The world lost another legend Sunday morning when a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13 year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others crashed into the Calabasas hillside just northwest of Los Angeles due to heavy fog.
Although Kobe – who was a 5x NBA Champion, NBA MVP, and 2x Finals MVP – was done with his playing career, he was barely starting his philanthropic work around the world. Kobe was writing children’s books, opening basketball camps, and even won an Academy Award in 2018 for Best Animated Short Film. Basically, whatever he put his mind to, he succeeded at. He had the “Mamba Mentality” and wasn’t going to sit at home watching the tv after his playing days were over.
Kobe Bryant wasn’t just one of the greatest athletes the world had ever seen, but he was lining up the second half of his life to become a world ambassador of sport – to bridge the gap between generations and get more kids involved. Unfortunately, his time on Earth was cut short due to a freak accident; just as Drazen Petrović’s was on a German highway in 1993.
I’m not here to compare basketball careers. You can’t do that. Kobe is arguably one of the five greatest basketball players of all-time. Even though Petrovič – who only made it to 28 years old – was dubbed to have the greatest shot in basketball history, we simply didn’t have enough time to watch him play the game.
But what both players did do was transcend sport. Kobe grew the game internationally, coming straight to the NBA from high school in 1996. He linked the Michael Jordan generation to his own and then passed it off to Lebron. Like Ronaldo and Messi, Kobe had fans across the entire world: Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia. He was a global superstar and influencer.
Petrović was a trail blazer in his own right, not only for Croatia after the war, but for international basketball players. Before there were Dirk Nowitzki’s, Luka Doncic’s, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s and Manu Ginobili’s in the NBA, Drazen Petrović was the first player to break the American mold. He set a new bar for work ethic and who can play in the NBA: the best. The rest is short-lived history.
Petrović was posthumously inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. Kobe will be inducted in the 2020 class later this year.
The problem with legends is that most of them die far too young. And that bodes the head scratching question of, “What could have been?”
We will never know what kind of player Petrović could have matured into just as we will never see all the cool things Kobe was working on come to fruition. And that sucks.
Both legendary players were stubborn. They were in love with the game. And their work ethic was second to none. May their 1-on-1’s be as epic as our imaginations.
Dox the frenchie
ahh the good old white flag waving french. the funny thing is people on this site care what the white flag waving french say.
actually i doubt he even is french since there isnt such a thing anymore. eh.
@Aussie Croat
But where do you think Croatia is heading, you’re in the EU, the EU have put their laws in place, it takes time to become like France, it’s a process, here is a comment from an actual Croatian person on youtube.
“Hoce li Hrvatice zbog nezaposlenosti i siromastva poceti udavati za migrante crnce i arape jer oni cim dodju dobiju stan i placu tj. soc. pomoc u visini minimalca, dok se Hrvate razvlascuje i ovrsava?”
What do you think about that? It’s only a matter of time. It’s not like you Croats stand for anything, you pay antichrist Jews reparations while your communists and England pay Croats jack shit, and “Croats” couldn’t care less. Can you make an argument against anything I just said?
@ Elvis.
Great article mate.
Doesn’t matter what country our folks emigrated to, that article couldn’t have said it better. A long hard road out of hell and that fight still continues to this day.
LOL at a ‘Frenchman’ having a crack at Croatia, the most racially pure country on earth!
Just because your country has turned into Islamic hell on earth, it’s no reason to start spewing your anti-Croat garbage here.
We all feel sorry for what France has turned into. Good luck with that. You’ll be kneeling down 4 times a day praying to Allah before you know it.
@Anonymous
What is trolling in your opinion?
I always thought that it was writing things to deliberately upset other people? I’m just writing the truth.
It’s true when they say “the truth hurts.”
Are you suggesting that some things are better left unsaid?
If you can’t take criticism about your country, then don’t talk shit about other countries, I think that’s the message here!
Frenchy google top 30 highest IQ’s….3 Croats in the top 25 and not ONE Frenchman amongst the group
With a population 16 times greater than ours that’s quite the feat for you guys don’t you think ?
