Coffee and Conversations: Brewing Life Stories, One Post at a Time
Before I start pouring in my emotions about the recent helicopter crash that happened in Calabasas, California, which took the lives of Kobe Bryant and several other people, I want to disclose that I am not a basketball fan. The truth is that I grew up hearing his name from the boys in our family or from my classmates in High School and College. Even when I went to graduate school, I still hear and witness my schoolmates talk about how great he is. However, I wasn’t able to follow his basketball career nor his family life. Clearly, this article is coming from someone who rarely knows who Kobe Bryant is but definitely someone who has heard about his success.
Earlier today, as I scrolled for updates on my News Feed, one photo caught my attention. It was Kobe Bryant on a basketball court. He was wearing his infamous Lakers yellow jersey, with a ball on his hand. His face was full of smile, and his mouth was wide open. I have to say that it was a happy photo of someone who is about to make a good shot on the ring. But when I checked the caption, I learned about his untimely death. A basketball legend just died. What is even worse is that he died with his daughter Gianna.
At the same time, one family was also together with them during the helicopter crash. John Altobelli, together with his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa, were among the victims of the accident. With their deaths, two children are now orphaned. John Altobelli is the head baseball coach of Orange Coast College. There were also other passengers in the helicopter crash, whose full names were not yet released as of the time of writing of this post.
Of course, I was saddened by the unfortunate event that took the lives of the remarkable athletes, their loved ones, and other passengers of the helicopter. I immediately remembered that they also left friends and families behind. The worse part of all is that there is nothing that anyone can do to bring back their lives. They are gone. For good. Just like that. The lives of the people who love and care for them will never be the same again.
Now, what will happen to those who were left behind? How are they going to survive this heartbreak? Who will be there to comfort them? What will happen to the people who look up to them? These are just a few of the questions that entered my mind. Indeed, no one is prepared for someone’s passing.
Moreover, there is no easy way to accept this kind of suffering. The kind of pain caused by a loved one’s or an idol’s death is the same for everyone. It is shocking and unbearable. I hope that the loved ones, significant others, family members, friends, and fans can get through this painful moment.
Cliché as it may sound, but I believe that it is always best to make every moment count. We must continue to live life to the fullest. Death is inevitable. We know that it is going to come to anyone at any time. The only question is “When?” No one can predict the exact time that someone will be gone. Because of this, I want to remind everyone of these things:
Spend more quality time with them. Take note that no amount of money, fame, or success can buy back lost time. Even Kobe Bryant, despite his busy schedule and demanding career, never failed to share great moments with everyone in his family. Most of the photos that resurfaced online showed the happy pictures of Kobe Bryant with Gianna, his wife and his other children.
Life is too short to waste it in doing things that do not make you happy at all. Be brave enough to take risks, even if it means starting over again. Take note that there is no time limit for making your dreams come true. Take Kobe Bryant, for example. After he retired from his basketball career, he pursued storytelling. In 2018, he won three awards (Academy Award, Annie Award, and Sports Emmy) for his animated short story entitled “Dear Basketball.” You can make things happen.
“When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself ‘you are a failure,’ I think that is almost worse than dying.”
“Everything negative — pressure, challenges — is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
“I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.”
“When you make a choice and say, ‘Come hell or high water, I am going to be this,’ then you should not be surprised when you are that. It should not be something that is intoxicating or out of character because you have seen this moment for so long that … when that moment comes, of course it is here because it has been here the whole time, because it has been [in your mind] the whole time.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”
“The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”
“The magic in life is finding what it is that you love. That’s the key. When you find that thing that you love, your life makes sense. You wake up in the morning, and life makes sense. And for me, it was basketball. So whenever I went through a hard time – good times, bad times – I always went to the game. That was always my escape, that was always my form of self-expression, communication, how to deal with frustration. It’s always through the game.”
I was at home when I heard the news, around 8pm GMT. I’d just sat down on the sofa for a rest and opened the Instagram app to see a photo of Kobe Bryant and something like ‘RIP to the greatest’ from another NBA player. I was a bit confused, but didn’t want to make any assumptions to opened BBC News where the headline was ‘NBA Legend Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash’.
It’s the first time in my life that I’ve been saddened to the brink of tears on hearing of the death of somebody I never met.
When I was younger a family friend got me into basketball. It’s not that big in the UK. At the time Michael Jordan was at his prime and I loved watching Michael play. Then I remember seeing a young kid – who probably looked the same age as me at the time, ~13 – playing for the LA Lakers and that was it, from that moment on I was a Lakers and Kobe fan.
Since my mid-teens he’s been my idol. He was the greatest player ever to me, and really seems to be a good guy away from the game too.