Jerry West Says Kobe’s Parents & Sisters Are ‘Traumatized’ by His Sudden Death

First of all, Jerry, thank you so much for inviting us to your home here on a really horrible day. Sunday, today you wake up like any other Sunday, a nice quiet day and then when did this start to develop for you? I guess it was around 10:30. when I get a call from someone saying, did you hear that Kobe Bryant was involved in a helicopter crash? That's not like that, immediately there are a lot of sources of information that we've never had before and particularly here in Los Angeles and

sudden

ly he reported a helicopter crash but he didn't say that he was part of it and then obviously the news breaks light and you go from hoping to praying that he's okay, then

sudden

ly reality tells him that you're not here anymore, I'm just sitting.

I'm here with my wife and I reflect on my first relationship with him when I was 17 and watching him try to grow into what he became, watching this iconic basketball player who captured the city and honestly, I think because he was very young. when he got here, he was 17 years old, he didn't even sign a contract and she watched him retire, she watched him watch his career skyrocket in another area, she watched him become a father to four daughters and she watched three of them looking at him like this was the most incredible person in the entire world watching how he played with him his love for them all those things start to bring back memories of my first days with him and I got to the point where it wasn't easy having a brother killed in Korea and honestly, I felt Like he lost a brother, a son, he was 17 years old in this house right here when we drafted him he was 17 years old or we traded for him he was 17 years old and watching him grow up was part of our family for two or three. months here he would come to dinner and my son would take him to practice.

My son Ryan took it to places where his agent at the time wasn't Are Elem, who's been a great friend of mine forever and kind of helped orchestrate it here. to try to get him through the minefield of other people taking him in the draft and we finally found a way to trade for him and get him here in Los Angeles and everyone agreed with you on that or were you out? a limb, well I think Jerry Buss was the most important one and that's the one I cared about the most and because we were trying, it was a free agent period and we were trying to make a pitch to Shaquille O'Neal and in doing so, there was certain things we had to do to create more money to be able to pay to kill on the hill and one of them was to be able to trade the car's starting center Vlade Divac, who was a very good player and was finally made and Shaquille O. "Neal said yes and that was the beginning of an incredible career for the Lakers with Kobe and Shaquille watching him grow together, seeing the success that was later and the success and joy they had in winning, but most importantly what it meant for the team.

Los Angeles city, my god, people loved those two guys, she killed a big giant man, fun in Kobe, the serious teacher, but going to practice watching him grow up, he probably wasn't ready to play because of the lack from experience. It wasn't for lack of ability and people always ask, you know, and give too much credit for drafting him, but he was someone we wanted and to think it worked, where this is his name, his legacy will live on forever, but that's the a tragedy for me. One of the worst days for my wife was sitting here and thinking about all the things I shared with him growing up, trying to encourage him to stay positive and trying to manage to not be too eager to get a chance to play, just biding my time. timely, he's going to beat someone else, even though he's too good and we made a trade that I don't think everyone in our office is happy with, we traded Eddie Eddie Jones, the star guard and Kobe Bryant. he took his place and then in his career like he was heading for the moon, but you know, think about those funny things and then think about what happened today, his family, his children, they only think about his wife, he's gone, his people who depended on him, his daughter, his basketball Canobie, he was the little basket, yes, he was a very good young player and here, with what pride he coached his team and seeing this happen, it really has been a day, such time lives in infamy for me and I remember when FDR said that now, as a child, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, this has the same meaning to me because I was young and now I'm older and that would have been more meaningful than if it had been an adult instead of an old man today but this has been one of the worst days of my life I just like losing one of my children it's like losing a loved one I have all these mixed emotions sometimes they stay inside other times they don't Sometimes I get emotional and This has been going on all day, thank God, I've gotten a lot of calls from people in Texas who know how much I cared about him and how much I loved the success he was having in his life and I think I was telling them before.

He was going to the Academy Awards this year when they were making him a new tuxedo through a friend of mine who makes clothes for both of us and I don't know for some reason I thought of something today that his tuxedos actually ended up probably no and to think he was going to go there he would enjoy people's adulation for being a part of his new life and oh he did it did you help him? You know in difficult moments, as if it were a call. for him when things weren't going his way, oh yeah, well, yeah, and Billy, there are some things that you know I wouldn't go into at all, which is a little incident that Hank doesn't dare mention that he was going to leave the Lakers and that I was. working in Memphis when I had two conversations with him like Kobe, under no circumstances can you do this job.

Where did I want to go? I wanted to go there. Clippers and ironically, today I'm involved with the Clippers and they were two different conversations. I told him I just wanted to leave the Lakers and I told him it might be the worst decision he's ever made in his life. I told him not to get so excited. I told him he had to make an adult decision. Do not do it. this and at that time it obviously had a different owner who was not a lot of people's favorite and I thought that his story, his destiny should be with the Lakers, thank God he stayed down because I had the opportunity to see him. from afar I had a chance to see him he called Edge and he grew up thank you for that wisdom when we talked a couple of times we talked about a couple of times they are doing it I didn't really interact or not I no longer interact with the players unless Let them be players, they are not, you know they are your older players.

