Healing is different for everyone, and more than one truth can exist at once. ellaceron grapples with the loss of Kobe Bryant as both a someone from LA, and a sexual assault survivor
The first time I met Kobe Bryant was really the only time I met him: I was 8, maybe 9, at a summer camp trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. We heard a rumor that the new Laker, the young one, was somewhere in the theme park, so a group of us decided to find him. It wasn’t difficult: Both he and his guards were instantly visible to elementary school kids, who didn’t know how to differentiate between tallness and greatness.
Growing up in Los Angeles meant Kobe was part of your life more often than not, a celebrity so omnipresent that it felt like you knew him personally. He was everywhere: TV, newspapers, bumper stickers, shoes. Try to count the people in his jersey on any given day, even now, and you’d lose track. People recited his accomplishments on the radio like gospel; partly because it was their job but also because they believed in him.
He was good, too. Googling Kobe brings up his 81-point game; I was in the stands for a 61-pointer at Madison Square Garden in 2009. A lot has been said about the number of points he accrued in his expansive career, or his footwork, or his sheer force of will to become and remain one of the greats.
Kobe, to me, was the Lakers, not least of all given how he led the team to a total of five NBA championship wins. Coach Phil Jackson was Tío Phil in my house; his ability to bring us rings was both a promise and a foretold conclusion. Los Angeles has the Clippers, too, but the Lakers were legion and legacy. The whole county — all 4,750 square miles — would turn purple and gold the day after a win.
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