BIG3 founder and lifelong Lakers fan Ice Cube dropped by CBS Sports Radio to share his thoughts on the life and death of Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., on Sunday. He was 41. Bryant’s daughter, Gianna, was also among the nine people killed.
The outpouring of love and support for Bryant has been overwhelming. But will Lakers fans ever get past this tragedy? Will the sadness ever go away?
“Well, you never move past it,” Ice Cube said on Tiki & Tierney. “We’re going to honor Kobe just like he is still here. We’re going to honor him all the time. Nobody is going to have a Laker conversation without talking about Kobe Bryant. So we’re never going to get past it. It’s going to always hurt. But Kobe would want us to come out of this better than we was before it happened. Kobe would expect all of us to dig deeper inside of ourselves and come out of this more focused, more determined, and honor life a little more.”
An 18-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Bryant won five NBA titles and two Finals MVPs with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is among the greatest basketball players of all time.
“I think we should all absorb his mentality that he took on the court into our everyday life of striving to be the best, stay consistent, work on what you’re not good at, and never be satisfied,” Ice Cube said. “Not saying you don’t smell the roses, because I believe he did, but it’s all about the journey, man, not the destination. Kobe Bryant was all about the journey. Kobe Bryant wasn’t about load management. That’s against his nature. So we need to learn a lot from Kobe.”
Bryant was demanding of teammates. For some, he was too demanding. But there was a reason for that. He wanted to be great.
“Who gives a damn if you got a championship or a thousand of them if we didn’t see you work hard to get it, if we didn’t see you go through the fire?” Ice Cube said. “That’s what makes it special. We just want to turn the page to the end and never want to read the book. Nobody’s going to care about the book. Kobe taught us this. We need to take those lessons, apply them to our life, and then we can get past this tragedy and continue to celebrate the man for who he is and what he’s done for us."