0:13

Kobe Bryant's talents on the court were

0:15

obvious and unmatched, But what about

0:17

his work off the court. He's talked

0:19

about the need to combat

0:22

violence in the community. He also talked

0:24

about police abuse and police misconduct,

0:26

so he was talking about violence

0:28

across the board. That to me indicated

0:31

someone that had a social consciousness, of social

0:33

awareness. I'm Steve Gregory and this

0:35

is the death and life of Kobe Bryant.

0:51

Well known writer and civil rights leader Earl

0:54

o'fari Hutchinson lives in Los Angeles

0:56

and says he's not much of a basketball fan,

0:58

but he is a fan of Iyant, mostly for

1:01

what Briant wasn't known for would

1:03

intrigue me was oftentimes

1:05

was miss with individuals like a Kobe

1:07

Bryant, namely what

1:10

do they do off the court? One

1:12

thing that struck me and and reading some of

1:14

the common charities and some of the articles in pieces

1:17

after Kobe, you know, after the

1:19

tragedy, he made a statement

1:21

and this is what really caught my eye,

1:24

and ear he said, life is

1:26

more I'm paraphrasing, life is more

1:28

than just putting the ball in a hoop.

1:31

Now I reflected on that and I said wait a minute,

1:33

there's some depth here, there's some consciousness

1:36

here, there's some understanding. Look,

1:39

I gotta have a life, and there's a world outside

1:41

the sports arena, the basketball court,

1:44

the superstar celebrity thing that you know, most

1:46

people relate to him as namely,

1:49

I have to deal with people or

1:51

I want to deal with people namely, and many

1:53

people have problems and we long

1:55

checklist of things from you

1:58

know, I mean housing, the eats,

2:00

food, um, poverty,

2:03

all the things that you know confront many, many

2:05

people. So it seemed to me that

2:08

Kobe Bryant was getting

2:10

something about I want to help.

2:13

I want to be a part of that. I want to use

2:15

my fame, in my celebrity hood,

2:18

I want to use that for good, um,

2:20

to help humanity. That's what

2:22

intrigued me about him, and that's what I wanted to write

2:24

about. So I began looking at things

2:26

and I remember from a personal experience,

2:29

UM Nipsey Hustle. Kobe

2:33

Nipsey was doing things, well, a number of things

2:35

in the community, but one thing he was

2:37

really trying to deal with the whole issue of violence

2:40

in the community. So they had a series

2:42

of forums that Nipsey Hustle put

2:44

on. Kobe became to that and he talked

2:47

about, you know, the need

2:49

to combat violence in the community,

2:52

and he also went a little bit further. He also talked

2:54

about police abuse and police misconduct

2:56

and police find So he was talking

2:58

about violence across the board. And

3:01

so that to me indicated someone

3:03

that had a social consciousness, a social awareness.

3:07

I felt that that is the thing that

3:09

needed to be spotlighted. I

3:12

felt I did not want to see that get lost

3:14

in the adulation and the recriminations,

3:17

uh, and the tears and the sadness

3:20

and the tragedy, which I mean is legitimate,

3:22

But I thought there was more than Kobe Bryant, and quite

3:24

frankly still do okayr

3:28

L Los Angeles

3:31

is ONOD

3:36

syndicated radio personality. Kurt Alexander,

3:39

otherwise known as Big Boy, was a close friend

3:41

of Bryan Bryant was a frequent

3:43

guest on Alexander's morning show, Big Boy's

3:46

Neighborhood here in Los Angeles. Alexander

3:48

says Bryant was more to l A than

3:50

just basketball. You know what, man, It gave

3:54

it gave people something to believe in. And

3:57

not only was there something shiny like

4:00

Kobe always said you know, hard

4:02

work. You know, we rooted for

4:04

him, and so many people love

4:07

Kobe Bryant. But it's different

4:09

when it's your own too, and

4:11

and it's an example being shown to the

4:14

world, and it's a positive

4:16

example. It's a person that works hard.

4:19

So we would see those kind of things that I've done

4:21

a lot of things with Kobe that was you

4:23

know, it wasn't about radio. It was about feeding

4:25

the community, you

4:27

know, taking care of the home. It's like Kobe

4:30

was very big on that. I

4:37

was taken her back

4:39

by really how

4:42

authentic his interest

4:44

and commitment to and

4:47

the homelessness was. Another Carmichael

4:50

is the executive director of My Friend's Place

4:52

in Hollywood, a nonprofit dedicated

4:54

to helping young people who were dealing with homelessness.