You should be embarrassed!
This is where you disparage the IQ test as flawed isn’t it lol
Yes Croats are all idiot yugo’s ,yet I bet most know how to spell Denmark properly?
You bring up diaspora and it’s a valid point, I must admit my language skills have diminished from my youth.
Yet I at least have a church a community center a soccer field to congregate at like most Croats have in any city greater than 50’000
Answer this …why are there no places for the French to socialize ,pray ,play soccer have weddings etc in any city I visit yet French is the second language in my country .
You want to hang out with Frenchman visit your local watering hole when the welfare cheques have come out on the 1st of each month.
You’re an ignorant hypocrite who has no Croatian friends yet alone friends
Au Revoir
Time to dox the troll above.
@Elvis
A professor in Croatia says, “Jer su globalisti zapravo prikriveni komunisti.” I understand that because I speak 5 languages, one of them being Croatian, you diaspora Croats don’t speak Croatian at all is what I hear from my Croatian friends in Croatia?
France is dead it’s a hodge podge of filth from Algeria Morocco Sudan etc etc
Hungary knows what it’s doing ,they have seen your once decent country turn into a cesspool of filth and Islamist fanatics.
i think these guys come on this site to talk shit because it is so easy to get under your guyses skin.
@Frenchy
Its not Communism but Globalism that’s got your panties in a bunch.
So football is about diving? Dam maybe the guys should head to the olympics and win Hrvastska some gold medals in diving.
Also 1/3 of Serbs were to be converted. We took those worth keeping and sent the Cetnik Hillbillys away.
@Lovro
Read your previous comment again you idiot, you come across as a child. I talk about real stuff that none of you idiots can refute, and you respond with that childish shit!
You motherfuckers mocked France and can’t handle it that the shit I give your communist country is better than the shit you said about my country.
How come Serb Modric the perjurer was allowed to play in the world cup in Russia. Do you think you beat Denamrk, Russia or England without the perjurer?
What’s worse, a “dive” which is what football is all about, or a perjurer playing 90 minutes and being the reason you beat Denamark, Russia and England?
Well you couldn’t beat France with the perjurer playing, so go fuck yourselves you Yugoslav losers.
France 4 – 2 Croatia*
* a perjurer was playing because his communist government let him off to play in Russia.
Frenchman/Spaniard now reverts to becoming anonymous
That says it all…you think you’re so clever ,yet your style or should I say lack of style in the way you write and interjecting your gradeschool LOL’s and constant Yugoslav references gives it all away that you are the same idiot consumed with us Croats!
The fact you NOW post as anonymous speaks volumes as to how you realize how you have embarrassed yourself!!
@Lovro
You’re an idiot, using that Yugoslav imagination of yours lol!
Jealous lol, at what, your silver medal, gold is better than silver you idiot, so if you wanna talk keep it to what we know. France 4 – 1 Croatia, actually 2, you guys count the gimme lol! The French helped you get a goal, just like how we helped in your war!
@Maminjo
Also I’m not @Spaniard, he’s probably another guy that thinks you diaspora Croats are idiots and wannabes that try and turn silver into gold, it makes you feel like patriots lol!
There is generally a fine line between intense jealousy and hatred “Frenchman!”
Where does the deep rooted envy stem from please inform us?
You can use this forum as a therapeutic source,and we can perhaps help you cleanse those sordid thoughts of you wishing you were born a Croat.
Perhaps you have showered with young Croatian boys in gym class and longed for what the creator bestowed upon us?
Or has a Croat snatched the prom queen from your grips in hi school …or bagged your wife and turned you into a babbling cuck.
Do tell “Frenchman!” Where does the hate truly Stem from ?
@Maminjo
You can say whatever you want, I’m likely this, I’m likey that. I say you’re a Yugoslav, no likely about it.
@Lovro/Yugoslav
Lol, you talking about Islam now, you’re so dumb.
