Today, when I heard that Kobe Bryant died, along with his daughter, Gianna, our whole family paused. Then we stopped altogether. We huddled around the television, and I checked Twitter only to find the platform overwhelmed with users. My husband, who was traveling, told me how people were just shocked everywhere.
I’m not even a huge NBA basketball fan. I didn’t even know that much about Kobe. I had no real connection to him at all, really. But what I did feel, however, was that–like so many sports’ legends– Kobe Bryant was like the background music to our ordinary lives. We always heard about Kobe and the Lakers. We heard about how great he was and how nice. Kobe, like so many other parts of our regular lives, was just there.
So we stop. It’s sobering and heavy. It’s overwhelming and sad. I think about his wife and children and the many young fans who loved him. It was an ordinary day, and then someone legendary was lost.