4:57

Carmichael remembers how Brian became

5:00

interested in her organization so many

5:02

years ago. Um I think when

5:04

he and Vanessa were leaving

5:07

the Staples Center and really starting

5:09

to see homelessness

5:13

right outside in the Staples Center. Like right,

5:15

I can only imagine what it was like to

5:17

win a game, being that state

5:20

of euphoria, being a champion

5:23

for Los Angeles, a revered

5:25

person, and then to pull out

5:27

and see people sleeping

5:29

on the sidewalk. I can like, I

5:32

think that contrast really

5:34

caught his attention. Um and

5:37

as he went on, I think what was

5:40

a learning journey about what

5:42

the issue was and looking

5:45

for organizations that were

5:48

effective and having impact

5:51

in their exploration of the

5:53

youth population. I

5:56

was told that all heads

5:58

nodded towards my friends place. I

6:01

feel incredibly

6:03

like honored and grateful

6:06

that the community pointed

6:09

Kobe and Vanessa our direction

6:12

because their impact here uh

6:15

continues to this day. I knew

6:17

that he understood those young

6:20

people, and I could see

6:22

his sense of responsibility of

6:25

not using them for that moment.

6:28

And then he came back, and

6:30

then he brought his community

6:33

in like right as it wasn't

6:35

only about he and Vanessa in

6:37

that moment and having a

6:40

stage to talk about their

6:42

interests in philanthropy and

6:44

their launch of their family foundation,

6:47

which was beautiful unto itself.

6:50

But then he invited his

6:53

friends and associates that

6:55

our leaders in Los Angeles

6:58

that had the resources is

7:00

to be able to invest in

7:02

organizations to be a

7:05

part of the game changing of it. So

7:08

yes, he off the walk and he invited

7:10

people to step up alongside of him coming

7:12

up a look at how Bryant's darkest

7:14

days were a wake up called to young black men

7:17

everywhere as the death and life of

7:19

Kobe Bryant continued. Earl

7:50

Lafari Hutchinson is a well known author,

7:52

commentator, and civil rights leader in Los Angeles.

7:55

Hutchinson says he's not much of a fan of

7:57

basketball, but considers Bryant a role

7:59

model, especially for young African

8:01

American men. He points out that

8:03

Brian's sexual assault case in Colorado

8:06

became a pivotal moment for a lot

8:08

of reasons. It was a blessing and the curse.

8:10

The curse was if you're talking about the

8:12

accusation of rape in the trial in

8:14

Colorado, that was a curas that had happened.

8:17

The blessing it is that had happened. Now it sounds

8:19

like what

8:21

are you saying. I'm saying

8:24

exactly that it happened

8:26

at the time. So basically you're talking

8:28

about a young guy who faced

8:30

the situation that was essentially

8:33

it could have been career threatening. Um

8:36

certainly it was not life affirming, but

8:38

it was threatening and it was a wake up call

8:40

for him. And I know we all

8:42

noticed after that decades

8:45

after that. Uh, Kobe was

8:47

an examply individual. I mean

8:50

it really was a thing to wait a minute,

8:52

this happened early. It caught

8:55

him when it was early. It was a shock.

8:57

It was a wake up call. And I think that

9:00

did was it alerted him. Look, I

9:02

am a role model. Millions

9:05

of people watch me, millions

9:07

of people judge me, and more importantly, millions

9:09

of people look up to me. So

9:11

I've got to start acting responsibly. I've

9:13

got to start acting responsibly first and foremost

9:16

in the home, my wife, my

9:18

family. And then also too, I

9:20

have I have an obligation to the fans.

9:24

You know, the fans. Um even though

9:26

they over inflate. I feel athletes

9:28

and their importance grossly over

9:30

inflate them. But it is what it

9:33

is. So the fact is they

9:35

are idolatrized, these

9:37

superstar athletes. People do

9:40

look up to them, and especially I think Kobe

9:42

was aware that so many young African American

9:44

males were looking to him because

9:47

the identification with basketball, sports

9:50

and so forth. So I think

9:52

all of that came together in kind of a perfect

9:54

storm. Um, I have to

9:56

be a good role model. Um. I

9:58

learned a lesson, and he asked he did learn from

10:00

that, Because you know, we have

10:02

seen a number of celebrities and a number

10:05

of athletes that continue to do things,

10:08

continue to shoot themselves in the foot, continue

10:11

to be their own worst enemies. They haven't learned a damn

10:13

thing. But he was

10:15

different. He did learn from that, and the

10:17

proof of that is it never happened again.

