No person outside of my immediate friends and family shaped my life more than Bryant, and I know I’m not alone in saying that. He was a larger than life personality and I wanted to be able to tell the stories of players like him.īut no one was like him. He wasn’t responsible for my initial interest in basketball, but he’s the reason I fell so deeply in love with it. Like many of us, he was the reason I am a Laker fan, and why I’m in the position I’m in. Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images Kobe warming up for his final NBA All-Star Game in 2016 with Gianna in tow. Kobe and Gianna at the game against the Hawks. And he was passing those moments on to her. So many of us can recall our favorite play or game or shot or dunk. It’s those pictures of Kobe and Gianna, not just this season but throughout the years, that elicited the strongest emotional reactions from me on Sunday. Videos of her on the court alongside her father had gone viral.

He had stepped back into the game because of his daughter’s interest. Those moments spent with Gianna this season, most memorably when they sat courtside to watch the Lakers play the Hawks, are what make Sunday even harder to swallow. He was an active part of his daughter’s lives. It’s the cruelest twist of irony that his death came en route to a game of Gianna’s at Mamba Academy. He was a family man, a father, something resembling a regular guy. Then, he retired and became what so many of us are. But he was determined to do things his way, and he was so driven, so focused that he reached the highest levels at seemingly whatever he did.įor years in the NBA, he was the guy we all wanted to be.

His flaws were glaring on and off the court. Lightning in your teeth: not sure: a crash cart, and they're 'shocking' her? or she has braces? or he has that metallic taste in his mouth from a lot of adrenaline (or drugs)? Not sure.Kobe was perfectly imperfect. Quietly pour out like light: leaving your body? Let the loose lips kiss you clean: mouth-to-mouth, and either it's a reference to the fact that you have to make sure the airway's unblocked (a 'clean' airway) when you do mouth-to-mouth, or it's a reference to a non-sexual (i.e.: 'clean') kiss Oh, it's a damned fine game, and we can play all night: sounds like he's saying if she does give up, he's going to keep giving CPR until she stops 'playing around.' More to mine than fact, face, name and monetary: ambulances and stuff want your insurance info and vital stats, but he's saying that his lover ('mine') is more than just a bunch of facts.īe what you will and then throw down your life: either it's a suicide, or he's saying she's giving up the fight to stay alive Note the trees because the dirt is temporary: they're between the high tide line and the current level of the surf trees don't grow below the high-tide line. The woman's part is the victim speaking: oh, my own voice cannot save me now (underwater, you can't talk), one more breath and then I go down (she's suffocating) The lover is inside: the victim is his loverĪnd all the tumult's done: the car wreck is over (or, he just pulled her out of the surf, which is also a 'tumult')Ĭollided with the sign, you're standing in the sea: her feet are still being lapped by the water (literal or no) Your mouth is open wide: that's cause she's unconscious, and it's the position you put someone in to give mouth-to-mouth

Standing in the sea: either it's a literal beach, and he's just above the surf, or the 'water' is a suffocation death (since she's not breathing). Staring at the sun: she's on her back as he gives CPR We all get tired of living once we grow up We were all weaned my dear upon the same fatigue: Hear me hailing from inside and realize I am the conscience clear in pain or ecstacy: he's calling her to 'come back from the light,' so to speak. I don't know.half the song is from the point of view of the victim, and part from her lover.Ĭross the street from your storefront cemetary: He approaches her body the author might be making a reference to the fact that since she's not breathing (in fact, suffocating), it's like drowning. Now, whether the wreck happened on an actual beach or not, I don't know. Like light, like answering (chorus comes over this part) the sunĪ lady was driving in front of a store and hit a sign, and now her lover is giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR. Cross the street from your storefront cemetery.

Kobe staring at the sun