All language subtitles for Gone.Before.His.Time.Kobe.Bryant.2024.720p.WEB.h264-DiRT

[music]

[music]

They were just trying to go to their AAU game,

try and get there on time.

Through the course of the next 45 minutes,

it just kept getting worse.

[Man] You're still too low level for flight following

at this time.

[music]

[Woman] Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter

were among the nine victims who died in a helicopter crash

in Southern California.

[Chris] Kobe Bryant is dead and you're shocked.

You just, you don't want to believe it.

It didn't seem real. It still doesn't seem real.

Fans say they really lost the king of L.A.

It just hits you and that's when the tears start flowing

because this is your brother, the guy you went to battle with.

[Lamar] I lost a lot of people in my life, but when Kobe died,

I knew what it felt like to lose a brother.

[Elle] It was Kobe, that it was his daughter,

and that it was all of these other families...

It was devastating in a way that I can't explain.

For them to go out together, that was a very hard pill

to swallow.

[Rob] How do we even get through this?

It was brutal.

Nobody could wrap their brain around what was happening.

[Man] Bryant, for the win!

It's hard to imagine how impactful Kobe would have been

had that tragedy not happened.

I don't think he had enough time to actually eclipse

what he did on the basketball court.

In his passing, we realized how much he's meant

to the basketball world.

[music]

[music]

[music]

[Male narrator] August 23, 1978.

Kobe Bean Bryant is born in suburban Philadelphia,

the youngest of Joe and Pamela Bryant's

three children, and the only boy.

Kobe's father, Joe "Jellybean" Bryant,

is a journeyman NBA player.

Every time he moves to a new team,

the family follow, but his opportunities in the NBA

slowly dry up.

Joe decides to ply his trade in Italy.

So Joe signed a contract with an Italian team outside of Rome.

And Kobe Bryant and his family moved.

They were the only black family in a small town.

And Kobe felt like an outsider. He struggled to fit in.

Kobe grew up in non-black, traditional white neighborhood.

[Narrator] Most kids in Italy are wild about soccer,

but Kobe dreams of playing in the NBA like his father.

He begs his relatives back in the States to send him videos

of his NBA idols, players like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

When he was younger, growing up in Italy,

he was watching the Showtime Lakers on tapes.

He grew to learn about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry.

And he knew what it meant.

[Narrator] But of all the videos Kobe most cherished

are those of his favorite player of all time, Michael Jordan.

[Erynn] Kobe would watch the videos of Jordan.

He'd try to emulate that.

And he would play after his father's games on a Sunday

at this local church. He was so dedicated.

And he would just play and play and play,

working so hard to get better.

Kobe grew up for part of his life in Italy.

He would tell me the kids always would say,

"You're good here, but when you go to the States,

like, you're gonna get crushed."

And so I think that was definitely a fire that lit

under him to want to prove that wrong.

[Narrator] Two years after moving to Italy,

Joe Bryant's friend and former teammate, Harvey Catchings,

signs with another Italian league team.

Harvey's daughter, Tamika, is nearly Kobe's age.

The two immediately hit it off over their shared passion

for the game.

They were the two basketball fanatics that

knew what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives

at an early age.

So he had a relationship with Tamika Catchings in Italy

that was bonded and rooted in basketball for what they both

wanted their journey to be.

[Narrator] When Kobe turns nine, he returns to Philadelphia

for a summer basketball camp.

It proves to be an eye-opening experience.

During the games, Kobe didn't score a single point,

but that didn't stop him from giving it his all every time

he stepped on the court.

[Erynn] Over the course of the next five years,

Kobe is like a beast with basketball.

He's playing every chance that he can get.

Training, both mentally and physically.

This takes a lot of dedication and we know that that was

something that Kobe prided himself on.

We know it was his whole life.

[music]

Kobe came over to Philadelphia from Italy in eighth grade.

[Erynn] Kobe is enrolled at Lower Merion High School

and basically is adapting to being back in America.

[David] When Kobe first came over to our school,

I thought there would be a good chance he would go to the NBA.

I knew his dad was in the NBA. He was 6'1". He could shoot.

And I already knew, like, if I've ever seen anybody

that's going to go, like, this is gonna be the guy.

[Narrator] In 1992, Kobe becomes the first freshman

at Lower Merion to start on the boys' varsity team.

That season, they only win 4 of 21 games,

which only pushes Kobe to work harder,

and encourages his teammates to do the same.

And that's how Kobe was. I mean, he was just like,

he was a monster on the court,

But he wanted you to get better

so that the team could be better.

[Robby] His work ethic, that was legendary.

His was getting up at 4:30 in the morning

and going to practice before school.

And then we had practice after school.

[Emory] Practice was always hard with him.

He went 100% every day.

He was always going as hard as he possibly could.

Probably my most famous practice story was we were doing

a three-on-three kind of round robin tournament in practice.

We were on the same team,

so we're in the championship game,

and it's a tie game.

So he passes me the ball in the wing and he cuts past me.

I pump fake to him. Everybody went towards him.

And the lane opened up and I was like, "This is it."

So I was going in for the layup and then out of nowhere,

I get my shot blocked. The other team scores.

We lose the game.

It was one of the few times that he lost something in practice.

And he was staring at me after we lost.

He's like, "What is your problem?"

And I was like, "All right, dude."

I'm like, "Relax. I got it." Wrong thing to say.

And he kind of, like, lunged at me and I turned around

and hightailed it out of that gym

as fast as I could possibly run.

That was just kind of part of the competitive fire

that he had that we had to step up to.

At the time, you don't realize how different and how special

he was, but looking back on it, you're like,

he knew, and he knew what it took to get there.

And he did everything he needed to do.

[Narrator] Despite Kobe's hard-charging reputation,

as he gets more comfortable with life in America,

a lighter side emerges,

at least when he isn't on the court.

Kobe was very into music. I remember he loved Wu-Tang Clan.

That was his favorite group, and he was very into rap.

But he would always freestyle back on the bus and road trips.

And he was a fun guy.

[Narrator] Fueled by his dad's love, support,

and all around basketball IQ, as well as Kobe's own

ever-growing passion for the sport, his sophomore season

at Lower Merion goes much better than his first.

Kobe also excels in the classroom as well,

developing a love of languages, literature, and simply being

a student back in the States.

[Scoop] I think Kobe, coming from his background,

spending a lot of time outside of America,

he was able to hone into another style of living

and appreciate other things in life.

And reading was probably one of those things,

the storytellers was probably one of those things.

People didn't realize. He was nerdy.

He loved Harry Potter. He loved Star Wars.

He loved movies.

[Emory] Off the court, he was just the nicest guy

in the world. I mean, he wanted you to be successful.

He was always willing to talk to you and walk you through things.

[Narrator] But it's during his junior year that Kobe explodes,

averaging nearly 30 points a game

and catching the eye of every college basketball scout

in America.

[Robby] He was the best player in the country.

Like, he was the number one rated player in the country.

♪ Yeah, if you want more, shout out for the encore ♪

We got to see why that was every day.

[Emory] At our high school games, we would have

college scouts come. We would have pro scouts come.

