are idolatrized, these superstar athletes. People
(09:39):
do look up to them, and especially I think Kobe
was aware that so many young African American males were
looking to him because the identification with basketball, sports and
so forth. So I think all of that came together
in kind of a perfect storm. Um, I have to
be a good role model. Um. I learned a lesson,
and he asked he did learn from that, Because you know,
(10:02):
we have seen a number of celebrities and a number
of athletes that continue to do things, continue to shoot
themselves in the foot, continue to be their own worst enemies.
They haven't learned a damn thing. But he was different.
He did learn from that, and the proof of that
is it never happened again. I don't remember anything after
that of anything that we could call scandal, personal, involving morals, uh,
(10:28):
involving political, involving social, any kind of scandal. I don't
recall any of that. So Kobe had almost a two
decade run after that of basically exemplary behavior. But I
think the more important thing is he made up his mind.
I have to learn from this going forward. I still
got a lot of years left with my basketball career,
(10:50):
and I'm going to be looked up to in the
role model. I have to live up to that responsibility.
In many communities, especially the African American communities, because he
was looked up to, they loved this man, They really
respected him. Um, they really identified with him. When I
say they, I mean a lot of young African American males,
I mean they saw him as as emblematic of a
(11:11):
good role model and also a giant sports figure, somebody
that we definitely want to emulate. So I think that
is a void right there. Um, Individuals like a Kobe
Bryant in many ways are very unique and they're almost
I know it's a cliche to say this, but there
are almost irreplaceable in the sense of who can really
(11:31):
step in where they were. Now. That's not to say
that others aren't coming along, but if we've noticed one
thing I haven't seen since the debt were even during
the life of Kobe and of course the death of
Kobe um the kind of agulation that a sports figure
slash community figure. And that's what I put behind Kobe
(11:55):
Bryant had. That's why you saw this great outpouring, uh
of I mean sense of loss. And so I think
over time that loss is going to continue to resonate
because he is irreplaceable. Hutchinson wrote about Bryant's life being
more than basketball and that's how he wants to remember him.
He also says Bryant was a unique role model. I mean,
(12:17):
we talked about African American young males visa v basketball
players in the basketball and corps only because you know,
the NBA is what s the players anyway, African American,
so there's an identification there. But Kobe touched the nerve.
He was not only in this country. He was global.
(12:38):
He had an impact beyond the borders of the United States.
So that that means, and that tells me one thing.
If you're a youth in Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Serbia, uh Germany, Nigeria, Taiwan, Brazil,
you know about the Kobe, you can identify with the
(13:00):
Kobe um and I think that's why there was so
much drama and sadness, you know, after the tragity that
took his LFE, because that identification was global with him.
When you really think about it, how many sports figures
have that global identification. I mean you can really could
him on one hand and still maybe have two or
(13:21):
three fingers left over. But Kobe was one of them.
He was unique in that sense. So, yes, he did
touch a nerve across a lot of strata, and not
just among young people, you know, everybody. I mean, the course,
the arenas aren't filled by you know, nineteen and eighteen
and seventeen and sixteen year old A lot of mature
quote unquote mature adults so let's say older adults, they
(13:44):
identified with the Kobe too, so men and women. So
I think that, Um, I think that again is a
tribute to not only his legacy, but the impact that
he had. I don't think one of the things. I
don't think that Kobe would have continued to have that
land seen impact and that and that great residence across
a lot of lines, especially among women, if there wasn't
(14:06):
a sense that Kobe had done as Maya Colpa, I
made a mistake, a bad mistake, but in this case,
I'm gonna try to redeem myself by being the best
person I can be. And I think because of that,
if you notice a lot of women were not hard
on Kobe at the end. Um. Yeah, it was brought
(14:27):
up about what happened in Colorado, the rape accusation and
the trial, but you know that passed. Most of the
focus I saw on Kobe was really two things. One Um,
of course, basketball on the court, I mean that dominated,
But also thought there was a subtext to that. Individuals
like I brought up namely coldly the humanitarian coobly Kobe
(14:50):
the role model for actually doing good and giving back
to the community. I thought that was there too, and
I thought that was emphasized, maybe not as much as
basketball in sports, but nonetheless it was still in the mix.
