By Dina Morrone
Because we are a Los Angeles based magazine, I would be remiss in not saying something about the death of LA’s beloved star Kobe Bryant. Kobe has been a part of the Los Angeles scene for the past 23 years, having played his entire 20-year professional career with the LA Lakers basketball team.
Kobe wasn’t just one of the best basketball players to have ever played, or a global sports superstar. He was also a great humanitarian and very active in many philanthropic causes. Kobe was the official ambassador for After School All-Stars, a national charity that provides after-school programs to 72,000 inner-city kids. For the past 20 years, he was very active with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, granting more than 250 wishes for children battling life-threatening illnesses. And he helped raise money for those with Cancer through, Stand Up To Cancer. All money raised went directly towards research and medical expenses. The Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation is one of Kobe’s most impactful philanthropic works. He and his wife, Vanessa, started the foundation to improve the lives of young people and their families. KVBF provides scholarships and operates Mamba FC, a youth soccer club that teaches young athletes how to become leaders and independent thinkers through sports. Since 2011, he partnered with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Step Up on Second, and homeless youth drop-in center, My Friend’s Place, to provide comprehensive services to homeless kids in Los Angeles. And he has donated at least $1 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Along with his wife, they are one of the museum’s founding donors.
Other charities include Vijay Amritraj Foundation, Aid Still Required, and Cathy’s Kid’s Foundation.
Kobe supported many causes including, Adoption, Fostering, Orphans, AIDs & HIV, At-Risk/Disadvantaged Youths, Blood, Marrow & Organ Donation, Cancer, Children, Disaster Relief, Education, Family/Parent Support, Women, Health Mental Challenges, and Physical Challenges. And he was also a passionate practitioner of meditation and mindfulness, increasing his concentration through breathing.
The business of sports is about competition, to see who is the best. It’s big business, but to us, the viewer, it’s pure entertainment. Sports celebrities are entertainers, just like actors and movie stars, singers, dancers, and rock stars. They come into our living rooms through the television, our cell phone, and computer screens, up on stage, the big screen in theaters, music libraries, or in hard copy magazines. We watch them, study them, and emulate them because sometimes we want to be just like them. We wear their number, their jersey, or dress like them. We develop this strange imaginary one-sided relationship with them because they become a part of our life, a part of our family. We refer to them by their first name because we think we know them.
We follow their careers, their trajectory, even their personal lives. When they win or have success we rejoice, we cheer, and sometimes we even cry tears of joy. Why? Because we have grown so attached to them. We are happy for them. Through watching them do what they do, we create so many of our own special memories. Think about the time you watched your favorite actor win an Academy Award, or your favorite singer win a Grammy, or your favorite Musical win a Tony. Or when you watched an athlete from your country win a Gold Medal at the Olympics, or you cheered your soccer team on as they went on to win the World Cup. Or the time you were a child and sat next to your grandfather when he watched his favorite baseball player hit a home run to win the World Series. And he cried. You remember all those moments. They stay with you.
It’s a rather strange one-sided relationship we have with our sports stars and celebrities. So when a celebrity or a larger than life sports star dies, young, tragically, and unexpectedly, we are very sad, we mourn their passing, because we feel that we knew them quite well and for a long time, even though they had no idea who we were or that we even existed. But none of that matters to us because that’s just the way it is. And we’re okay with it.
And with that, I say, thank you, Kobe, for all the memories. And thank you to All who entertain us, and make each day a little brighter.