And it was fun.

[Man] Kobe Bryant knocks down the three.

He's just so driven. And he works so hard.

[David] Kobe always had a big belief in himself.

They were riding on the bus and he's like,

"Michael Jordan can't stop me." He's like, "Look, I'm not saying

I could stop him and shut him down, but he can't stop me."

Nobody in high school would say anything like that

and believe it. And he did believe it.

♪ Shout out for the encore

[people cheering]

[Narrator] There's still one thing that Kobe hasn't done

on a high school level, win a state championship.

Now a senior, as he and his teammates are making their way

through the Pennsylvania State playoffs, the hype around Kobe

further intensifies.

[Robby] The attention was unbelievable.

Camera crews at every practice. Sports Illustrated wants

to talk to you. They want to talk to me?

But why would they want to talk to me? Talk about Kobe.

[Erynn] That year, Kobe leads Lower Merion

to a state championship.

He started putting up major numbers.

Wilt Chamberlain's high school scoring record

stood for decades. And all of a sudden,

there's this kid in the Philadelphia suburbs

who is putting up 40 points, 50 points.

♪ Ain't gonna stop me now This is the final round ♪

[Narrator] As the media coverage around him intensifies,

Kobe becomes increasingly comfortable in the spotlight,

so much so that he invites the actress and pop star Brandy

to his senior prom. She says yes,

which comes as a bit of a shock to Kobe's friends,

but perhaps not to Kobe.

And that's exactly Kobe. He just was, like, so smooth

and confident.

[Elle] And I was all of 12 years old when Kobe Bryant

popped into my purview. And sort of just knew him

as this young teenage athlete, basketball phenom who went

to prom with Brandy. That's what I knew about Kobe.

[Narrator] As his senior year comes to a close,

Kobe has a big decision to make.

[Robby] One thing I remember, we went to the main office

of Lower Merion one day.

He's like, "I want to show you something."

So we go into there.

And that's where all the recruiting letters come in.

He had, like, bins of letters from every school.

Duke, North Carolina, UCLA. Everybody was in there,

like, unopened.

[David] It didn't make sense to go to college

and play college ball when he can just already,

you know, be living out and focusing 100% on his dream.

[Narrator] And on May 6, 1996, in front of hundreds

of teammates, fellow students and members of the press,

Kobe announces his plans for the future.

No, I have decided to skip college and take my talent

to the NBA.

When Kobe made the decision to go the NBA,

I was really happy for him. I just thought that

that would be the right move for him.

I felt like his focus, you know, could be just

solely on basketball.

[Chris] Players jumping directly from high school to the NBA

was not widely accepted. In fact, it was frowned upon

at that time.

[Rob] The level of competition from a high school game

to a professional NBA game is just astronomical.

The difference in talent of guys that you're going to

play against, guys you're going to face, is huge.

[Mark] Is this the right decision?

The NBA is such a much grander stage

than playing in high school.

As much as there was talk about Kobe's coming to

high school, nobody saw Kobe coming.

Nobody saw him coming.

[music]

♪ This is the moment I want it, want it ♪

♪ I'll be patient I finally got it ♪

♪ Say my name and they switch up the topic ♪

♪ Paid my dues, now I'm all in they pockets ♪

♪ Play the game, I keep moving the chains ♪

♪ Hundred mile an hour Stay in your lanes ♪

When we had seen players go from high school to the pros,

they were physical specimens. They were players that we knew

that kid is going to be successful from day one.

[Erynn] Future All-Stars like Stephon Marbury,

Ray Allen,

Allen Iverson have all been chosen.

[Narrator] 12 picks into the draft, and one player who has

yet to be chosen, 17-year-old Kobe Bryant.

We didn't know if he was gonna get drafted.

[Chris] Even if teams, general managers,

owners saw a great ability, they were concerned about

the physical and mental maturity,

and how long that might take transitioning whereas

college helps a player do that.

[Narrator] Shortly after 9:00 p.m.,

NBA Commissioner David Stern takes to the podium

to announce the next selection.

The Charlotte Hornets select Kobe Bryant

from Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania.

[Lamar] He was 18 years old and is gonna be considered

a grown man.

But we're allowed to be drafted, all right, and pay taxes,

so why not be able to turn professional?

[Narrator] In truth, Kobe is only 17.

And many experts believe he isn't ready for the NBA.

However, one general manager beyond the Charlotte Hornets

is bullish on Kobe's future.

In fact, just minutes before the Hornets selected Kobe,

the Los Angeles Lakers legendary general manager,

Jerry West, reached out to them and arranged a trade.

In exchange for drafting Kobe and dealing him to the Lakers,

the Hornets will receive All-Star center Vlade Divac.

Kobe will now play for one of the league's most iconic teams,

but at just 17, he still needs his parents written permission

to officially become a Laker.

[Joy] He was a teenager.

He was too young to sign his contract himself

when he came into the league.

[Chris] Give Jerry West credit because he saw something more

in Kobe than what a lot of other people saw.

And he targeted back then,

"Hey, this is a guy we gotta get."

[Narrator] However, it's clear from day one

that the Lakers organization views Kobe

as a work in progress.

[Robby] I remember watching Kobe's first game.

I'm like, "That must be weird for him

going from, you're the best player in the country,

now you're a benchwarmer."

[Rob] Kobe was lanky.

And then you gotta go on a Lakers' roster

with Shaquille O'Neal, who's 7'2" and, you know, 325 pounds.

And could literally pick you apart like a chicken wing

if he wanted to.

And those guys are all over the league.

[Chris] When I first approached him,

I was impressed with his professionalism

for this teenage athlete kind of thrown into this big arena.

A guy of few words,

but you could see in his eyes, he was going to be a star.

He was on a mission.

[Narrator] Former Kobe teammate and seven-time NBA champion

Robert Horry remembers the first time he met the young rookie.

[Robert] The first time I met Kobe,

I went up to introduce myself and he was like--

it was the biggest smile and the brightest eyes, was like,

"Hey, Rob, nice to meet you."

You know, we got to know each other.

But the kid was just, you know, one of those people who just

wanted to learn the game.

♪ The life of the champion

Even as a young rookie, he was one of those people that was

first at the Forum, first at the practice facility,

and the last one to leave.

He did let us know early, at least when I was around him,

Michael Jordan was the standard. He wanted to be not like Mike.

He wanted to be Kobe, but do some of the great things

that Jordan did.

And that stood out to me from a young guy.

It's a lot of guys who walk around the league,

and you point out, "Oh, he has this weakness."

And you go to Michael Jordan and it's like, he doesn't have one.

So Kobe was like, "Okay, that's who I'm gonna copy"

[Narrator] Even as Kobe works to improve his game,

he often finds himself an outsider

both on and off the court.

When he entered the league, he wasn't a bashful young player.

Sometimes that rubbed veterans the wrong way.

[Chris] You know, at first people--He's not likable.

And even I was hesitant. You don't want to judge too quickly,

but some guys, they just warm right up.

It took him a little while.

[Robert] I remember at one point we all were going out

and he was like, "Can I go?" And we were like,

"No, you can't go, dude.