Heather Carmichael's the executive director of My Friend's Place, a
nonprofit shelter for young homeless people. She says Briant's impact
on the organization will be felt for years. I think
(15:13):
they're Los Angeles will forever feel his absence. But his
action I think created momentum and built bridges in ways
that I can't really speak to it as a void
(15:35):
um for my Friends Place, because he opened eyes, he
opened doors, he opened people's hearts in ways that I
don't think can be shut again. I guess like on
an individual level, some people might have turned away, but
(15:57):
it was a game changer for or a champion to say,
look at this issue, we cannot tolerate Los Angeles to
not pull this into greater focus and greater action. So yeah,
(16:20):
I don't sense the void there. And he was one
of the early kind of champions to like associate his name,
And you know, I think folks that have stages have
contemplated how to associate their names with different causes, and
(16:42):
I just feel like maybe there risk cause analysis hadn't
afforded people to like really think about the brilliance of
associating themselves with such a humanitarian issue in our own backyard.
(17:05):
And I never saw his hesitation to do that right,
And maybe there was a lot of contemplation that came
before um I got to meet him and his team
and Vanessa. But the moment he stepped into my Friend's place,
(17:26):
I got to see that fire in his eye and
the the willingness, and it just like everything made sense,
Like there's this extraordinary moment of like I was hesitant,
Like right, I didn't know Kobe. And my role in
my responsibility uh here at my friends place is to
(17:49):
ensure that we offer the young people the greatest amount
of protection that we can as it comes to our
community association shion with both the community and young people.
So I, I admittedly was a little bit suspect, But again,
the moment they walked in the door, I saw his
(18:11):
genuine interest in being a champion for ending homelessness. And
then he sat at this table with these young people
that saw him as hero. He could have maintained that
edge with them, but he sat at that table as
someone that was genuinely like taking these young people in
(18:37):
one their admiration for him, But he didn't stop there.
He listened to who they were, what their dreams were,
and what the consequences of their circumstances of being homeless,
and he synthesized the that those experiences and then turned
(18:57):
to the media that a way did him as he
announced their family foundation, and he expressed what he heard
from those young people in such real connected not artificial,
not like objectifying. He understood what homelessness meant to those
(19:23):
young people, but also didn't diminish them to their circumstances.
He saw them in very whole ways, just like I
bet he did with every young person he mentored on
a court. He won my heart in that moment coming up.
Those who worked with him knew him and knew of him.
(19:44):
Remember the day of the helicopter crash as the death
in Life of Kobe Bryant continues, m Kurt Alexander, otherwise
(20:05):
known as Big Boy. It was a close friend of Bryant's.
We heard earlier about the friendship the two shared, but
he also remembers the morning of the crash. You know
it was. It was a Sunday, and Kanye West does
the thing called uh uh Sunday What what? What is it?
It's uh Sunday Sunday Service. Sun cleverly hited there in
the Sunday service. So I was at Sunday Service with
(20:26):
you know, with my family and Kanye and everybody, and
we were just happy to be driving home. And I
was driving. My wife was sitting next to me, and
she said she got a phone call and I heard
her say Kobe died. And instantly I'm like looking at her,
like Kobe die and this she was like, what happened?
In my head? You know, your mind goes so fast.
(20:47):
I'm thinking so many different scenarios and is this a
real phone call? But it was my daughter calling from
one car to the car that we were in, which
was behind my daughter's car as far as you know,
being with their friends. When I heard that, it just
felt so surreal. It just felt unbelievable. Like from that
(21:08):
point on, I don't even remember any of the words.
I don't remember the traffic, I don't remember what was
the next you know lane, you know the road that
we were getting off of. Like everything became just just
a blur. Because Kobe is one of those guys that
you just felt like he was gonna live forever or
you know, like it wasn't gonna be you know, an
(21:28):
instant thing when you get a phone call while you're
riding with your family. So that was on a Sunday.
What was your show like on that Monday? Horrible? My
show was horrible. It was because it was live, it
was Los Angeles. It was putting people on that probably
never thought they would be on the air before because
(21:49):
they didn't thought they had didn't have a reason, and
they never thought that they would be on the air
talking about Kobe Bryant. We just opened up the phone
lines and we let the people speak, and you heard,
I mean not just from us, because we were in
here bawling. We were crying. You heard it in every
phone call. There was no phone tap that day. There
(22:10):
was no funniness, there was you know, it was just
it was we were all very emotional that day. And
and and it's crazy because I have shows. This is
my twenty seventh year of radio, and I have shows
that I can remember, and that's called back to me
all the time. The day my mom passed and I
(22:32):
came on air to announce that my mother died, Tupac
passing Nipsey, Hustle, passing Kobe Bryant passing out. Of all
the shows that I've done, those are the shows that
always come back, you know. And with pocket was I
announced to Los Angeles. So people remember that, old man,
when you announced when not eleven happened, we were live.
