Kobe at One Year

I hadn't really noticed anyone talking about yesterday being the one-year anniversary of Kobe Bryant's death until later last night so I didn't mention it.  I wouldn't say I was a Kobe "fan" - I'm sure I hated him in the beginning because he was a Laker, but like pretty much everybody else by the end of his career I had a lot of respect for him and enjoyed him becoming a real part of the NBA's legacy. I also liked that after he was done playing he had interests outside of basketball, such as winning an Oscar of whatever he won for some film he made I'll never watch. Was it an Emmy? Who knows, it's impossible to find these things out.

There have been three sporting events I was determined to watch despite not really caring about the sport or team or person in the first place:

1. Wayne Gretzky's final game. I couldn't care less about hockey but since I'd lived on Earth for more than 3 minutes I knew how great Gretzky was so I knew I was watching history, plus it was at The Garden which made it more of an event

2. The women's World Cup final in 1999

3. Kobe's final game, when he went nuts for 60

I have no real idea why I felt compelled to watch Kobe's last game, but I'm glad I did and grew more & more excited every time he scored just like everybody else watching.

One interesting story I heard just this morning was that Kobe decided he wanted to learn piano. But he didn't really "learn piano", he just taught himself to play exactly one song - Moonlight Sonata - perfectly, and that's it. Which of course made me think of the episode of Wings in which at a party, Lowell sits down at the piano and effortlessly knocks out the theme song to Entertainment Tonight. Everybody's floored by this, very impressed, until they realize it's the only song he knows and he plays it over and over, driving them bananas.

Ah yes, those Lowell Mather/Kobe Bryant comparisons...whenever will they end?

"Kobe? Went for 60? I'm on it!"