You gotta be 21 to get in this spot."

[Narrator] It's around this time that Kobe strikes up

a friendship with Scoop Jackson, an up-and-coming NBA reporter

with Slam Magazine.

[Scoop] For that first meeting that we met,

I was able to develop a really, really good

relationship with him because I think he had

a lot of respect for Slam Magazine.

And I think he had a lot of respect to my approach

to telling stories.

[music]

♪ I see you stepping up like 007 ♪

♪ Two of my cop Let's double up measures ♪

♪ Anyone giving me trouble

[Arash] 1997 All-Star Weekend in Cleveland was very significant

for Kobe Bryant because he wanted to play in the

All-Star Game, but he also wanted to be a part of this

iconic competition, the slam dunk contest.

[Scoop] He was like, "Okay, you know, I'm gonna get

"in the dunk contest and I may not be playing on Sunday,

"but trust me, people gonna be walking away talking about me.

This is gonna be mine. This is my coming-out party."

He wins, becoming the youngest player to ever claim the crown.

[Scoop] After the All-Star Game, I think they started loosening

the rope and putting some more responsibilities

on this kid's shoulders.

[music]

[Erynn] That season, the Lakers do make it to the playoffs,

but Kobe is having a tough time dealing with the heightened

level of intensity that comes with being in the playoffs.

You cannot do the same things you do in the regular season

in the postseason. And a lot of players talk about this.

[Scoop] If you hadn't faced a team in playoff mode before,

you don't know what it's like.

And I think that was a rude, rude awakening for him.

[Narrator] May 12, 1997.

After defeating the Portland Trailblazers

three games to one in the first round of the playoffs,

the fourth-seeded Lakers are facing off against

the top-seeded Utah Jazz

in the Western Conference semifinals.

Trailing three games to one in the best of seven series,

late in game five, the Lakers find themselves

with their back against the wall

and without the services of their All-Star center.

Young Kobe spies an opportunity.

When Shaq fouled out, Kobe just took the game in his own hand.

Like, he's like, "Okay, I'm the best player on this

squad besides this big dude."

Most people run from pressure. I think he wanted the pressure.

He wanted the last shot.

He wanted to be the star of the team.

That's who he was.

And when you have that type of mentality,

there's nothing that you fear.

[Narrator] But as the game heads into overtime,

Kobe's confidence seems more like hubris.

He misses four shots, all air balls,

including one in the final minute that could have given

the Lakers the lead.

If he makes that shot, instant superstardom,

great for him, great for the team,

great for the league.

[Scoop] I think that moment needed to happen for Kobe

to face some reality that, yes, you can become what you

want to become, but this shit is not gonna happen overnight.

The story was that they flew back to L.A.

He went right to a high school gym and shot all night.

He wasn't gonna let that happen again.

[music]

[music]

♪ Love

♪ I'ma keep on going hard till it's all mine ♪

♪ Won't stop until I am the greatest one of all time ♪

[Robert] After missing that shot, it made him mad.

You never want to make Kobe mad because it's gonna make him

work harder and harder and harder to be good

at what he does. Next year he came back really good.

♪ Hey, I'm the GOAT

♪ I'm the GOAT, greatest of all time ♪

The teenager who had signed that contract had become a man.

And he knew what he had to do for this team to succeed.

[Robert] He came back with the desire to be better.

He even came back at 10 pounds bigger

because he got in the weight room and got stronger.

♪ I'm coming for I'm the GOAT, hey ♪

♪ I'm the GOAT, hey I'm the GOAT, hey ♪

♪ I'm the GOAT, greatest of all time ♪

[Scoop] Kobe went through a transformation.

And the Lakers knew it.

They saw an 18-year-old kid go from not 18 to 19,

but 18 to 25.

Kobe scores twice as much as he did the year before

and becomes the youngest player to appear

in a NBA All-Star Game.

This was one of the most significant moments

of Kobe's career.

He's going head-to-head against Michael Jordan.

This was the player that he looked up to most.

And I think Kobe knew Michael Jordan is the top tier

of the NBA. I have to be able to play as good as that guy.

[Narrator] With Jordan often guarding him,

Kobe scores 18 points, making him the top scorer

for the Western Conference All-Stars.

If you're watching it, you're like, "Oh my God,

"like, he used to talk about this guy.

Now he's playing against him."

That's gotta be a bit of a head trip for anybody.

You saw that confidence. Like, I'm supposed to be here.

You all just don't know it yet.

[Elle] Jordan said it himself.

Like, that's when Kobe Bryant, to me, sort of started

solidifying his self as the next one.

That All-Star Game, where he got everyone's attention.

[Narrator] However, that spring, the Lakers are once again

knocked out of the Western Conference playoffs

in the semifinal round,

falling to eventual NBA champions,

the San Antonio Spurs.

But Kobe's life off the basketball court is about

to take an unexpected and ultimately life-changing turn.

[David] He wanted to come out with a rap album,

so he put a group together with a bunch of guys from Philly.

I said, "I want to be part of this. I want to write the idea

for the music video."

[Narrator] The video is for a song called K.O.B.E.

and features model and entertainer Tyra Banks.

The song touches on Kobe's overseas roots

and his love of basketball.

♪ What I live for Basketball ♪

♪ Beats and bras From Italy to the U.S. ♪

♪ Yes, it's raw

[Narrator] The video is never released, but while on set,

Kobe met a 17-year-old backup dancer by the name of

Vanessa Lane. The two hit it off instantly.

[Scoop] And then I think once their conversation started,

it went from like, "She's a cool person" to like,

"Yo, I'm not letting this one leave."

[Narrator] After just six months together,

Kobe proposes marriage.

However, Kobe's parents think he and Vanessa are too young

and moving too fast.

They enlist one of Kobe's closest confidants,

reporter, Scoop Jackson, to try and convince him

to pump the brakes on his courtship of Vanessa.

[Scoop] I did the opposite of what they asked me to do.

I told them, "Hey, this is what happened.

"This is what they asked me to do.

"I'm not gonna do that, but if you need me,

"if you wanna holler, I'm here.

You your own man, dude. You your own man."

And I think in having that conversation

'cause he was "Man, I appreciate that", you know.

"I appreciate you not coming at me."

[music]

Kobe, you know, married his beautiful wife, Vanessa.

It puts the different perspective on life.

[Narrator] In addition to his marriage to Vanessa,

Kobe is also learning how to navigate a different

kind of relationship, his budding on-court partnership

with Shaquille O'Neal.

Shaq just didn't carry a ton of respect out of the gate

for Kobe. He had to earn that with Shaquille.

So I think with Kobe and Shaq, it just took a little bit

of time for them to get in step with one another.

[Chris] The Shaq, Kobe stars butting heads on the same team,

those were two guys who wanted to win, they were very talented,

who could handle the big moment, the big shot.

I feel like they really started to gel when Phil Jackson

showed up.

[Arash] Phil Jackson was the Zen master.

He was the coach who brought everyone together.

He took over a very talented team with the Chicago Bulls,

which had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen.

Phil came in. He was able to blend all this talent together

and effectively told Michael Jordan,

"Yes, you're the best player on the planet.

