Believe it or not, the one-year anniversary of Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant’s death is approaching.
For many, it was one of those moments that will forever be frozen in time.
Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry certainly remembers where he was and how he and his teammates reacted when the news came.
“I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life. I was coming back from injury, but I got to participate in practices that day,” the Warriors sharpshooter said. “On the sidelines, you could see the body language change immediately. Practice just kind of came to a halt.
“A lot of reflection, sadness — an overwhelming moment for sure. You didn’t want to think it was true. It was a tough day for the whole world, for the whole basketball world.”
Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a tragic helicopter crash late last January. The incident resulted in a massive lovefest across the NBA and the world at large.
The elder Bryant was once the NBA’s greatest streak shooter from distance when he got hot. Curry has taken that ability and made it into an every-night occurrence.
He remembers a particular contest in 2014 when the elder Bryant made a gesture that let him know he had made it as an NBA star.
“He started to pick me up full court like two possessions in a row, so this was the second possession,” said Curry. “I took the challenge, but they let him foul and they didn’t call nothing, so I had to kind of work with that. I came down the court and he was trying to steal it, trying to be physical, so I got him with a little half step to get a little bit of space and then pull up from deep, then obviously it went in. Then he smiled afterwards and a little ass tap there.
“I tried not to have a reaction there because I was in the moment, but after I was like ‘damn, that was pretty cool because Kobe doesn’t usually show that type of emotion to anyone.’”
Months prior to that night, the elder Bryant tore his Achilles against Curry and the Warriors, which proved to be, for all intents and purposes, the end of the Lakers great’s viability as a premier player.
Curry will take on LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the rest of the current-day Lakers on Monday evening.
