Grieving Amongst Strangers
The sudden news of Kobe Bryant’s death broke on TMZ Sports, an arm of a larger celebrity tabloid website known for its breaking news accuracy.
Shock and denial hit the internet; prayers up from fans, athletes, and celebrities alike.
Initial reports could not confirm who else was on board. Afterwards, it was reported that among the passengers were college baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife and his daughter, as well as Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who went by “Gigi.”
Molly Knight, a journalist for The Athletic, later reported from the scene:
Knight penned a moving piece in honor of Gigi.
On Facebook, a high school classmate noted “the crash and loss [of life] … is tragic, I am just uncomfortable deifying #24 [Bryant’s jersey number],” with a link to a powerful article written the year Bryant retired from basketball entitled Kobe Bryant’s Rape Charge: I Didn’t Forget, and Neither Should You.
The most poignant and complete reflection of Bryant’s legacy is this obituary in Esquire: It Is a Terrible Irony That Kobe Bryant Should Fall From the Sky.
In a semi-distant past, perhaps when we looked to a familiar anchor on the evening news, or in the corner of the front page of the Times, we heard such news and turned to our friend or our spouse or to simply no one in the room—to lament, to audibly gasp, to slowly shake our heads. The moment would hang in the air and linger for no longer than a few seconds, and then evaporate, unsearchable, unarchivable, impossible to capture and reblog and retweet and rebroadcast.
We may grieve for our own loss. We may grieve for the basketball community’s loss. We may grieve for the families and friends. Perhaps we are a parent, or have a spouse, or have lost, not in a blink-of-an-eye tragedy, but have to say goodbye.
And yet.
It can be difficult to separate the art from the artist. It would be easy to reduce, reduce, and reduce, into an immaculate legacy, an impressive set of numbers for the record books, and an inspiration for current and future players. The reality is not so much a sum that comes out at the end of a receipt, as it is a combination of vectors, arrows pointing in every which way, composing what it means to excel in one area but fail in others. Some failures are more forgivable than others, but that does not diminish the sorrow felt.