It just so happens I know about all the world religions. If antichrist Jews are your friends then who are your enemies, aren’t you stupid Croats supposed to be Christian, you see I know more about Croats then any of you guys. Lovro I believe you’re a communist that’s why you like Croatia giving Jews money.
Your opinion on England paying Croats reparations for the murders committed at Bleiburg? Not important for you, I wonder why?
@Lovro
Don’t bother responding.
He’s not French, Serbian or anything like that.
“Frenchman” and “Spaniard” are obviously the same person. The dude goes by a lot of names on this site.
He’s likely a white American or Canadian guy that doesn’t have a real identity (and just goes by a “white” nationality) so he’s angry at us “white” Croats for betraying him and not joining in on his nauseating rhetoric.
So he’s just hurling insults after reading some random things about Croats online.
If you’re a true Frenchman then you should worry more about the fact that France shall be a Muslim majority in a few decades based on population growth figures.
I would much rather throw a few pennies to our Jewish friends Then be ruled by Islamic leaders which seems to be your plight in the future.
As far as suicide’s go with war vets it’s happening in every country you ignorant fool.
Look up PTSD in war vets and it Doesn’t stand for Pussy that sucks dick.. dickhead!
@Frenchman
I’m not laughing at the comment, or the fact that it’s on a sport site. I’m laughing at you. You’re pathetic.
The “article” you saw was not recent nor was it real.
The fact that you are desperate to believe it shows how sad and pathetic you are.
So…do you also actually believe that the Vatican actually transported the bodies of dead Filipinos to Bosnia to pose as dead Bosniaks and legitimize the Srebrenica massacre?
Like seriously…do you really believe that to be true?
Everything that Kurir and that other popular RS site publishes is bullshit. It’s all nonsense. That shit poisons your brain, or in your case, adds fuel to an already poisoned mind.
Don’t be so afraid of me responding to your comments with my ‘idiot bullshit’.
It may actually cure you.
@Josip
Why would you respond to my truth filled comment the way you have would be a better question?
I’m not a Serb, Serbs are fools as well, the difference between Serbs and Croats is that Serbs care for their people, they don’t shit on their own, even if they are evil cetniks, that’s where you “Croats” are in a league of your own lol!
Fact, you Yugoslavs do pay reparations to the Jews.
No one pays “Croatia” reparations for what happened at Bleiburg, these are facts Croats prefer to be ignorant about, you guys prefer your fantasy land lol!
Do you think if Croats ruled your country that you’d ask England to pay Croatia reparations for Bleiburg, or did those Croats deserve to be murdered?
Your first communist president was on the side that was killing Croats during and after wwii, that’s a fact!
I just remember you guys mocking my France and I like to give you guys shit in return, and I love the way you can’t argue any of my points, because they’re true. I guess the lesson here is have a look at yourselves before you mock other countries in the future.
You guys talked shit, I tell the truth, and I’m the bad guy lol!
What motivates a non Croat to visit a Croat sports site and spew garbage?
I wouldn’t think of visiting a Serb sports site I have no interest,wait is there a Serb sports site?
We are truly thankful for your education lesson,for all of us un-educated ignorant souls.
Oh how the jealousy runs deep in the veins of you pathetic Serbs .
Pardon my French!
Nice article about the good old days
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/18/archives/new-yorks-croatians-closeknit-and-fiery.html
@Maminjo
“I don’t think you’re the one that is laughing”
You can laugh at the fact that my comment is on a sports site, but not at the truth in my comment.
I saw that article as well that said Luka is a Serb!
Is that what you do when you don’t like something, just say it’s made up? Is his uncle’s name Jovo Dopud, was he a witness against war criminal Gotovina, yes or no answer please?
So what if Serbs killed Modric’s partizan family, is that supposed to prove he’s not Serb lol!?
Your first president was on the side that was killing Croats during and after wwii, does that mean he’s not a Croat?
In future don’t respond to my comments with idiotic bullshit, my only intention was to educate @Soul Champ on the Yugoslavian war and not to get into conversations with an idiot like you.
