‘Everyone is hurting and in shock.’ High school basketball teams honor Kobe Bryant
You could see the impact Kobe Bryant made on the world, even if it didn’t have to do with a basketball, when the news broke that the NBA legend had died on Sunday.
Once the rumors of his death in a helicopter crash were confirmed, the world was immediately shocked. He was 41.
NBA games resumed Sunday. A few stars were taken back with their emotions. Most teams took 24-second shot-clock violations and 8-second backcourt violations as a tribute to the two numbers Bryant wore during his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Two days later and high school basketball games were scheduled in Dallas-Fort Worth.
And a few games featured tributes to Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who was also killed in the crash.
“What we talk about in honoring him is the heart in which we do these things. Kobe did those kind of things wholeheartedly with love,” said Arlington Martin head girls basketball coach Brooke Brittain. “He had a way of making time for people that mattered and making those people feel special.”
Martin hosted Arlington Bowie as both teams participated in a black-out night.
It was also Martin’s Junior High and Teacher Appreciation night.
“He developed and inspired kids and was such an important figure in the continued evolution of the girls game. We may just be inviting our junior high kids to a game, but I think we honor him by loving the next generation of basketball players and empowering female athletes to excel the best we can,” Brittain said. “We honor Kobe by trying to inspire people to be great. So we may not have much to show, but will move forward with that heart.”
The L.D. Bell girls basketball team custom-made warm-up shirts during its game at Euless Trinity. The Lady Blue Raiders also left a chair open with their No. 24 jersey on it and stood in a No. 8 during the national anthem.
Bell star guard Myra Gordon and a few of her teammates, Claire McDonald and Kyla Davis, came up with the idea.
“I think we all wanted to pay our respects to Kobe and his daughter, Gigi, because we all felt sick after hearing the news,” said Gordon, an Alabama signee. “Kobe has done so much for not only the game of basketball, but for the girls game and for his daughter being apart of the girls basketball community, I feel like we owe her.”
Games between Eaton and Keller, Timber Creek and Denton Guyer, and Keller Central and Fossil Ridge encouraged fans to wear Kobe gear or anything purple and yellow. Fans that wore Kobe gear got in free at Guyer.
A moment of silence was held during the Saginaw-Grapevine girls game.
“Kobe Bryant brought girls basketball into a new light. Now we mean something and we’re almost at the same level of men’s basketball,” Grapevine senior forward Dasha Macmillan said. “His work ethic was incredible and he showed that on a daily basis and in the way he played. I get emotional thinking about how he was a legend. You always have to have that mamba mentality.”
Grapevine won 61-34. Macmillan, who will play at Air Force next season, scored 12 points. Grapevine boys also won, 70-47 over Saginaw.
“Every tournament, especially Nike Nationals, you knew he was going to be there supporting. And he supported all the women’s teams at the NCAA tournament,” she said. “He made an tremendous impact and I can’t thank him enough for that.”
“It was just a tragic event and it really hit the basketball community. He made such a huge impact on everyone,” added Grapevine senior guard Jaxon Ryan, who scored 21 points.
On Monday, Benbrook and Arlington Sam Houston paid tribute to the 18-time All Star.
Sam Houston football players created a 24 in the team’s indoor facility.
“We wanted to do something to honor one of the greatest athletes of our time and for being the loving and caring father he was,” Sam Houston head football coach Anthony Criss said. “Everyone is hurting and in shock. Coaches are thinking about the families involved in this tragedy. We are all husbands and fathers and it’s just unimaginable what those families are going through.”
During the boys basketball practice at Benbrook, the Bobcats ran three team drills: 24 made shots, 81 passes and 8-minutes of free throws. The 81 is for Bryant’s 81-point performance, the second most in an NBA game, in 2006.
Benbrook and Dunbar had a 24-second moment of silence before their game on Tuesday.
“Kobe was my generation’s Michael Jordan. Whether you’re a Kobe fan or not, you can’t deny his work ethic, passion or intensity,” Benbrook head coach Blake Mendez said. “We show up to work everyday preaching these things to the kids we’re coaching. Kobe had those traits that we hope to be able to develop in the athletes we see everyday.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 8:24 AM.
