KOBE by: Chol Souders
This one hit me a little different. Maybe it was because of the sudden way that it happened or maybe it was just because of where I am in my personal life. Maybe it was the fact that we both grew up in the Philly metro area and that he was a senior in high school when I was a freshman. It could be because I knew of him since I was 12 years old and he was a local high school basketball phenom that people referred to as “ the next great one from Philly”. I’m sure all of this played a factor but I will tell you what hit me the most was the images of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gigi. To me Kobe was always an icon. I first started following him when I read a season outlook about the best players in Philadelphia when I was 12 years old. At this point I was basically living at the neighborhood basketball courts and all levels of basketball caught my interest. My friends and I would watch local high school, college, or NBA games and often would record them on VHS in order to be abl