"However, you need to play this way.

You need to play within the confines of the triangle

for us to have team success."

[Rob] When the Lakers came together around Phil Jackson,

Phil Jackson started implementing his offense.

Kobe and Shaq found a way to play off each other

that was very successful.

They both knew what they were on the floor,

regardless of how they felt off the floor about each other.

Shaq would always yell at Kobe,

"Barbecued chicken on the court."

And I asked him, I was like, "What does that mean?"

And he goes, "I knew I was gonna eat.

"Throw me the basketball because I know that I'm

"gonna eat this guy like barbecue chicken.

I'm just gonna tear him to pieces."

[music]

[Narrator] Coupled with Phil Jackson's expert tutelage,

Kobe and Shaq take the Lakers all the way to the NBA finals,

where they defeat the Indiana Pacers

four games to two.

The Pacers are coached by one of Kobe's childhood idols,

Larry Bird.

[Man] Reggie turns and pumps it up,

off the rim and the Lakers are the NBA champions.

[Narrator] Shaq is named the Finals MVP.

But along the way, Kobe has a breakout performance.

You really got to see how good he was.

And him actually winning the championship,

it was just amazing to feel. It was almost like you got

emotional because you know how hard he worked

and that was the ultimate goal.

Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!

What's up, everybody?

♪ Y'all gonna make me lose my mind ♪

It's been a long time. It's been a long 12 years.

We finally brought the championship back

to where it belongs.

And that's here to the city of Los Angeles.

[Narrator] Over the next two seasons,

the Lakers win two more titles.

They are beginning to draw comparisons to Michael Jordan's

Chicago Bulls, who won six titles in eight seasons.

But tensions between Shaq and Kobe

always seem to be simmering.

Within the media, there was a Shaq contingent

and a Kobe contingent. And unfortunately,

they would always go to the media whenever

they had any problems and things would leak out.

[Rob] Shaq had his guy. Kobe had his guy.

And they would both go to their respective guys

when they had a problem on the floor.

Shaq and Kobe both fed into it.

The media didn't force anything on Shaq and Kobe that they

didn't put out there themselves.

But the thing is, who doesn't want to be the big dog

of the Lakers?

[music]

[Narrator] Much as Kobe's role as a leader of the Lakers

is evolving, so is his role at home.

In January 2003, Kobe and his wife, Vanessa,

welcome their first child, a girl, Natalia.

For some people, you--you start doing less of one thing

and more--spending more time with your kids and your wife.

But to me, this dude, he spent the same amount of time

for his game and his kids. And it was just amazing.

[music]

Kobe just had so much respect for Mike.

He just didn't want to get shown up.

[Narrator] The game is neck and neck early on.

And Jordan gets off to a hot start,

scoring his team's first six points.

It was really an incredible experience to watch two

unparalleled NBA talents come together at a time when Kobe's

on the rise and Mike is still wrapping up his time in the NBA.

[Narrator] But it is Kobe who has a truly standout night

scoring 55 as the Lakers win 108 to 94.

[Man] Kobe's long jumper. Oh, no!

[music]

[Narrator] Kobe finishes the season as the Lakers' top scorer

and hopes they can win their fourth championship

in four years.

But the Lakers once again fall to their nemesis,

the San Antonio Spurs, in the Western Conference semifinals.

The loss seems to be an omen of darker times ahead

for both the Lakers and for Kobe.

I didn't force her to do anything against her will.

I'm innocent.

[music]

The next season starts right now and, uh, you know,

come back next season and we can play.

[Narrator] What Kobe doesn't say

is that he's been playing injured.

Before he can start prepping for next season,

he'll need surgery on his right knee.

[Scoop] One of his biggest fears in his basketball life

was injury.

He had the knowledge of what they could do to his career.

And if nobody else on this court could stop him,

then the only thing that's going to stop him besides himself

is injury.

[music]

[Narrator] But just a few weeks later,

a series of events begins to unfold,

events that will forever alter public perception of Kobe,

jeopardize his marriage to Vanessa,

and potentially derail another young woman's life.

Shortly after 3:00 p.m. that day,

Kobe checks into a hotel outside the upscale ski resort

town of Vail, where he is scheduled to have surgery the--

At the hotel, Kobe meets a young woman,

a 19-year-old member of the staff,

and invites her back to his room.

Though accounts of what happened in the room differ,

two weeks later, the young woman comes forward

and accuses Kobe of raping her.

Later that summer, prosecutors for the

Eagle County District Attorney's Office

charge Kobe with felony sexual assault.

[Rob] The sports media jumped all over that.

It was almost like they fed on it.

[Chris] It was amazing the reaction of some fans

right away rushing to his defense,

some trying to knock down the superstar.

And "Hey, he should be more this and more that."

Judging from the outside.

[Rob] Is this gonna break him?

Is this gonna be the thing that turns him into kind of

the maligned anti-hero of the NBA?

[music]

I didn't force her to do anything against her will.

I'm innocent.

[music]

[Arash] Kobe, he would go back and forth.

He would play that season flying to Colorado,

flying to play that night, flying to Colorado,

flying back to play.

[Dave] While the case was going on in the middle

of the NBA season, he would come in to whatever

NBA arena the Lakers were playing in,

sometimes missing shootaround, sometimes missing pregame,

and put on a tremendous performance.

[Joy] I think any athlete that goes through a major

public controversy, having sports as an outlet

can really help you process and get through that experience.

And I think that's what Kobe did.

He could perform in that pressure,

but it also was a sense of, I think, relief from

some of the things that he was going through

and had to deal with.

Basketball, in a sense, was his safe haven.

[Lisa] If Kobe was going through a tough situation,

please believe that he's going to come out and ball out.

If Kobe's going through something tough,

you don't wanna be playing against him that night.

[Narrator] But with controversy now perpetually swirling

around him, the rift between Kobe and Shaquille O'Neal

grows even wider.

[Scoop] You had a franchise that was being looked at

as the best franchise of this era of basketball,

but you had two totally different people

that were diametrically opposed to not just one another,

but their approaches to life, and their styles of playing

on the basketball court.

[Narrator] The Lakers keep on winning.

In the playoffs, they defeat the San Antonio Spurs on their way

to the NBA Finals, but with a championship on the line,

they fall, a shocking upset to the young upstart

Detroit Pistons.

We you start losing. Losing changes everything.

[Rob] We know Shaq's gonna move on

or Kobe's gonna move on.

One of them's gonna go at this point.

[Narrator] In the end, it's Shaq who leaves L.A.

in a trade to the Miami Heat.

At that time, Shaq wanted a pay raise.

He wanted to get paid more than he was currently making.

So at that point, Dr. Jerry Buss had a decision to make.

[Narrator] Coach Phil Jackson, who urged Lakers owner

Jerry Buss to trade Kobe instead of Shaq, is fired.

Kobe may be the last man standing,

but his reputation both on and off the court is in tatters.

[Scoop] It was in ESPN Magazine, and the writer of the story,

if I'm correct, used 19 unnamed sources.

We're talking about like how nobody wanted to play with Kobe.