“Frenchman” why all the hate for Croats and absolutely NONE for Serbs…have you been to your religious homeland Kosovo lately….oh wait they took it from you..YOU are not allowed in…who would think Palestinians and Serbs had so much in common?
I wonder if Kobe told the Altobelli’s about his pact with Vanessa (his wife) to never fly on helicopters together?
fuck the celtics
Instead of Kobe why don’t you talk about another Croatian great- Kevin McHale of the Celtics. Him along with Byrd and Parrish were awesome. Fuck LA!
@Frenchman
O… K.
So you’re obsessing over Croats and go well out of your way to regularly make long posts like this onto a US-based Croatian Sports website, lol.
I don’t think you’re the one that is laughing.
🙂
@Anonymous
Recently?
That fake news article was posted in 2018.
(not surprisingly, right before the World Cup)
The portals that released that story were all from Republika Srpska, so yea, I wouldn’t take it too seriously.
These were the same portals that “broke” the story that Mario Mandžukić was actually a Bosniak named Mahir Mandzuka, lol.
Still doesn’t top my favorite article though, with the claim that the Srebrenica massacre was fake, and the dead bodies were imported from the Phillipines (all coordinated by the Vatican).
Fat Suker in his #14 at the ’02 World Cup was the most devastating tragedy in the history of sport.
@Soul Champ
It was a civil war, a war that wouldn’t of happened if not for greater Serbian aggression, Serbs unlike Croats never felt Yugoslav, it was the Catholic Croats that embraced atheistic communism and fought along side the communists to defeat Serbia in the civil war!
In hindsight though, something does seem off about that whole war, ultimately the Serbs remain independent, the communists lead Croatia, Kolinda rolls out the red carpet for cetnik Vucic, and 3,069 Croatian soldiers have killed themselves after their lol victory in the civil war! Why? Because they knew the victory in the “Homeland war” went to communist Tudjman!? Think about it, waking up one day and discovering that you fought in a war for communists to lead your nation, who wouldn’t feel like a fool. Lol, commies killed Croats during and after wwii and later Croats are fighting for communist Tudjman. Lol, the Croats are the dumbest people in Europe!
Why would Tudjman, Mesic, Josipovic, Kolinda and now Milanovic (all communists) want Yugoslavia to break up if not for the facist Serbs, lol the Serbs were anti-facist like the communists during wwii?
There would be no “Croatia” today without greater Serbian aggression, that’s a fact.
Think about like this, your pathetic little country has nothing to do with the NDH but your communist leaders continue to pay reparations to the Jews, lol that’s the reason for Croatia’s existence! Lol, commies paying reparations to Jews because of the NDH!
What about the Croats that were murdered at Bleiburg, who is paying Croatia reparations for that? You guessed it, nobody!
With the rest of Europe, join us in laughing at the Croats!
Not a fan of the so called new kits for 2020. Hope it’s not them. But damn, have any of you seen the new Czech away kits? They are a lime green. Looks like a goal keepers outfit. Who the hell comes up with these designs.
@Maminjo
You missed that article someone put up recently?
It basically said his Serbian uncle (mum’s brother) was a witness against Ante Gotovina. His mum is Serb.
Where do you get he hasn’t got an ounce of Serb in him?
Not a Kobe fan but shit he seemed like a real man after his playing career in terms of giving back to the community. The world is much worse off without a man like him. Gone too soon like our hero Petrovic
Real disrespectful calling Luka a Serb.
Dude doesn’t have an ounce of that in his blood, and to top things off, his family were killed by Serbs in the war.
Even as a joke, it’s not funny.
Ok who do you guys take
All things equal
Luka the Serb and his career and helping the enemy to win 2nd place at World Cup
Or Croat djokovic and winning all those tennis titles for his enemy?
I’m rooting for Croat djokovic in the Aussie open ,and it would be quite impressive if he takes it again?