10:20

I don't remember anything after that of

10:22

anything that we could call scandal,

10:25

personal, involving morals,

10:28

uh, involving political,

10:30

involving social, any kind

10:32

of scandal. I don't recall any of that. So

10:35

Kobe had almost a two decade run after

10:38

that of basically exemplary behavior.

10:40

But I think the more important thing is he

10:43

made up his mind. I have to learn

10:45

from this going forward. I still

10:47

got a lot of years left with my basketball

10:50

career, and I'm going to be looked up

10:52

to in the role model. I have to live up to

10:54

that responsibility. In many communities,

10:56

especially the African American communities, because

10:59

he was looked up to, they loved this man,

11:01

They really respected him. Um,

11:03

they really identified with him. When I say

11:05

they, I mean a lot of young African American

11:07

males, I mean they saw him as as

11:10

emblematic of a good role model and

11:12

also a giant sports figure, somebody

11:14

that we definitely want to emulate. So

11:16

I think that is a void right there.

11:19

Um, Individuals like a Kobe

11:21

Bryant in many ways are very unique and

11:23

they're almost I know it's a cliche

11:26

to say this, but there are

11:28

almost irreplaceable in the

11:30

sense of who can really step in

11:32

where they were. Now. That's not to say that

11:34

others aren't coming along, but

11:37

if we've noticed one thing I

11:39

haven't seen since the

11:41

debt were even during the life of Kobe and

11:43

of course the death of Kobe um

11:46

the kind of agulation that

11:49

a sports figure slash

11:52

community figure. And that's what I

11:54

put behind Kobe Bryant had. That's

11:56

why you saw this great outpouring, uh

12:00

of I mean sense of loss. And

12:02

so I think over time

12:04

that loss is going to continue to resonate because

12:07

he is irreplaceable. Hutchinson wrote about

12:09

Bryant's life being more than basketball

12:12

and that's how he wants to remember him. He

12:14

also says Bryant was a unique

12:16

role model. I mean, we talked about African American

12:19

young males visa v basketball

12:22

players in the basketball and corps only because

12:24

you know, the NBA is what s the

12:27

players anyway, African American, so

12:29

there's an identification there. But Kobe

12:32

touched the nerve. He

12:35

was not only in this country. He was global.

12:38

He had an impact beyond the borders

12:40

of the United States. So that

12:42

that means, and that tells me one thing. If

12:45

you're a youth in Yugoslavia, Macedonia,

12:49

Serbia, uh Germany,

12:52

Nigeria, Taiwan, Brazil,

12:57

you know about the Kobe, you can identify

12:59

with the Kobe um

13:01

and I think that's why

13:04

there was so much drama and sadness,

13:07

you know, after the tragity that took

13:09

his LFE, because that identification

13:11

was global with him. When you really think

13:13

about it, how many sports figures have that

13:16

global identification. I mean

13:18

you can really could him on one hand and

13:20

still maybe have two or three fingers left over.

13:23

But Kobe was one of them. He was unique

13:25

in that sense. So, yes, he did touch a nerve across

13:27

a lot of strata, and not

13:30

just among young people, you know, everybody.

13:33

I mean, the course, the arenas

13:35

aren't filled by you know, nineteen and eighteen

13:37

and seventeen and sixteen year old A

13:40

lot of mature quote unquote mature adults

13:42

so let's say older adults, they identified

13:44

with the Kobe too, so men and women. So

13:47

I think that, Um, I think

13:49

that again is a tribute to not

13:52

only his legacy, but the impact that

13:54

he had. I don't think one of the

13:56

things. I don't think that Kobe would have continued

13:59

to have that land seen impact and

14:01

that and that great residence across

14:03

a lot of lines, especially among women, if

14:06

there wasn't a sense that

14:08

Kobe had done as Maya Colpa, I made a

14:11

mistake, a bad mistake, but

14:13

in this case, I'm gonna try to redeem

14:16

myself by being the best

14:18

person I can be. And I think because

14:20

of that, if you notice a lot of women

14:23

were not hard on Kobe at the end. Um.

