Jayson Tatum: Broke down in bathroom after Kobe’s death

foreigner why did you always tell your mom that you wanted to be like Kobe? It was just something about him, you know from the first time I saw him play, I saw him on TV, you know, I fell in love with him and his game, um, the way. he moved and you know the things he did on the court, it was like art to me, you know, he played basketball differently than everyone else, uh, and I realized that and I was like, this is who I want to be, how did it resonate? with you, him talking about putting all your eggs in one basket, I felt like he was talking to me when he said that because there was no other option, you know, there's nothing else I would want to do in life, as you know, everyone was talking about having a backup. plan like he never made sense to me because it's like why would he have a backup plan?

Because I'm going to make this work if you have a backup plan and you're not putting all your time and energy into what you want to achieve, so if you're not putting all your attention into that one thing, how can you expect to be successful? What would you study about them? his footwork, right, that's what made him that's what separated him from everyone else and you have to be a little crazy to be as good as he was and I remember him talking like maybe he hadn't been the best friend or the best cousin or brother because he was always in the gym working out and then you have to accept the sacrifice and things like that. and not all of them are yours, so the details of the ESPN show come to light when you are playing against the Cavs and the Conference Finals and the segment is made about you, how does that affect you?

It was after the first game so we had practice and I come to my locker and I got all these text messages and alerts on my phone and I remember sitting there and thinking I didn't open it at first because I was nervous, okay calm down, Kobe, you know who? I'm like this. Kobe could have said anything about me and I would have been ecstatic just because he was talking about me like that. The person I grew up idolizing knows who I am. I'm from St. Louis and Kobe knows who I am. It was like that wasn't normal, but I remember sitting there like I could have seen it 15 times, probably because I was in shock.

I couldn't believe it and then I got a text from him. He said, "Hey, what's up?" This is cold, you know, he said something like support you, you know, keep up the good work when you were in the summer, when you're in Los Angeles, communicate, we can go to the gym and I was like someone has to be. With me they just can't be real, you know, life just came full circle, when do you decide to text him and take me from the point where I was driving the car to the gym onwards? The first time I went to Los Angeles, I texted him. him as soon as the wheels hit the ground, so I went to his office and met with him like twice and I remember sitting there, his assistant said she would be there shortly.

I remember sitting on my hands because my hands were so wet, I was like, damn, I was about to come here and I remember shaking his hand and my hands were still wet and it seemed to me that he probably thought, damn, what? why do you have wet hands? um, but he just talked for a long time and he walked around, he walked with me, we talked about the things of the season that I want to work on and then we worked, one time in Los Angeles, and those were the best three days of my life by far. ease, what made it like that from the point of view of the person that I fell in love with basketball that I grew up idolizing and wanted to be like now I'm in a gym with him and he's trying to help me it's like how did I get here?

It was like he just gave me chills, how did you find out about his

death

? He was in New Orleans, it was a three-game, seven-day trip, so I still went on a rehab trip and prepared, but I didn't play. I never forget that we walked to Popeyes because it was five minutes from the hotel and we had our food and we sat down and my phone started blowing up and I looked and someone was saying like Kobe passed away, question mark and then I look, I am who I am. I'm like that, Kobe passed away and he was like Kobe Bryant, so I looked on Twitter.

I thought no, they had to be joking and I remember they had the news at Popeyes and it was like breaking news, you know Kobe Bryant's past and the helicopter crash and I was like no, I didn't know how to feel because it didn't seem real, because in my mind he was a superhero, so in my mind, Kobe was invincible, I was like, wait, like he literally was. Like Kobe can't die so I couldn't, I didn't record it and I remember I came back, we walked back to the hotel and I was like in shock and I went back to the room and turned on CNN. and you know there I was, I sat in the

bathroom

, I just

broke

down, I couldn't believe it, how did you handle it in the next few days?

It was difficult. I remember we had a game that day and they were still playing and I remember sitting in the locker room during the game. I couldn't even watch the game because I was like I was awake. What do you think is his legacy? How it inspired people and I think that's what everyone aims to do well. You can accomplish things, but did you impact people? Did you inspire the world? And I think he did. Everyone in the world was inspired.