Between snapping photos of his adorable daughter Cali Lynn Dream Taylor or working graveyard shifts in the studio for his forthcoming, featureless and Bongo-produced 1992 project, California rapper The Game (nee Jayceon Taylor) has been a courtside regular at Laker games and a fan/ friend of the team's five-time champ, Kobe Bryant.
Twenty-four hours before #MambaDay, the day of Bryant's final game against the Utah Jazz (April 13) at L.A.'s Staples Center, sports junkie and former basketball player The Game reminisces on the Black Mamba's legacy as both on-and-off-court MVP, father and human being.
I remember the first time I ever really heard of Kobe.
I just remember hearing this amazing basketball player when I was in high school, maybe 9th or 10th grade. I'm just hearing about this kid from Philly who can just do everything.
People were saying throughout the ABCD camp and the Nike camp that they'd never seen a basketball player like this -- that he was probably going to go straight to the NBA.
You know, if you're a young basketball player, that's everybody's dream. You kind of low-key hate that it's not you getting that type of praise and you want to see him play.
You want to play against him. Of course, I was a few years younger than Kobe. At that time, you couldn't just go on the Internet and YouTube.
You had to wait until you actually seen them or watched a game tape. So I finally had seen him play out in Vegas in a tournament and I thought, "Shit, it's like the second coming of Michael Jordan." I just remember being a fan from that day. Then I got pissed off at him a couple of years later when he took Brandy to the prom.
That's when Brandy was at her height. I was like, "Damn, why can't I take Brandy to the prom?" It was just so cool that it was Kobe, man, and that he was getting all of this notoriety and becoming just a huge celebrity outside of basketball.
When the NBA draft came [in 1996] and the Lakers traded Vlade Divac to Charlotte [Hornets] for Kobe Bryant, I remember how overjoyed and happy everyone was watching the draft with me.
I couldn't figure out why on Earth anyone would trade away Kobe Bryant for Vlade Divac, but that's how the drafts go.
The first time I ever seen him play was at the Forum and I could just remember thinking how dope he was. He didn't have an amazing rookie year but you could tell Kobe was going to be who everyone knew he was going to be.
He made some rookie mistakes in that game and all that but still the Forum was packed and everybody was excited. It was just a good time. I just appreciated him being in the city and I knew that it was a legacy in the making.
source:Billboard
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