“You’ve Got to Do What You Love to Do.”
What more can you say at this point? Upon retirement, we’ve heard all about Kobe’s career and accolades and upon his untimely death on Sunday, we’ve heard more about Kobe the human, the coach, the father.
I forgot who said this since so much of the coverage has sort of blended together but basically ‘a measure of one’s greatness is the ability to affect people in a memorable way, despite never meeting them.”
I opened my laptop at 1:20 pm last Sunday. My goal, as I settled into a neighborhood coffee shop, was to finish up some portfolio stuff and finish a post that I’ve yet again put off finishing. Like anytime, before trying to be productive, I open up Twitter first, check some trending topics, my timeline and then I see it. TMZ, Kobe Bryant dead in a helicopter crash. Fast forward to 10 minutes of variations of “it’s TMZ so wait” to “wait, did this really happen?” and then Woj confirmed it was true. Woj wouldn’t misreport this.
Kobe Bryant dead at 41.
It was sunny and 71 outside. I sat by the window, two people walked down the sidewalk and were laughing and looked happy and if that wasn’t a reminder that the world keeps spinning. Then I cried.
*Maybe* I’ll look back and see something about the communal aspect of a bunch of strangers sitting together and grieving the death of someone they liked but for now the memory is still painful and terrible. I’m more thinking about how I don’t want to get the news of anybody’s death again and I hope I would be so lucky but I know I won’t be. The news would only get worse. His 13 year old daughter was onboard along with other young girls - her teammates, and their parents, killing 9 total.
There is so much of Kobe’s aura and greatness that he radiated so strongly it really made people delusional - like a literal superpower. Dion Waiters nicknamed himself “Kobe Wade” in college which is still the funniest shit right after Ruben Patterson called himself “The Kobe Stopper” for his very alleged ability to defensively put the clamps on Kobe. A guy drove hundreds of miles ON CHRISTMAS to defend Kobe’s honor from Twitter to IRL. Kobe stans even have their own country!
One summer between college I was back home and doing nothing but working at my parents restaurant and playing pickup basketball at the YMCA after obsessing over Kobe games and highlights. I bought two pairs of his shoes, played in each pair until they literally fell apart and tried to embody that famed Mamba Mentality before I shot like 1-6 and dribbled the ball out of bounds off my foot.
It was easy to want to be like Kobe or think you could be Kobe or embody his mentality - he made it look so damn easy even when he was shooting over three people. But then there’s the whole obsessive work ethic and relentless drive. And ah yeah shit that’s why all those turn around jumpers went in.
I think about all those stories of early and late hours he spent in the gym - it seems like the dude never got a full night’s rest - and the championships it got him. And how unfair it is he can’t take those titles with him. And how his daughter, Gianna, was working so hard to carry the torch, make everything even more heartbreaking.
This got me thinking later about my own ‘drive’ when it comes to what I do, in my career, and how my sort of ethos has become “What do I really have to gain by sticking around here later?” I can always think of what I’ll lose - time with my dog and girlfriend, exercising, cooking dinner, watching basketball, going to a movie, grabbing a beer with a friend - not as much on what I could gain. That’s way more unclear.
Maybe you feel the same way.
We aren’t *necessarily* lazy or unwilling - like minded people my age have learned the importance of a work-life balance, (sorry olds) being more than a job and that today’s modern workplace is thankfully more flexible. Being measured on output makes optics like office hours not quite matter as much as they used to.
When it comes to office work I don’t think anybody should strive to be Kobe, despite what some really dumb LinkedIn posts might tell you. For starters, he was a notoriously harsh, standoffish and sometimes selfish teammate which might propel your basketball team to the next level of greatness in the playoffs but doesn’t translate to speadsheets and conference calls. There’s tons to take from Kobe’s work ethic, don’t get me wrong, but it can get confused with the worst aspect of “hustle culture” which is thinking the bonafide pathway to greatness or becoming CEO is that you should be grinding yourself as the first-in-last person in your office.
I guess my point here is, what I tell myself at least, is that while I’ve always tried to be protective of my spare time, I ask myself (and leave you to do the same) where does my own passion lie? What is the equivalent of putting up shots at the gym? For me it’s writing, although I still have no idea what I’m doing with this and am just thankful you are still with me. Maybe I’m too short sighted to think about what putting in a few more hours to this would garner me - I knew if i had to play the Pistons tomorrow, I’d have a better idea of what I was working towards.
This is unrelated to my point I shared one of my favorite Kobe stories and although my chances were pretty slim to begin with, it makes me sad I will never get the chance to buy him a beer. Make sure those in your life get their flowers while they can smell them and buy them a beer for good measure too.