I love you Kobe my black mamba
@EUsports.com
The difference between Kobe and Drazen is, where Drazen is concerned you have to imagine what he could’ve did, with Kobe we know what he did. Embarrassing to mention the two in the same sentence in my opinion.
I’d rank Petrovic alongside the likes of Tom Gugliotta and Wally Szczerbiak.
How is Serb Modric going this season, will be pretty impressive if he can win the title with Real this year?
RIP Kobe…
(Note to self: Never ever get on a helicopter.)
Petrović’s death denied us a Dream Team rematch in the’ 94 World Championship in which we could have possibly surprised people.
Drazen was also a disciplined Warrior with his contagious work ethic, unlike Kukoč and Rađa… Who both got piss drunk the night before the semifinals, and cost us the game when they played horribly bad the next day.
Kobe and Dražen were both psychopaths when it came to basketball.
Rebic (7.5): The Croatian proved – once again – that he deserves a spot in the starting eleven. He worked tirelessly and created chances as well, perhaps he should have even scored one. Assisted Jack’s goal in a beautiful manner.
Dražen for us was the most devastating tragedy in the history of sport.
28 years and in his prime.
The champion of the Croatian people who the world thought was in a “civil war?”
I’ll say this Dražen’s mental make up was from the same Jordan and Kobe DNA.
600 made threes everyday!!
I think prior to Petro’s death, the Nets were on the up. They had a decent back court with Petro and Kenny Anderson and a pretty good front court with Derrick Coleman and Chris Morris. They were just missing a decent centre (Chris Dudley and Sam Bowie were rubbish) and they didn’t have great depth either.
I think one or 2 more seasons and New Jersey would have done something.
Rip to the 3 young girls, and the other passengers. Their lives were cut too short.
I myself had a dangerous encounter on my one and only helicopter ride. Earlier this year, 7 people died in a crash on the same trip in which I had my experience.
I would never put a child on one unless absolutely necessary. Youth basketball is not a scenario I would consider necessary.
That said, I am disgusted by the climate change warriors saying he got what he deserved bc Helicopters are not green.
@Elvis- I agree, Drazen much closer to a legend to me.
Nike still didn’t officially confirm them.
So there is a chance that these are fake. Sigh.
So the pixelated ones are real?
Not surprised.
They denied the black ones before it was confirmed. They did the same here.
@Ante got it, @Lavatreni doing quite the pr stunt lol
Rebić an assist in 12th minute against Torino! That man is showing the goods and forcing them to put him in. Love it
@ Milos,
I just posted it on FB. It’s just the rumored kit in the flesh. I’d say sorry for breaking the news to you, but that thing is UGLY!
@Milo Hvar
What about the road kit in black?
Pixelated euro 2020 kits are confirmed. @lavatreni on Instagram got their hands on t he kit early. Look them up to see it worn and pictured.
Kobe’s own words:
” AFTER MONTHS OF REVIEWING DISCOVERY, LISTENING TO HER ATTORNEY AND EVEN HER TESTIMONY IN PERSON, I NOW UNDERSTAND HOW SHE FEELS THAT SHE DID NOT CONSENT TO THIS ENCOUNTER. “
Yup I always left brusies on the necks of women I slept with. Let me guess the rough sex defense. Why did the Kobes apologize to her and her family after the payoff in an open announcement?
She received death threats remember and was ony 19. The girl also came from a rich family so money may not have been her motivation.
Im assuming you were there so you know all of this. he was never convicted, she didnt testify because she didnt want to lie under oath. so again cheated on his wife? yes. raped someone? no.
The rape accusation is very credible. The women was choked and submitted to a rape kit test which found injuries not consistent with consensual sex. She was dragged through the mud by his high paid law team and his fans. This was all before the Metoo movement. She decided to take the cash he gave her to shut up. She was raped.
He was never convicted. It was a money stunt by the lady. Did he cheat on his wife? yes. did he sexually assault someone? no.
Kobe sexually attacked a 19 year old female hotel employee and you include him in the same sentence as Drazen?
This website has gone to Hollywood. It needs a rival.