14:27

Yeah, it was brought up about what happened in Colorado,

14:29

the rape accusation and the trial, but

14:32

you know that passed. Most of

14:34

the focus I saw on Kobe was really two

14:37

things. One Um, of

14:39

course, basketball on the court,

14:41

I mean that dominated, But also thought

14:43

there was a subtext to that. Individuals

14:45

like I brought up namely coldly

14:48

the humanitarian coobly

14:50

Kobe the role model for

14:53

actually doing good and giving back

14:55

to the community. I thought that was

14:57

there too, and I thought that was emphasized,

14:59

maybe not as much as basketball in sports,

15:02

but nonetheless it was still in the mix. Heather Carmichael's

15:04

the executive director of My Friend's Place, a nonprofit

15:07

shelter for young homeless people. She says

15:09

Briant's impact on the organization will

15:11

be felt for years. I think they're

15:14

Los Angeles will forever

15:16

feel his absence.

15:21

But his action I

15:25

think created momentum and

15:28

built bridges in ways that

15:30

I can't really speak to it

15:33

as a void um

15:35

for my Friends Place, because

15:39

he opened eyes, he opened

15:42

doors, he opened people's hearts

15:45

in ways that I

15:48

don't think can be shut again. I

15:51

guess like on an individual level,

15:54

some people might have turned away,

15:57

but it was a game changer for

16:00

or a

16:02

champion to say, look

16:04

at this issue, we

16:08

cannot tolerate Los

16:10

Angeles to

16:12

not pull this into greater focus

16:15

and greater action. So

16:18

yeah, I don't

16:21

sense the void there. And

16:25

he was one of the

16:27

early kind of champions

16:31

to like associate his name,

16:33

And you know, I think folks

16:36

that have stages have contemplated

16:39

how to associate their names

16:41

with different causes, and I just

16:43

feel like maybe there

16:46

risk cause analysis

16:49

hadn't afforded people to like really

16:52

think about the brilliance

16:56

of associating themselves

16:58

with such

17:00

a humanitarian issue

17:03

in our own backyard. And

17:06

I never saw his hesitation

17:09

to do that right, And maybe

17:11

there was a lot of contemplation that

17:13

came before um

17:16

I got to meet him and his

17:18

team and Vanessa.

17:20

But the moment he stepped into

17:23

my Friend's place, I

17:26

got to see that fire in

17:28

his eye and the

17:31

the willingness, and it just like

17:34

everything made sense, Like there's this

17:36

extraordinary moment of

17:39

like I was hesitant, Like right, I

17:42

didn't know Kobe. And my

17:44

role in my responsibility

17:47

uh here at my friends place is to

17:49

ensure that we offer

17:52

the young people the greatest amount

17:54

of protection that

17:56

we can as it comes to our

17:58

community association shion with

18:01

both the community and young people. So

18:03

I, I admittedly was a little

18:05

bit suspect, But again, the

18:07

moment they walked in the door,

18:10

I saw his genuine

18:13

interest in being a champion

18:15

for ending homelessness.

18:18

And then he sat at this table with

18:20

these young people that

18:23

saw him as hero. He

18:26

could have maintained that edge

18:28

with them, but he sat at that

18:31

table as someone that

18:33

was genuinely like taking

18:35

these young people in one

18:37

their admiration for him,

18:39

But he didn't stop there. He

18:41

listened to who they

18:44

were, what their dreams were,

18:46

and what the consequences of

18:48

their circumstances of being homeless,

18:51

and he synthesized the that

18:54

those experiences and

18:56

then turned to the

18:58

media that a way did him as

19:01

he announced their family

19:03

foundation, and he

19:05

expressed what he heard from

19:08

those young people in

19:10

such real connected

19:14

not artificial, not

19:17

like objectifying. He

19:20

understood what homelessness

19:23

meant to those young people, but also

19:25

didn't diminish them to

19:28

their circumstances. He

19:30

saw them in very whole ways,

19:32

just like I bet he did with every

19:35

young person he mentored on a

19:37

court. He won my heart

19:40

in that moment coming up. Those

19:42

who worked with him knew him and knew of

19:44

him. Remember the day of the helicopter crash

19:47

as the death in Life of Kobe Bryant continues,

19:57

m Kurt

20:04

Alexander, otherwise known as Big Boy. It

20:06

was a close friend of Bryant's. We heard

20:08

earlier about the friendship the two shared, but

20:10

he also remembers the morning of the crash.