[Narrator] And perhaps no one had harsher criticism for Kobe

than his former coach.

By the end of their time together,

Kobe defiantly went against Phil.

He didn't listen to Phil. And Phil had enough.

He basically put himself in a position to say, "I'm done.

I'm not coaching him anymore."

[Rob] For Kobe, it was sort of a point of decision in his life.

Am I gonna let this be the end of my career?

Is this gonna be the last defining moment where my career

starts to turn down a path?

Or is this gonna be a moment of growth?

Is it gonna be a moment of reinvention?

[music]

The victim has informed us that she does not want to proceed

with this trial.

[Narrator] Shortly after the D.A. drops the case against him,

Kobe issues a very public apology to the alleged victim.

He also settles her civil suit against him

for an undisclosed sum.

Though in the agreement, there is no admission from Kobe that

a sexual assault took place.

Only that the two parties saw the events very differently.

The full truth of what happened in that hotel room may never

be known. But in the wake of what has been a low point,

both personally and professionally,

Kobe throws himself even more fully into becoming

a better player and a better husband and father.

It's during this time that Kobe also adopts the nickname

the Black Mamba.

Normally, you're not supposed to nickname yourself,

but Kobe had this persona, the Black Mamba,

was just this killer instinct, this mentality.

[David] It makes sense because the mamba is a killer, right?

And that's how he saw himself on the court.

[Narrator] Black Mamba is an ode to the assassin in

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films.

But only with the Mamba,

and this has been true in Africa since the dawn of time,

is death sure.

[Narrator] The moniker is also a way for Kobe to draw a line

between publicly shamed man off the court

and the nearly unstoppable force on it.

[Sheldon] He just kind of took it upon himself

where I'm kind of creating another persona.

And you saw that every time he played.

And whether he'd start off with being a little scowl

or whatever, he kind of built that persona

through something big.

The mamba mentality is making sure that even when you think

that you're at your zenith, at your peak,

it's doing some of the work to make sure that you're

actually meeting the potential that you set for yourself,

because it's higher than anyone else's.

[Mark] As much as Kobe is this superstar player,

he also had an underdog mentality in him

in terms of wanting to prove people wrong,

that he could succeed with jumping from high school

to the NBA, that he could succeed winning championships

without Shaquille O'Neal.

[Narrator] Unfortunately, Kobe's first season without Shaq

is a disaster.

He knows it, and so do the Lakers.

That off season, they make a surprise move.

A year after firing Phil Jackson,

they bring him back.

Now Kobe will have to find a way to again work with the man

who once called him uncoachable.

To me, there's another area of growth and maturity on the part

of Kobe, whether he became more coachable or more mature,

or just settled into a situation,

he found a way to make it work.

A little bumpy, but they got the most out of each other.

[Sheldon] The first time I played against Kobe,

I was a rookie, and we over here, we're winning.

And in that fourth quarter, Lorenzo Wright, who was a

teammate of mine at the time, started talking noise to Kobe.

And talking about, lock him up. He ain't--you know,

he ain't this, he ain't that, whatever.

All of a sudden, he just turns it on like that, like a switch.

And it was amazing to watch.

Even though it was against my team,

it was still amazing to watch, to see somebody that can take

control over a game at any time.

[Narrator] Kobe's will to win leads to some mind-blowing

performances, like the 62 points he scored against

the Dallas Mavericks in December 2005.

[Scoop] Never in my life have I seen a player in the NBA

literally single-handedly outscore a team.

Kobe had 62 points at the end of three quarters.

Dallas had 61 as a team.

He didn't even play in the fourth quarter.

[Narrator] Just a month later, Kobe posts a career-high

81 points against the Toronto Raptors.

It's the second most ever scored in a single game

by any NBA player, trailing only

the 100-point game posted by his fellow Pennsylvanian

and fellow Laker alumni, Wilt Chamberlain, in 1962.

The fact that he had 81 points as a player,

I'm thinking to myself, "Well, damn, what'd everybody else do,

like, they just running sprints up and down the court?"

But with Kobe, he was a very competitive person.

He was just a guy that always wanted something personal

to keep him motivated, keep him going.

It wasn't just to 81. Like, I'm sure knowing Kobe,

he's trying to get 100.

[Narrator] The Black Mamba carries the Lakers

back to the playoffs.

On April 30, 2006, Kobe lands a game-winning jumper

in overtime to beat the Phoenix Suns.

[Man] Seconds. Bryant for the win.

[people cheering]

[Narrator] Less than 24 hours later, Kobe and his wife Vanessa

reach an even bigger milestone.

Having endured intense public scrutiny of their marriage's

often heartbreaking ups and downs,

the couple welcome into the world

their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant,

aka Gigi, but despite the personal joy of the birth

of his second daughter, Kobe and the Lakers would be

eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Adding insult to injury, his former teammate

and increasingly his nemesis, Shaquille O'Neal,

carries his new team, the Miami Heat,

to the NBA championship.

On the stage at a nightclub shortly after winning the title,

Shaq celebrates with an off-color

and less-than-subtle shot at Kobe.

♪ That is the difference between first and last place ♪

♪ Kobe, [bleep], tell me how my ass tastes ♪

Thank you. [indistinct] city in the building.

[Narrator] With the beef between the two

now more public than ever,

it appears Shaq has the upper hand,

but Kobe is determined that won't be the case for long.

Following Shaquille O'Neal's departure with the trade,

I think it was a window into Kobe maturing as a player.

[music]

♪ I ain't going now unless I'm going in ♪

♪ This ain't nothin' new This is who I've been ♪

♪ Greatest take sacrifice and fewer friends ♪

♪ But I'm an outlaw I'm the one that flew it in ♪

He changed his number to 24. And it's like people almost

forgot about everything that was negative.

It was like, "Oh, that was eight.

Twenty-four is a whole new person."

Kobe eight was grit and passion and drive.

And Kobe 24 was like a surgeon.

I mean, he could just dissect you on the floor.

He had grown so much as a player.

He knew every in and out.

He knew how you were going to play him.

He knew what was coming his way.

[Narrator] But the question on everyone's mind is,

"Will this new Kobe, with his new jersey number,

"newly mended marriage, killer new nickname,

"figure out how to win a championship

without Shaq by his side?"

[music]

♪ Yeah Where they wanna take this ♪

♪ I can see the foes up close They debatin', hatin' ♪

♪ Hatin', yeah They're tryin' to break me ♪

♪ Yeah, I hear 'em talk, but they can never play me ♪

♪ They can never shame me I'm resilient ♪

♪ I got my skills in the Brazilian ♪

♪ They can't stop what's already done ♪

♪ I'll always be number one

I think it was also a window into Kobe maturing as a player

and understanding that he doesn't always have

to be the guy.

He doesn't always have to shoot the ball.

Sometimes a less is more approach.

[Rob] He had to find ways to get guys involved

and he needed somebody at his side to help him

evolve his game. Enter Pau Gasol.

Pau Gasol was such a great complement to Kobe's game,

and taught him, "I'm here when you need me.

"Take the shot when you have it and distribute the basketball.

Get other guys involved."

[Narrator] It's not just Pau Gasol who complements Kobe

on the court.

