8 24
Lakers.com
“...and at guard standing at 6’6” from Lower Merion High School, number 24 Kobe Bryant”
Whether you loved him or hated him, during his 20 years in the NBA his name was brought up almost daily. The young basketball phenom that decided to skip college to go into the NBA draft; is he big enough, can he handle the pressure, is he all hype or is he the real deal, is he this arrogant?. From 1996 through 2016 he proved the critics wrong time and time again, the determination that Kobe had as an 18 year old kid fresh out of high school to be the best basketball player (ever) is seen in the work put in every season. In his final game, 3 years removed from the achilles tear, with nothing to play for but his legacy, kobe gave us 60 points, and on December 18th, 2017 the Los Angeles Lakers Retired Both of his jersey numbers.
I'm a fan, have been since his rookie season, and Kobe was just one of a few athletes I call my childhood heroes. As a B-boy I drew inspiration from athletes, especially ones I looked up to, and Kobe, or rather, Kobe's legendary work ethic inspired me to be my biggest critic in practice. Even until now when I can go to practice my first thoughts are "How would Kobe approach this", i'm not even kidding, while im stretching, listening to the music, i'm meditating thinking about moves and drills I want to run for practice. So why, as a b-boy, does Kobe inspire me so much? Basketball is my first love, before bboying, before hip hop, basketball was/is my first love. I was too young to remember Micheal Jordan's early years, but was old enough to see MJ win 3 more championships while Kobe was coming up in the league. Kobe IS my favorite basketball player with MJ a very close 2nd and Allen Iverson 3rd, and this is why as a b-boy Kobe inspires me. Not the fadeaway, not the clutch shots, not the 81 points, it was the work ethic and his approach.
Number 8 made me a fan, 24 made me appreciate the game. I typed this in a comment thread on a post where they couldn't decide which Kobe was their favorite. For me the kid wearing the numbers were at different times in my life, number 8 is my child hood, the one I watched win 3 championships with Shaq and the gang, the one that won the slam dunk contest his rookie year. The guy wearing 24 to me was my adolescent years, the one that won olympic gold twice, won 2 more NBA championships, and showed us 10 years after his rookie year that he still had 'it" for 10 more years. All this was possible because of the work he put in when the cameras weren't on him, making the stories of his workouts that much more legendary. This is what inspires me about Kobe, number 8, number 24, you don't see him doing the work but you see on paper, on film the work that he put in (makes sense?). Which in turn, inspired a whole generation of current NBA players to be or try to be just as great a basketball player as he was. But there will only be ONE Kobe Bryant, I mean come on, I think he's literally the only NBA player with 2 retired jersey numbers, sheesh!
Cheers Kobe, thank you.
-RAWfiki
Below are the shoes I work for that week that the Los Angeles Lakers retired Kobe's number. I did this as part of my weekly rotation of not repeating a shoe until I've worn everything in my shoe collection. GO LAKERS!
