The Fort Worth coach who experienced the lesser known part of Kobe Bryant’s legacy
Since Kobe Bryant died anyone who ever shared a moment with him immediately went to those experiences, which for TCU women’s basketball coach Raegan Pebley meant just scrolling through her phone.
“I have a picture and he and I are standing together watching his daughter’s team practice,” Pebley said. “There is a girl shooting in the background, and it’s Gigi.”
Bryant died along with his daughter, Gigi, and seven other people on Sunday morning in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. They were all going to a girls’ basketball game.
Pebley spent some time with Bryant in the summers of 2018, and 2019. Pebley was working a small basketball clinic at Vanguard University in Southern California when their paths crossed.
Because his life ended far too soon, he was unable to broaden a part of his legacy that Pebley witnessed. Because he had daughters of his own who played basketball, Bryant was a fierce advocate for women’s basketball.
Kobe Bryant would have been a towering spokesperson not just for the WNBA, but for girls playing basketball everywhere
“He was so excited about what was happening whether it was the WNBA or in college,” Pebley said. “He was not there to change it. He was there to just enjoy it and help it. He was doing a lot in affirming. He loved he product already.
“I would say in my time with him I got to see him as a dad who knew a lot about basketball. He wasn’t a basketball player who was a dad. From that moment, that was how I see him: As a dad. It was so real and pure and his love her [his daughter].”
Meeting Kobe Bryant
Pebley is adamant that she did not have a relationship with Bryant, but rather that they shared moments. They met through a mutual friend, Vanguard coach Russ Davis. Pebley and Davis operate a basketball clinic at Vanguard, which happened to be the facility where Bryant worked with his youth girls’ basketball teams.
Davis and Bryant had a relationship.
The clinics were designed to be small, between 40 and 50 coaches. Bryant was in the building when the clinic was held in the summer of 2018, and Davis asked Bryant he would speak to the group.
“He instantly wanted to do it,” Pebley said. “I’m speaking, and I realize nobody is paying attention to me the second he came on and was waiting in the wings. So I hurried up and then he spoke.
“I was impressed with how incredibly present and unpretentious and engaged he was with the moment. He was very approachable with everyone. He answered every question. He took pictures. I remember him talking about how much he loved the game for his daughter. It was just basketball to him, not men’s or women’s.”
After the clinic was over Bryant invited Pebley to the gym to watch his daughter’s team practice. At the time, Pebley figures Gigi was in the fourth grade.
A Kobe Bryant girls’ basketball team practice
By the time Bryant invited Pebley to watch his Mamba team practice, she had been in the game for decades, as a coach and a player. Her expectations were to watch just another basketball practice, one that she had seen or run a million times.
The chance to do it standing next to Kobe Bryant, however, had pull.
She watched the team run a drill for 40 minutes. The same drill. It was a concept to set a screen when the opponent is going to switch defenders on the play.
“What he was doing was teaching them the triangle offense, which makes sense, right?” she said. “He was big into fundamental repetition. It was such a huge, a-ha! moment. These girls, whatever they lacked in athletic ability, if they stayed with him they will be the smartest players to play. They were getting taught these intricacies at 10, 11 or 12.
“I was like, ‘Duh? How did I miss that?’ So I put it into my practices.”
Chatting with Kobe Bryant
Pebley figures she was invited to watch the practice with Bryant after he learned that she is a coaches’ kid. What she was not anticipating was that Bryant would pick her brain about much of anything.
But there he was, one of the best basketball players ever, asking the TCU coach questions about ball.
He wanted to know what Pebley thought her dad did right, and what she wished her dad had done differently.
“[Bryant] said, ‘I want to get this right,’” Pebley said. “I just told him that my dad said that basketball isn’t who I was, that basketball is what I did. He made it fun. I think, for Kobe, it affirmed what he already knew.”
Pebley came away from her interactions with Bryant impressed not with his height, physique or anything remotely related to athletic ability.
“I remember telling my husband was he was so real and that he enjoyed being around real people,” she said. “He surrounded that Mamba team with real people. He didn’t get Phil Jackson to coach, or any NBA friends. They were just regular people.”
Like anyone else who was captivated or inspired by Bryant, Pebley was stung by the news of his death. There is the sadness related to the sudden death to Bryant and everyone aboard, particularly the children.
And, down the scale of importance, is the realization that the sport of women’s basketball lost an ambassador, a coach, and a fan.
“Everyone views him differently depending on what generation you’re from,” Pebley said. “To me, I saw him as a person who was evolving in a relatable way. I saw an elite competitor who was so focused I could connect to. I saw him as a parent. And I saw him as an advocate for his daughter.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
