Obviously, it's a loss, because Kobe was gifted and driven in many different ways and still young enough to impact so many lives.
I feel what Minstrel is saying, though, too. Very much. There are a lot of people who touch lives in ways we never see.
As sobering as Kobe's death might be to me, his daughter's passing might even hurt worse. Thirteen. Whole life ahead of her. And I think of how teens and particular girls have so much messing with their heads these days and what her friends and teammates are going to be going through.
In my last months as a sports writer, I wrote a column about two 22-year-olds who I had covered in high school died a day apart, one from drugs, the other apparently from a heart issue that hadn't been found. The day the column hit the stands, a third young man their age had died from a drug overdose. A few months earlier, a guy a couple of years older, HS and college basketball star, died when he drank too much and passed out at a team reunion. On my birthday that year, one of my friends' sons, only 17, great kid and good athlete, went out drinking with his buddies in the woods, passed out in the river behind his parents' house, and drowned.
I'm left with this: This is life. Cherish the people you share it with. Don't be ashamed to tell them you care or to laugh at yourself with them. Really, make the most of your moments, because you never know if you'll have others.
Here's how I ended my column:
"I want to attend their weddings, not their viewings. I’d want to read about them changing their world, not write about them departing it. I want to congratulate their parents instead of consoling them. I want to talk to them about what they are doing with their lives rather than talk to others about what they could have done had they lived.
So hug your kids a little tighter today, your brothers, your sisters. Tell the people you love that you care, even if things are rough between you … especially if things are rough between you.
Don’t miss a chance that might never come. Because, really, you never know."
Anyway, sorry for hijacking the thread.
