January 28, 2020
Been trying to wrap my head around this Kobe tragedy and I haven’t had any success. Like everybody else who has been affected by this tremendously catastrophic event, I am grief-stricken, bewildered, and finding everyday life a whole lot more difficult to deal with than it was before Sunday. I heard the news while I was out on the track coaching hurdlers. One of the kids’ parents was talking to another parent, and I overheard him say something about an accident. I assumed it was a local accident, and that it would affect traffic on the way home. I asked, “There was an accident?” The parent, whose eyes were down looking at his phone, said, “Kobe died in a helicopter crash.”
At that moment, my initial reaction was the same as everyone else’s when they first heard the news: Kobe? Not Kobe! No way! Kobe Bryant? Are you sure? Must be fake news. This is the era of fake news. Gotta be fake news. I checked my own phone and saw the report from TMZ. There was still hope. Until I see it on ESPN or CNN or somewhere like that, I’m holding out hope. And of course, a few minutes later, it was the top story on ESPN’s website.