LA Mourns the Demise of Kobe Bryant, Basketball Icon and Activist
Within just hours of Kobe Bryant’s demise, LA was mourning the basketball icon and activist with Kobe’s name showing on commuter trains and city buses. His name popped up in graffiti-spray painted on the walls of the city, while numerous tributes paid just outside the business district of Staples Center, a place that witnessed the pinnacle of Bryant’s fame as one of the prominent names in basketball history.
Bryant’s Latino fans praised the basketball player’s soul and people in the city were grieving his death with many black families wearing Kobe jerseys while walking to their school this Monday first thing in the morning.
Artists painted huge murals
To pay respect to Bryant, LA artists’ painted impressive murals showing the basketball player and his daughter Gianna, who was just 13-years old and died with Bryant. The player’s basketball numbers showed up in an exhibition area of a downtown theater as well as on the ferries wheel of the Santa Monica piers. The city leaders also illuminated the public fountains and buildings in gold and purple, which are the colours of the Lakers, for whom Kobe Bryant played every 20 of his professional basketball seasons.
Bryant touched people’s lives in exceptional ways
Bryant supported the victims of police violence, a stand that many other black athletes took when their existence was in jeopardy. Then, Bryant also contributed funds for the widows and kids of police, who were killed while performing their duty. Kobe was an African-American in the city of Los Angeles and a role model among the black community. The basketball player and the activist was loved and worshipped by the Latinos too, who commended his efforts to learn the Spanish language and hailed Bryant as compa, a short-form of compadre, meaning friend.
Bryant’s philanthropic work
The basketball player established a foundation with Vanessa, his wife, promoting youth sports, basketball and soccer. The foundation also helped many homeless African-Americans to get a roof above their heads, who were homeless in the city.
According to Isaac Bryan, who is in charge of directing the Black Policy Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, Bryan was not only a basketball champion but also a stalwart of the community ahead of athleticism.
The death of Bryant a great loss for African-Americans
Bryant’s demise is a great loss for the black population in the city and the news of his death came as a shock merely 10 months after Nipsey Hussle. Nipsey was an LA rap artist as well as a social activist, shot dead when he was just 33 years old.
In the age of immense political and social division, Kobe’s potential to relate to people from diverse walks of life, backgrounds, and opinions helped him in making an outstanding name and personality in LA. Bryant could mix and interact easily with other celebs, and just like the son of one more specialized basketball player, who had every benefit growing up.
Final words
Bryant was more than a basketball player, who walked the extra mile to figure out how he could use his popularity and celeb status to work for the causes he so deeply believed.