Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant
May 22, 2020 — Tiger Woods is as competitive as they come in sports, and his work ethic is off the charts. The same can be said about Kobe Bryant who was one of the true definitions of determination and hard work in sports.
Bryant, the NBA icon died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday when he, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were flying to one of Gianna’s basketball games. Sadly, nobody survived.
Woods, who knew Bryant and is a Laker fan, spoke about the five-time NBA champion.
John Altobeli, his wife Keri, their daughter Alyssa, Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, her daughter Payton Chester, and Ara Zobayan were the other victims who didn’t make it. John Altobeli was a legendary NJCAA (JUCO) baseball coach who was entering his 24th season as coach of Orange Coast College and he won four state titles. He was also the son of former World Series-winning manager Joe Altobeli.
Woods kept it together during the interview with Amanda Balionis, and spoke about Bryant’s fiery spirit on and off the basketball court. It had to be incredibly shocking to hear the news right after the round, but as mentioned, Tiger kept his composure afterward on what was one of the saddest days in sports history.
Although it was an awful day, it’s always good to think about the positive things. For those of us who are basketball junkies know the impact he had on the sport and sports in general.
Tiger Woods reflects on the tragic passing of NBA legend Kobe Bryant. pic.twitter.com/t4F2Sqj57Z
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 26, 2020
From a personal account, I will say that seeing Kobe play was a big part of my childhood. Growing up; Kobe, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Shaq, and others were at the pinnacle of their powers. Then, of course, you had a very young LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade come into the league (I was a Bulls fan, and they drafted Kirk Hinrich who had a solid career in his own right).
Bryant was never my favorite player, but I always appreciated the magnitude of his greatness as a player, as well as a person and the intelligence he possessed. He had this mentality as if he was a predator hunting his prey, very similar to that of Michael Jordan and as mentioned, I’m a Bulls fan, and seeing Bryant play was the closest thing to that. Woods, of course, has also long carried this mental approach.
I always used to play NBA video games, see Kobe’s ratings, and think; “man, this dude doesn’t have a single weakness!”. His shooting, driving, ball handling, and defensive ratings were all in the ’90s or close to it most of the time. Read more at ThePunchbowl.com
