Tragic news that 41-year-old basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his beautiful legacy, 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant were killed is sending the world into a moment of silence.
Our hearts ache for Vanessa Bryant, her beautiful daughters, and the entire Bryant family. We will continue to lift them in prayer.
The inseparable pair died in a Calabasas helicopter accident around 10am PST along with everyone else aboard, 9 people total, including the pilot and reports indicate another of Gianna’s teammates, as they headed to their basketball practice.
As we attempt to wrap our heads around the untimely loss of one of the greatest basketball players to ever live, we honor his life, accomplishments, barriers broken and his lessons.
The following quotes—from the Black Mamba himself—are words to live by:
It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.
My brain . . . it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I sit there and have to face myself and tell myself, ‘You’re a failure’ . . . I think that’s almost worse than death.
The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.
If you want to be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be.
I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.
I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.
I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.
I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.
Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.
The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.
Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.
I create my own path. It was straight and narrow. I looked at it this way: you were either in my way, or out of it.
We can always kind of be average and do what’s normal. I’m not in this to do what’s normal.
I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.
If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.
Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.
The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven’t had that fear.
It’s different from being 21 and you think there’s endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.
This is the moment I accept the most challenging times will always be behind me and in front of me.
The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.
