Vino — Julio Jaquez / Account Strategist

The tragic event that occurred last Sunday that caused the death of Kobe Bryant, Gigi Bryant, and seven others sparked an array of thoughts that ranged from demoralization, gratitude and disbelief.

I wouldn’t say it was any special Sunday, but that morning, I found myself at work. Personally, Sunday’s are major key. Used for getting my shit together, I saw myself going about my day as such after work. Nearly finished, I checked my phone for the millionth time wondering if my Twitter feed had changed from the last time I checked 3 minutes ago. The first tweet at the top of my timeline read,

“Kobe ???”

Instantly, I jumped to the conclusion that he and Nike had released a shoe. As I kept scrolling, nothing fed my questions. I figured that if I just went to the ‘Trending’ tab, I would have to guess no more. Mind you, this realization was all in the span of I’d say, probably 10 - 15 seconds. After reading the shocking news, I finally found out that Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash at the age of 41. I stood there completely shocked, just wondering how something like this could happen or how legitimate the news reports had been. I think the only other time I had been this startled was during the reporting of Michael Jackson’s death. Similarities in between both, I realized how quickly the news had traveled and how the entire world was taken aback. Roughly a week since his passing, I’ve bathed in these feelings that still I failed to articulate. Kobe’s passing shocked me internally because of the long-lasting relationship I have had with him throughout my adolescence and throughout the entirety of my development as an “adult”.

The youngest player in league history to ever reach 30,000 points, a 5x NBA Champion, and one of the greatest to ever play the game, Bryant has made it apparent that his greatness has transcended beyond basketball.

Bryant entered the NBA directly from high school and his career has spanned a 20-season stretch. It would be a disservice to try and touch on each one of Bryant’s accolades within the game of basketball so I’ll focus on the ones that have contributed to my development as a human being and will forever remain as an inspiration to how I live my life.

As an eight year-old who would lay his life on the line for the Portland Trailblazers, I can still vividly remember why it was that I hated Kobe Bryant and the Lakers and can still recall where much of this animosity materialized from. Much of the love I had for the Trailblazers came from my family’s admiration for the team and the consistent watching of their games that featured rosters that included the Vanilla Gorilla Joel Przybilla, Brandon Roy, Gerald Wallace, and our favorite Rudy Fernandez. Our family fully embraced being Blazer fans through the ups and downs, mostly downs, but at school, any mishap the Blazers experienced was the topic of discussion at the lunch table the next day.

Anytime the Blazers were pitted against the Lakers, the discussions were amplified. I had two friends who I particularly enjoyed bickering with, one who was a Kobe die-hard and the other who was a bronsexual. Just picture 6 to 7 year olds intensely arguing with one another about the Blazers and Lakers rivalry, yelling over each other, occasionally attacking each other personally, and spilling their hearts out onto the lunch tables that sustained our lunch bags, the few thermoses filled with chicken noodle soup, and the milk cartons we reluctantly paid .25 cents for. Many of the disputes included me explicitly saying that the Lakers and Kobe sucked, which is where much of my hatred for him stemmed from. I realized I had no argument against one of the greatest franchises of all-time or one of the greatest to ever play the game especially when I stood in the Trailblazers’ corner. It was clear that the Blazer sucked, but I had to go down swinging. I had to stand my ground and let it be known who the gritty, scrappy, and relentless Trailblazers were. These arguments continued and so did the structuring of the hate I had for the Lakers and Kobe Bryant.

Coming into college, I was in search of role models and dissecting potential blueprints that have ultimately led to success. I sought after inspirations that could help guide me throughout these next 4 years. I realized that many of the characteristics or lifestyles of my early inspirations didn’t resonate with me or my ambitions. For example, Michael Jordan was an early inspiration of mine. Jordan is the embodiment of a champion with his on-the-court and off-the-court success. His success as a six-time NBA champion has led to the creation of his billion dollar empire, and has lived as an inspiration to millions of people. No disrespect, but as I grew older, I realized that his gambling problem, drinking problem, and his reputation for being a shitty teammate were aspects of his blueprint that I didn’t want to incorporate into mine. I shifted gears and decided to tap into who I really wanted to look up to.

As I searched for role-models, it turns out that one of them was living rent-free in my head throughout much of my life. I began to study Kobe Bryant, his work ethic, his killer instinct, his monk-like discipline, and the “mamba mentality” which has become the basis of his legacy. Many of the characteristics he embodied resonated with me and I knew that I wanted to live out the rest of my life like Kobe Bean Bryant. I relentlessly pursue this vision of success that I have for myself, but I understand that in order to accomplish that, there are various things that must be fine-tuned before I even deserve a sliver of the success I hope to attain.

What inspires me even more than his success on-the-court and his ferocity, is that Bryant has transcended the game of basketball and tapped into other areas of his own personal interests. Along with his versatility, it seems that he brought that “mamba mentality” along with him in whatever he touched. Bryant was not only a champion, but a successful business-man, Academy-Award winning story-teller, and evidently, has become an inspiration to millions of people. Ultimately, I love that Bryant has gotten better with age. The nickname Vino doesn’t come from nowhere.

“At 42, be better than 24”

- JAY -Z on Primetime