So does a rising star, the multifaceted Lamar Odom,

a skilled passer, rebounder and scorer.

Odom is a perfect complement to Kobe's skill set.

In return, Kobe's passion and dedication

quickly wears off on Odom.

[Lamar] He was an extremely intelligent basketball player.

He never accepted failure.

And even when he failed, he found the strength

to get back up. Kobe was the ultimate competitor.

[Narrator] In 2008,

Kobe and the Lakers finally make it back to the NBA Finals,

where they lose to the Boston Celtics in six games.

So there's a crucial part of Kobe Bryant's career in 2008.

He just lost to the Celtics in an embarrassing fashion,

lost by almost 40 in game six in Boston.

[Sheldon] He had that bitter taste in his mouth of watching

not only Boston, the hated rivals,

but losing in the finals as well.

[Narrator] But there's no time for Kobe to lick his wounds.

He's on his way to Beijing, China,

where for the first time in his life,

he'll represent Team USA in the Summer Olympics.

Probably the highest energy game I've ever been part of.

It's because of the crowds, the anticipation of it all,

it being the last game. It--it's gonna be nuts.

[Dave] He joins the part of Mike Szewski's

USA Basketball reboot, trying to get the glory back

with the Redeem Team.

And it was the perfect combination of USA Basketball

needing him because they wanted to make up for what happened

in 2004 in Athens.

♪ My way, my way, my way

That's your job to come up with a story for this team.

You know, you came up with the Redeem Team,

which is a pretty cool name.

2008 Olympics was a moment for Kobe that I think was

very influential and impactful.

It was the Redeem Team. So he knew it was like,

"Well, we have to win."

[Robby] He was an older guy on the team.

He was kind of like the veteran on the team with a lot of young,

really talented guys who were hungry to bring the U.S.

back to prominence.

[Joy] That's why I think that the Olympics was very important

for Kobe. That was a time when really, the team needed him.

They needed him to be a leader. They needed to have success.

There was a lot of pressure in that situation.

[Robby] It was Dwayne Wade. And it was LeBron James.

And it was Carmelo Anthony. I mean, it was a who's who,

Kevin Durant. I mean, that team was incredible.

[Narrator] With his cast of All-Star teammates,

Kobe leads the U.S. to redemption,

and a return to the top of the Olympic podium.

[Rob] When you take somebody as good and as dominant as

Kobe Bryant and put him in a position where he has to play

maybe outside of his comfort zone and learn to work

with people he's never worked with before,

that's gonna force you to grow a little bit as a player.

It's gonna force you to just figure out different stuff.

That 2008 Redeem Team really showed that leadership

side of him, the older guy that was bringing people along,

but still showing he was the alpha dog in the pack.

[Scoop] I just think Kobe grew. I think he matured.

I think he understood his responsibilities.

Kobe said, "I'm looking at basketball differently

"because I want to be a better teammate.

"By the time playoff comes, I'm hearing my teammates

different and they know I'm hearing them different."

And he started to see that, but that's just a part

of him opening up.

[Rob] I think, for Kobe, that's the ultimate level of growth

and evolve in his game,

was watching his teammates succeed around him.

[Narrator] Kobe's newfound sense of selflessness pays off.

In 2009,

he wins his first NBA title without Shaq.

Four games to one over the Orlando Magic.

[Man] L.A. wins the 2009 NBA title.

When Kobe finally got that post-Shaq ring, you know,

you can look at the jubilation.

I really do think that was

monumental in so many ways.

[Narrator] The following season,

Kobe leads the Lakers back to the finals,

again facing off against the Boston Celtics.

A single championship is easier than a second, and a third.

You know what I'm saying? The mountain becomes higher.

The goal to achieve becomes more difficult.

[Mark] You saw this struggle that Kobe was going through

with trying to leave his mark on the game on his terms

and then accepting that he wasn't gonna be able to do that.

And so he eventually changed his course of action

and really focused on getting a lot of rebounds,

gain a lot of defensive stops, making the right play.

[Narrator] The Celtics-Lakers series

is a closely fought matchup,

one that goes the full seven games.

This was a game, high stakes for obvious reasons.

It's the decisive game in the finals.

It's Lakers-Celtics.

He's trying to get his fifth NBA championship,

tie with Magic Johnson, and he's pressing.

[Narrator] In game seven, the Celtics have the lead

with only minutes to play.

But just when the Lakers need it most,

Kobe begins to drain shot after shot.

One of Kobe's Celtic opponents in the series,

Sheldon Williams, still recalls the moment with awe.

[Sheldon] I was thinking to myself like,

"We really have a chance to win this championship."

And Kobe turns it up. It was crazy to see Kobe,

how he just pretty much manifest and willed his team to come back

from double digits and win the game.

A 2010 NBA championship for the Lakers, I think,

was the most difficult championship for them to win.

[audience cheering]

[music]

[Narrator] No sooner has Kobe won his fifth championship

then he turns his attention to the next season

in the prospect of winning a sixth title,

which would match the total of his idol, Michael Jordan.

There was still a window for Kobe to win championships,

but there was a lot of turbulence that he and the rest

of the Lakers went through. Within that whole turbulence,

Kobe still found a way to play at an incredibly high level.

[music]

[Scoop] He and Vanessa found a way to get past it.

And I think they both grew from that,

individually and as a family.

[Narrator] Just as his personal life gets back on track,

Kobe is hit with the most devastating injury

of his career. April 12, 2013.

[Mark] It almost seemed like he was single-handedly

carrying the team to make sure that they got into the playoffs.

But that, that led to him tearing his Achilles against

the Golden State Warriors in late April.

[Scoop] Anybody else would have been carried out on a stretcher.

That's him, like, not allowing himself to even think

that he's injured.

[Rob] The Achilles was a big one.

A lot of people don't come back from injuries that big.

Kobe wasn't that guy, though.

Kobe was not the injury's going to end my career guy.

[Mark] There's a testament to Kobe's discipline

and his will to be able to come back.

But following his Achilles injury,

he was always dealing with more injuries.

Father Time catching up to him. He wasn't the same player.

[Scoop] What happens is if you put this type of toll

that he was putting on his body, it's going to get at you.

[Robby] He played for so long. And I know how hard he played.

I don't think his body was able to keep up anymore.

[music]

[Mark] Kobe Bryant told me that when he injured his shoulder

in the 2014-15 season, that time away from the court

really helped crystallize to him what he wanted to do

post retirement.

[music]

[music]

During that time of self-reflection,

he decided that he wants to really be able to carve

his own path following his NBA career

to get into the storytelling project.

I love telling stories. I love, you know, inspiring kids.

I know entering his 20th season, with his injuries

and his shooting and performances,

it really crystallized in his mind,

"You know what? This should be my final year."

[Chris] It was the right time for him. He knew it.

And he was--he was at peace. He was in a good place.

[Narrator] During the 2015-2016 season,

Kobe announces his retirement with a poem called

Dear Basketball.

[David] Dear Basketball, I feel like it's just

an incredible piece that shows a young boy with a dream,

a dream to become a great NBA player.