(22:54):
We announced that people had some time with Nipsey, people
have some time with Kobe. And no matter if it
was you know, eighteen hours the next day or something
like that, people were very emotional on air with us.
We we didn't know how to we even now I
can't digest it. So the next day we weren't ready,
(23:16):
you know, but it was beautiful, not beautiful radio. It
was a beautiful day to also celebrate. But the day
that we just steve we came together. You could feel it.
You could feel it. You I mean everyone in the room.
Of course, this is you know, pre pandemic. So everyone
in the room just red eyed. Everybody's crying, the callers
(23:39):
like and just silence on, letting people take their time.
You know. It was it was. It was a show
that I would never forget. Their car Michael worked with
Bryant and his wife Vanessa, my friend's Place, a shelter
for young homeless people. She too remembers hearing about the accident.
(24:02):
I was training my friends Place runs the l A
Marathon as one of our fundraising and community building endeavors
um I it was my first full marathon, and I
was out training and my phone. I could feel the
texts coming through, but you know, I'm listening to music.
(24:24):
I'm trying to, like go on a really long run,
and finally I just stopped and took in those texts
and standing in the middle of I don't even remember
where I think I might have been in the still
a and just being overwhelmed and so sad for Vanessa
(24:48):
and her family, and just like feeling the collective loss
for Los Angeles. I didn't know that I would be
so impacted. Um, but really, you know, one being touched
by his being nous and his generosity and the bigness
(25:12):
of his presence and just the realness of his kindness
and how that is as like it's a part of
our social fabric. And I guess I felt that tear
in that moment. Author and civil rights leader Earlfari Hutchinson
(25:34):
says he was in his car inside his garage when
he heard about the helicopter crash and he couldn't believe it.
And uh, I'm, you know, doing a little surfing on
my cell phone looking at some of the news. Now
here's here's where it gets. Really I'm laughing. I mean
I'm laughing almost because it's there's apothos here about this.
(25:56):
So I catched his news item Sunday. This is Sunday.
I catch his news item. Uh, Kobe Bryant killed in
the crash. I laughed. I'll tell you why I laugh
because you know, on the internet you get so much
of this stuff. Celebrities dies, celebrities doing that. I mean,
I've seen so much of that. People are, you know,
with their sardonic humor, they put all this crap up there.
(26:17):
So I said it. So I laughed at it. I said,
God but um, and I've kind of dismissed it. But
about five or ten minutes later on online and of
course the c ann headline, and then that was a shock.
What I thought was a gag, a very poor chase gag,
a very sard donni you know, pathological gag that somebody
(26:41):
put it I thought put on the internet. Well it
turned out to be the truth. It was a shock.
I said, this cannot be. It cannot be for several reasons. One,
I mean, when you look at Kobe, I mean, it's
not like he's you know, ninety years old, you know,
in the walker and a wheel chair. When you look
at him, you still thinking of me as a young
guy on the work. I mean, that's the image of
you have you have with with Kobe. That was the
(27:04):
first thing that was the biggest part of the shot.
He would be one of the last people on the
planet I would think would go that way. The second
thing is the way he died right in our own backyard,
right here in l A County. So all of these
things came together. I think that that really dramatized, at
least in my mind, the shock aspect of it. And
I have to confess, you know, I'm an NFL guy.
(27:26):
Football is my thing, you know, not really basketball. Um,
you know, I'd pay some attention to it. But still
it touched me from a human standpoint only because not
the sports, not the sports, just the tragedy of a
young man in the prime of life losing his life
like that and doubling down his daughter and dub tripling
(27:51):
down you. It wasn't just them. He had others involved
too in the crash, so it was a loss of
It was a tragedy all the way around and affected
many families, Kobe Bryant and many of the other families
that were in that helicopter with him, So um, that
really magnified the tragedy. To me, coming up in episode eight,
(28:17):
I think there's two legacies that Coby leaves behind. One
is of grit, and then I think the second, though
he didn't express it as such, was love. The legacy
of a man, father, husband in basketball legend. The Death
and Life of Kobe Bryant is a production of t
(28:38):
f I News at I Heeart Media, Los Angeles for
the I Heart podcast network.
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