It was a emotional day yesterday for myself and fans across my hometown. The day we dreaded had come. It was my favorite players last game. As a person who grew with basketball, it is my first love for sports and my first team and forever team is the legendary NBA Lakers. To many it's just a team, to others they love to hate us, to another famous team we have been long time rivals like any other in sports history. Today however is not about any of that. Today I pay tribute my own way to my favorite team of all time. Purple and gold is forever in my veins. It is because of basketball that helped me through some tough times in my life and I am forever grateful. I did grew to enjoy other sports as well through the Olympics but as I said basketball is my first love.
The best memories many will say "Oh hands down it's the championships". To me however a great team isn't defined by how many championships they have, it's about how they handled themselves through the good, bad, and the ugly. As one of my favorite actors once said...
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”
― Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa
I feel this hands down describes Kobe himself and the Lakers as a team throughout the years. It also reminds me of myself of how no matter what I never back down. Motivation, determination, anger, happiness, all that is just fuel to the fire to never give up. It may be Second Life or Real Life I have been through a lot in both worlds. I never share my personal, this is however a rare moment that I felt I had to. Until we see another legend rise this is farewell to Kobe Bryant #8 #24