[Robby] Dear Basketball was a love letter to basketball

because it was the thing he wanted to do.

It was the only thing he wanted to do.

Like, rarely you run into someone who says, like,

"I know what I'm gonna do from age 10."

You know, um, once I decided I wanted to speak to

the game itself, which sounds really weird.

Once I decided to write it from that perspective,

then the words just came in a matter of minutes.

[Narrator] Over the course of his final season,

Kobe begins taking a private helicopter from his home

in Newport Beach to games and practices at Staples Center.

This allows Kobe to spend more time with his family.

And while it is a privilege and luxury few can afford,

it gave Kobe more time with Vanessa and his girls.

It was money he was willing to spend.

During 2016, it also becomes apparent

that Kobe's once icy relationship

with Shaquille O'Neal has begun to thaw.

The one-time rivals have become friends.

[Joy] Shaq being the level of star that he was,

Kobe being the level of star that he was,

the way that it all fell apart, then for them to end up fixing

their relationship, that's a whole saga in itself.

And I think that's a massive part of Kobe's

success and growth.

[music]

[Lance] I was outside the arena of his last game,

drove down from Fresno, couldn't get a ticket,

but I just wanted to be at the Staples Center

at that time just to be around people who, you know,

appreciated his greatness.

[Narrator] During a pre-game interview with Shaq

on Inside the NBA, the big man reveals he has

one last request for the Black Mamba--to drop 50 points.

You promise me one thing.

What's up?

I need 50 that night. Can you do it? Your last game.

-No. -[Shaq laughs]

[Rob] Kobe told him, "You're crazy. Not happening.

Not gonna do it." And he went out and he scored 60.

[Lisa] Kobe's decision to retire

was a bittersweet decision for the fans.

We know we see Kobe aging in basketball years,

but he's still literally dropping 60 points.

♪ Damn right, damn right Damn right ♪

It was shocking that someone could do that

in their last game. And then you're thinking like,

"Well, if he could score 60, why would he walk away now?"

But he had other plans. He had other plans.

[Narrator] It's an unforgettable ending to an iconic career.

But Kobe is also focusing on another one of his passions,

making the hoop dreams of his daughters

and young women like them, a reality.

[David] When he had daughters, he believed that they

could be great. They could be in the WNBA.

And he was very supportive of women's basketball

because he always has been.

[Narrator] But no sooner does Kobe embark on his

post-NBA journey

then a bizarre accident will claim his life,

along with the life of his daughter Gigi

and those of seven others, sparking an investigation

into their deaths that would threaten to overshadow

Kobe's legacy.

♪ Wait a minute Wait a minute ♪

♪ Wait a minute

♪ They done did it They done did it ♪

♪ They done woke up a beast Woke up a beast ♪

♪ They done woke up a beast Woke up the beast ♪

[Scoop] Kobe was one of those individuals that we as

sportswriters and journalists were always worried about

what he's going to do in his post-career

because he was so singular in what his interests were.

[Mark] Kobe told me that there were a lot of people

in his inner circle that thought that he would struggle

with post-retirement because he loved the game so much.

[Narrator] Just months after his retirement,

Kobe and Vanessa Bryant welcomed their third daughter,

Bianca, into the family. Sports Center anchor

Elle Duncan recalls the joy Kobe took in being a dad.

It was Disney and ESPN upfronts. I see Kobe Bryant.

And I was like, "Oh, it's Kobe Bryant."

And uh, a colleague of mine was--could see it on my face

and was like, "Do you want to meet him?"

He was talking to someone. And when he was finished,

he turned around and right away it was like, "Oh, wow."

Because I was so pregnant.

And he just starts telling me about how amazing it is

to have daughters.

And it was a cool moment to have this person who was an icon

in such a human form,

just being a dad bragging on his girls.

It was really special.

So of course, I asked him if he was done.

Immediately, it was like,

"I would love to have another daughter. I am a girl dad.

I'm a girl dad all the way."

Basketball players travel so much that they can't be there

for the kids as much as they want to.

So I think for him, he made the best of that moment

as a dad once he retired because there was no basketball

getting in his way of his family.

[music]

He was just so excited, I think, about the prospect of finding

that next thing that he finally found that thing that he wanted

to sort of focus all of his energy and talents

and efforts into. And it was with Granity.

[Narrator] Not long after retiring,

Kobe gives the cast and crew of Good Morning America

a tour of the Granity offices.

[Woman] Fifty years from now, how do you want the world

to look at Kobe Bryant?

As a person that was able to create stories that inspired

through children and families to bond together.

[Dave] He was a storyteller. And recognizing the moment

of retiring from basketball being not only a chance to say

goodbye to one thing, but hello to another.

He wanted to blow up his company to essentially be like

the next Disney.

And that was his goal, very high.

You know, from the beginning.

But the first initial one was trying to parlay that

Dear Basketball poem that he used as his

retirement announcement into a short film.

And so he teamed up with John Williams and Glen Keane

for them to provide the musical score of that poem,

and then for him to do voiceover work.

[Dave] Dear Basketball , which started with a very

soul-baring, simple poem about what it meant for him

to say goodbye to the game that had meant so much to him

on a day-in, day-out basis for his entire life.

[Kobe] As a six-year-old boy, I'm deeply in love with you.

[Man] Magic Johnson.

[Kobe] I never saw the end of the tunnel.

I only saw myself running out of one.

[Emory] When I saw Dear Basketball,

I realized it was an emotional connection that Kobe achieved.

So what it means to you is, you know, a way of life.

It forms who you become.

[Lamar] His movie, Dear Basketball,

I think that was just his love letter to basketball,

from watching it, to coaching it.

Some of us just love being around it.

And I think Kobe just confessed that to the world.

[music]

And the Oscar goes to... Dear Basketball.

Glen Keane and Kobe!

For him to have the success he did, obviously, with the Oscar

for Dear Basketball was-- was really special to watch.

And it's--it is something that pops into my mind

when I think of Kobe's career.

[Kobe] Thank you, Academy, for this amazing honor.

And to my wife, Vanessa, our daughters, Natalia,

Gianna, and Bianca, you are my inspiration.

Thank you so much.

[Mark] Kobe Bryant even told me that winning an Oscar

for a short film meant a lot more to him than winning

any NBA championship.

His rationale for this was that in his mind,

it was expected that he would win championships.

But because it wasn't expected of him to have this

kind of success in a storytelling venture,

he viewed that Oscar trophy as the most significant

and most meaningful.

[Narrator] Soon after winning his Oscar,

Kobe releases his book, The Mamba Mentality,

a sort of compendium to Dear Basketball.

The Mamba Mentality, and you walk away,

to me, from reading that book, you not only get

just Kobe's reflection on his career,

you get why basketball meant so much to him.

[Rob] I feel like all the things he did after he retired

from basketball were him trying to show everybody

how much not only he loved the game,

how much he loved who he'd become,

how much he loved the love that they had given him

over the years. And now what can I do?

What can I give back?

This guy would do a little bit of everything off the court,

from coaching his daughter's AAU basketball team, you know,

to doing stuff for the homeless, to, you know, winning Oscars,

and, you know, I'm telling you, he just was in so many places

at so many times that this guy, when they say live your life

and make the best of the 24 hours,

this guy did that.