20:12

You know it was. It was a Sunday, and

20:15

Kanye West does the thing called uh

20:18

uh Sunday What what? What is it? It's uh

20:20

Sunday Sunday Service. Sun cleverly

20:23

hited there in the Sunday service. So I was at Sunday

20:25

Service with you know, with my family and

20:28

Kanye and everybody, and we

20:30

were just happy to be driving home. And

20:32

I was driving. My wife was sitting next to me, and

20:35

she said she got a phone call and

20:37

I heard her say Kobe died. And

20:40

instantly I'm like looking at her,

20:42

like Kobe die and this she was like, what

20:44

happened? In my head? You know, your mind goes

20:46

so fast. I'm thinking so many different

20:48

scenarios and is this a

20:51

real phone call? But it was my daughter calling from

20:53

one car to the car that we were

20:55

in, which was behind my daughter's

20:57

car as far as you know, being with their

21:00

friends. When I heard that, it just

21:02

felt so surreal. It

21:04

just felt unbelievable. Like from

21:08

that point on, I don't even remember any

21:10

of the words. I don't remember the traffic, I

21:12

don't remember what was the next you know lane,

21:16

you know the road that we were getting off of. Like everything

21:18

became just just a blur. Because

21:21

Kobe is one of those guys that

21:23

you just felt like he

21:25

was gonna live forever or you know, like it wasn't gonna

21:27

be you know, an instant thing when you

21:29

get a phone call while you're riding with your family.

21:31

So that was on a Sunday. What

21:34

was your show like on that Monday? Horrible?

21:37

My show was horrible. It was because

21:40

it was live, it

21:43

was Los Angeles. It was

21:45

putting people on that probably never thought

21:47

they would be on the air before because

21:49

they didn't thought they had didn't have a reason, and

21:53

they never thought that they would be on the air talking

21:55

about Kobe Bryant. We just opened

21:57

up the phone lines and we let the people speak, and

22:00

you heard, I mean not just from us, because

22:02

we were in here bawling. We were

22:04

crying. You heard it in every

22:06

phone call. There was no phone

22:09

tap that day. There was no funniness,

22:11

there was you know, it was just it

22:14

was we were all very emotional that day.

22:16

And and and it's crazy because I

22:19

have shows. This is my twenty seventh year

22:21

of radio, and I have shows

22:24

that I can remember, and that's called

22:26

back to me all the time. The

22:31

day my mom passed and I came on air

22:33

to announce that my mother died, Tupac

22:36

passing Nipsey, Hustle,

22:38

passing Kobe Bryant

22:40

passing out. Of all the

22:43

shows that I've done, those

22:45

are the shows that always come back, you

22:47

know. And with pocket was I announced

22:49

to Los Angeles. So people remember that, old

22:51

man, when you announced when not eleven happened,

22:53

we were live. We announced that people

22:56

had some time with Nipsey,

22:58

people have some time with Kobe.

23:01

And no matter if it was you know, eighteen

23:04

hours the next day or something like that,

23:06

people were very emotional on

23:09

air with us. We we didn't know how to we

23:11

even now I can't digest it.

23:14

So the next day we weren't ready,

23:16

you know, but it was beautiful, not beautiful

23:19

radio. It was a

23:21

beautiful day to

23:23

also celebrate. But the day that we just steve

23:26

we came together. You could feel

23:28

it. You could feel it. You I

23:30

mean everyone in the room. Of course, this is

23:32

you know, pre pandemic. So everyone

23:35

in the room just red

23:37

eyed. Everybody's crying, the callers

23:39

like and just silence

23:41

on, letting people take their time.

