Dwyane Wade Remembers Kobe Bryant And The Impact He Had On His Career

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wade

when you met him the first time I met him I went in my rookie season in the NBA I have been a great I have three favorite players were Michael Jordan Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant 10 games and established my rookie season we played the Lakers here in This court Shaq calms alongside Gary Payton and Kobe Bryant. I told Kobe the story from 2016 at the All-Star Game when he let Chris Paul and Carmelo host a thank you dinner for him and I told him about it at that game. in the fourth quarter I had the opportunity to garden for the first time and I was in transition and I was very scared and I remember thinking, you saw him play over and over again, you know it's a move, you know it's a move and I just guess.

Okay and I broke them and I remember thinking this doesn't matter if I don't finish this basket and I went down and hit the float and thought to myself, Can I believe what just happened? I'm calling all my boys to come back. in the crib and let them know that I just destroyed Kobe Bryant and that was my first chance. He doesn't remember it because it wasn't a great moment, but to me it meant the world, it meant the world that I had a chance. I guess to play against one of my idols I had a chance to have a moment against one of my idols and it all went from there and the next year Shaq was traded to Miami and immediately Colby and I were caught between me and each other.

No, this is one of my favorite players, but I understood that the business understood that what we were looking for was the championship and every time we played against each other I had to act as if I didn't. I did not care. He was playing against me, one of my idols, the elbows fall off, don't help him get up, you know all these things that I had to get used to and that was difficult because I grew up wanting to be like that, I want to be like him and what is enough? He told me that I had the opportunity over the years. 2008 came around and I had the opportunity to play in the Olympics and I remember the first day I actually had a real conversation with Kobe, it was the day before the first Olympic practice 6:30 In the morning, my coach Tim Grover gets me up and He says, hey, we gotta go do our job before we get there, before you guys practice and I go to the weight room, there's only one other person in the weight room and it's Kobe Bryant and Kobe are opposites and I'm opposite and we're not really saying what each other is, we just didn't work and towards the end of the training it was an exercise that Tim made us do and that you had to do.

Get in a pushup position and hold on and see how long you can hold on and he paid Kobe and I side by side to see who can hold on the longest. His competitor is driving. My competitor drives. He was as long as I was. I once got up and after I finished doing three sets, Kobe stood up and said, "You like me, Tim. I can tell that this was like me and from that moment on I have had respect for him and for me when I was young". "The kid that came into this league was a person that I wanted respect from, he was a person that I wanted to look at as his equal and look me in the eye and it was Kobe Bryant, so when I got this news the other day I think I've been in shock for two days and this is the first moment where it really feels real, my friend is shaking right now, I'm numb, but I just want to talk to the people, the fans.

I went. I went to the gym this morning and I just wanted to be around people and I saw people in the gym that didn't even want to be there, but they were in the gym. I saw people with Kobe gear on, with Kobe shoes on, Laker gear. So people are doing exercise, but they actually just stared at each other every day, but I just want to let them know that it's okay to feel whatever you're feeling right now. It's okay to be hurt. It's okay to cry. It's okay to destroy. movement is okay. laughing it's okay to talk around people and talk about the moments you shared with Kobe Bryant it's okay to find that community right now to surround yourself with a group of people to just talk about moments and talk about memories because that's all we've been doing at my house for the last two days, not only is he okay, I would encourage him and Kenny when I called you