I'll go running from time to time. I don't go out much anymore and I don't see as many people anymore. I used to play and but he was again he was like a son to me sitting here listening to him talk in our house here being my children involved and we were looking at pictures when my children were very young they have not called me today and when I used to ​​working for the Lakers and he is no longer there and is working for the Clippers. He called me today from San Antonio and Dad

says

, "No, I don't think he can keep this," he said. he's too emotionally involved right now and it tells you how close West's family was to him and if you imagine how much closer we are, what about the millions of people all over Southern California and around the world?

Yeah, this is an iconic brand again, he's like Pied. Piper, he was walking down the street, people were just running after him like he was God. I just thought of something: I was at the 2012 Olympics. Kobe Bryant was the biggest fan, remember, he was the biggest fan of the other sports and he went and We were doing our stand-ups at the show presentation from the top of this building and I looked like, oh, there he is again and Kobe had his hoodie up, his headphones were on and he was going to do indoor cycling and Kobe.

What's really strange is that I played in the 1960 Olympics, okay, and nobody knew who they were and nobody, not even when, I played basketball here in Los Angeles and I was very aware until later years that it was the team of the Laker in town and I played in the Olympics and I loved going to other events, but I could have gone anywhere and no one would have come across any ideas, not the way it is. Now not with all the social media but again his presence as a player and the love for him and I'm not sure why because his personality was much more serious, if you were around him in person it was fun but if you were in a going to the locker room with him or watching him play, it was not fun, it was a war for him and I think people learn to love and respect that part of him, so when you think about him, what is the moment of joy that comes? to the mind it's his laugh it's him grinding you know like it's fine I think the first thing was the first championship because that's what it was about that's what a child Mittman is to the commitment to excellence many people committed to excellence, but sometimes they're not playing with the right players, sometimes they're with players that aren't good enough to overcome it, but we had two players, him and Shaquille O'Neal, who could take a hundred people on their way back and take them to the finish line and they did it on more than one occasion and for me to see that and see the joy I saw a different person, I saw a different personality and I was so excited for him that this journey that started in Philadelphia was his first A day that started in Italy when his father was water.

Joe played professional basketball there. I think it was a great learning experience for him to go there with his family to see the way I see how different it is to live in Europe and then come back. Here I think it made him a much more mature person watching him play in high school on tape, he just looked at me and said oh my gosh this guy doesn't belong in this game he belongs at least at the college level and probably a different level. think about the eye, I keep thinking about, you know his wife and I, we've heard, you know, I haven't had any contact, I know my son is with Toby's sister and they've been communicating a little bit and I just his personal family she's

traumatized

and devastated like any family would be, but I think when you have someone who and every family is different, you know that some people are very successful and it's advertised that people are very successful and no one knows who they are and here. he was someone that if you are a sports fan if you haven't watched basketball you knew who Kobe Bryant was that's how special he was and my thoughts my prayers my hopes are with his family because they are the ones who need him Most and one of the worst days of my life I'm sure I'm sure this is something that's not going to go away real quick for me Have you lived some life Jerry I mean, when things like this happen, say well, how does this happen? young man with this beautiful life and then you think what were we all complaining and fighting about on social media the other day and what about moments like this?

They just hit us for a second, but they don't last long. I'll tell you you know it's as simple as the people who criticized him, okay, the same people who criticized him, fired too much in the room, there will be the same people today that will be there praising him, okay, same thing. people, the same experts, that's ridiculous, it's shameful that people sink to that level to get back on the bandwagon, you know, it's always easier to get off the bandwagon just to get on it and for those people who wrote those things it's a trend may God bless you.

It's a shame, it's a tragedy for him to try to lead a team that wasn't well equipped to win a championship, but a testament to his greatness is that he was able to bring it close and have people say, well, you know, but to say that this world is very The envious world today is a world full of credible contradictions and athletes seem to provoke the most unpleasant comments of all by talking about their performance. I would love to see someone else in the basketball game that went to means everything to you, something you worked for or your life is the ultimate test to win a championship, it's the ultimate to play at that level for twenty years and I said: I don't know what my next days will be like.

I don't know and for two hours I was I was, I don't know where I was for two hours, it's just that you hate your things, that grown man crying, but today he has bought many, many tears and at some point you think that you are stronger than that, but You're not when it comes with people that you really love and care about and yeah I think about their family oh my gosh God bless them thank you for bringing them here yeah I help you you know 17 year old boy you can't just let them go , so it was a big task. and you took it on all fronts and what a great guy for the city spent some time there at the crash site today and talked to the fans so many families in t-shirts and the kids and interviewed a bunch of them in this they're all just crowds from people that you know well, I think coming in, I think that's what happens when sometimes you don't understand the importance of an athlete, athletes can be the best leaders of all and the people in the political business that you take a swipe at glance. them sometimes because they lead the people and the people follow them, yes, just leading is to be the center of attention, you have to be in the lead, not the leader, and that's what Kobe Bryant was and yet Even though he accepted that mantle, he was still the guy who brought people andHe was still a guy that people praised and admired.

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