23:44

You know. It was it was. It was a show that

23:46

I would never forget. Their

23:54

car Michael worked with Bryant and his wife Vanessa,

23:57

my friend's Place, a shelter for young homeless

23:59

people. She too remembers hearing

24:01

about the accident. I was training

24:05

my friends Place runs the l

24:07

A Marathon as one of our fundraising

24:09

and community building endeavors

24:12

um I it was my

24:14

first full marathon, and I

24:17

was out training and my

24:19

phone. I could feel the texts

24:21

coming through, but you know, I'm listening

24:24

to music. I'm trying to, like go on

24:26

a really long run, and

24:28

finally I just stopped and

24:32

took in those texts and standing

24:34

in the middle of I don't even remember

24:36

where I think I might have been in the still a and

24:39

just being overwhelmed

24:44

and so sad for Vanessa

24:48

and her family, and just

24:50

like feeling the collective

24:52

loss for Los Angeles.

24:55

I didn't know that I would be so impacted.

24:58

Um, but really,

25:01

you know, one being touched

25:03

by his

25:06

being nous and his generosity

25:09

and the bigness

25:12

of his presence and

25:15

just the realness of his kindness

25:18

and how that is as like

25:20

it's a part of our social fabric.

25:23

And I guess I felt that tear

25:25

in that moment. Author

25:32

and civil rights leader Earlfari Hutchinson

25:34

says he was in his car inside his garage

25:36

when he heard about the helicopter crash and

25:38

he couldn't believe it. And uh, I'm, you

25:41

know, doing a little surfing on my cell

25:43

phone looking at some of the news. Now

25:45

here's here's where it gets. Really I'm

25:50

laughing. I mean I'm laughing almost

25:52

because it's there's apothos

25:54

here about this. So I catched

25:56

his news item Sunday. This

25:59

is Sunday. I catch his news item.

26:01

Uh, Kobe Bryant killed in the crash.

26:04

I laughed. I'll tell you why I laugh because

26:06

you know, on the internet you get so much

26:08

of this stuff. Celebrities dies, celebrities

26:11

doing that. I mean, I've seen so much of that. People

26:13

are, you know, with their sardonic humor,

26:15

they put all this crap up there. So

26:17

I said it. So I laughed at

26:19

it. I said, God but

26:22

um, and I've kind of dismissed

26:24

it. But about

26:27

five or ten minutes later on online and of

26:29

course the c ann headline, and

26:31

then that was a shock. What

26:33

I thought was a gag, a very poor

26:36

chase gag, a very sard donni

26:39

you know, pathological gag that

26:41

somebody put it I thought put on the internet.

26:43

Well it turned out to be the truth. It was a shock.

26:46

I said, this cannot be. It cannot

26:48

be for several reasons. One, I mean, when

26:50

you look at Kobe, I mean, it's not like he's

26:52

you know, ninety years old, you know, in

26:55

the walker and a wheel chair. When

26:57

you look at him, you still thinking of me as a young guy

26:59

on the work. I mean, that's the image of you

27:01

have you have with with Kobe. That

27:04

was the first thing that was the biggest part of the

27:06

shot. He would be one of the last people on

27:08

the planet I would think would

27:10

go that way. The second thing is the way he

27:12

died right in our own backyard, right

27:14

here in l A County. So all of these

27:16

things came together. I think that that really

27:19

dramatized, at least in my mind,

27:22

the shock aspect of it. And I have to confess,

27:25

you know, I'm an NFL guy. Football is my thing,

27:28

you know, not really basketball. Um,

27:30

you know, I'd pay some attention to it. But

27:33

still it touched me from a human

27:35

standpoint only

27:37

because not the sports, not the sports,

27:40

just the tragedy of a young man in

27:42

the prime of life losing

27:45

his life like that and doubling

27:48

down his daughter and dub

27:51

tripling down you. It wasn't just them. He

27:53

had others involved too in the crash, so

27:55

it was a loss of It was a tragedy all

27:57

the way around and affected many families,

28:00

Kobe Bryant and many of the other families

28:02

that were in that helicopter with him,

28:04

So um, that really magnified

28:06

the tragedy. To me, coming

28:16

up in episode eight, I think there's two

28:19

legacies that Coby leaves behind. One

28:22

is of grit, and

28:24

then I think the second, though he didn't express

28:26

it as such, was love. The legacy

28:29

of a man, father, husband

28:31

in basketball legend. The

28:35

Death and Life of Kobe Bryant is a production

28:37

of t f I News at I Heeart Media, Los

28:40

Angeles for the I Heart podcast

28:42

network.