[music]

♪ Turning it up, uh

♪ Turning it up

♪ Yeah, go

♪ I'm chasing dopamine Yeah, look what he done to me ♪

[Emory] The Mamba Academy, yeah, I believe he started it

to create a niche for woman's basketball,

for youth woman's basketball, and his relationship

with his daughter.

And he saw an opportunity to be an ambassador of the game

and to further the game.

[Elle] They were looking for equity for these young girls,

giving them a place that they could come and train

in a high-class facility because there's plenty of those

on the men's side.

[Emory] His advocacy for women's basketball started

way before he got in the NBA.

He was always a fan of really good basketball players

who were women or men,

and he never differentiated the two.

[Narrator] Kobe even goes so far as to offer personal instruction

to WNBA superstars like Candace Parker

and his childhood friend, Tamika Catchings.

Now she's gonna touch it. Come back the other way.

[Elle] It was not an accident that Kobe would plop himself

courtside at WNBA games or wear WNBA hoodies,

or show up to even the U.S. women's soccer team matches.

[Lisa] I remember the first time I met Kobe after one

of our games. He brought his daughter Natalia

to the game, and afterwards he came into our locker room.

Natalia could easily look up to Kobe Bryant as a role model,

but what Kobe did was he actually turned her around

to the WNBA players and said, "Hey, you look up to them.

These are the women that you could aspire to be."

[Narrator] In time, Kobe discovers that it's

his 11-year-old daughter, Gigi, who most deeply shares

his passion for basketball.

[Scoop] He and Vanessa never forced anything

on their kids of what direction they wanted to go.

But when they discovered that Gigi really, really

loved basketball, it almost became like,

"Oh, okay, I've got great daughters,

but now I've got a partner in crime."

[Elle] He starts telling me about Gianna and how she was

just so nasty on the court.

And what stands out to me about that conversation was just

how much his eyes lit up. I mean, you would think

he was talking to a WNBA scout. He's, like, telling--

He's like, "She could do everything."

And he was like, "She's better than me already."

Gigi, she was his protege.

[Narrator] But sadly, neither Kobe nor Gigi

would live to see her fulfill her potential as a player,

or to see Kobe's life post basketball continue to flourish.

[Woman] It's really hard to believe this is one of

the greatest basketball players that ever lived.

♪ Yo, still here

♪ Still standing

♪ After everything

♪ We still here

[Robert] When you retire, you think you're gonna step away

from basketball, but when you have kids

that aspire to be like you, somehow you get roped

into coaching their teams. And then with Kobe,

he wanted to coach his daughter, but who better to coach his

daughter than the best?

[Mark] When he was coaching Gianna and her teammates,

and other players at the youth level at his academy,

he said it was really important to be encouraging

and not to be overly critical when a player makes mistakes.

And really use these as teachable moments

to explain things from a tactical standpoint,

but be very supportive.

[Scoop] The one thing that I think came from

him looking at it from a coaching standpoint

is not the ability to just shape the way the game was played

on the court, but to educate

and teach certain things about the game of basketball.

[Robert] I remember the last time I saw him was

at Mamba Academy.

And we were playing in a tournament.

His daughter was playing on the other court.

I remember that joy he had just coaching his daughter.

I thought she had the fundamentals on lock.

Her decision-making was great.

[Lisa] She was the example that you could be the female

Kobe Bryant. You could see it in her game.

You could see it in her spin move.

You could see it in her fadeaway.

[Narrator] Lance Gregory is a Kobe superfan

whose daughter, Nyleigh, played at the Mamba Academy

for a rival team called Paul George Elite.

[Lance] One of my daughter's goals was to,

when we saw Kobe working with his daughter's team,

was to play against Gianna and the Mambas.

When we found out that we were going to end up playing them,

I showed her the schedule and just told her, "It's on.

You've gotta get ready to go."

He was all like, "Didn't I tell you this day was gonna come?"

And I was jumping up and down, excited and ready to play them.

[Lance] So the day before my daughter's team was going

to play the Mambas, we were at the Mamba Academy.

We knew the Mambas were playing on court four.

So we went over and sat down, and as they came into the gym,

you see the Mambas run out and then Kobe walks out behind them.

You felt this, this energy pick up.

I stand up and I see other people walking up to Kobe.

I stand up. I'm getting ready to go over there myself.

[Nyleigh] My dad was all like,

"Oh, I'm gonna go say hi to Kobe and stuff."

And my mom was like, "No, no, sit down.

Just wait until tomorrow," you know?

[Man] You're, uh, still too low level for a flight following

at this time.

[music]

Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter were among the

nine victims who died in a helicopter crash

in Southern California.

[Man] Fans say they really lost the king.

[music]

[Scoop] I was at home and my son in New York

called and said,

"Dad, is it true about Kobe?"

I said, "What about Kobe?"

"They said he was in a helicopter accident

and he may have died."

And I said, "Hold on. Let me call you right back."

I called ESPN and they said, "Yes, it is true.

We're about to release it in three minutes."

Breaking news on this Sunday afternoon.

Five-time NBA champion, former league MVP, Kobe Bryant

died earlier this afternoon in Los Angeles

in a helicopter crash.

[Scoop] Kobe had a relationship with my kids.

And as a parent, you always want to protect your kids.

You know...

Kobe was like, literally, their guy.

I did not know how I was gonna call my son back to tell him

that it was true.

[music]

[Narrator] The news hits Kobe's high school teammate,

Robby Schwartz, particularly hard.

[Robby] My phone just started going crazy.

When I looked at my phone, it was like, 20 missed calls,

like 60 text messages.

Not being able to say goodbye was sad.

My dad and Kobe were the two biggest influences on my life,

hands down.

And I would have liked to have told them that.

[Emory] I feel like a brother, a family member passed away.

And somebody that was like almost a hero to you,

emotions are all over the place.

It was very, very sad, very emotional time.

[Lisa] The day that Kobe passed, I was coaching for the Knicks.

And our guys were late to practice.

And they come in the gym and they said,

"Did you hear about Kobe?" And I'm like,

"I did not hear about Kobe and why are you late?"

And they're like, "No coach. Did you hear? Kobe died."

My heart dropped. I couldn't believe it.

[Lance] We're in the facility, uh, just stretching,

waiting for the game to happen. Um, and then my wife and I

are standing with some other parents and Nyleigh comes up

to me and her mom and says,

"Daddy, um, one of the parents said Kobe--Kobe died."

And then all around, like, people were just screaming.

You see other coaches walking to their teams

and embracing and consoling their players and parents.

I'm hugging Nyleigh, and she's crying.

And whew, I'm breaking down and crying in disbelief.

It was--people just like, were like zombies.

[Nyleigh] I was sad.

I was really sad over the loss of Kobe and Gigi.

Kobe was one of my favorite players.

[sirens wailing]

[Narrator] Compounding the tragedy is the fact that

seven other people have perished in the crash.

Among them are Gianna's teammate, Alyssa Altobelli.

Her parents, John and Keri, another Mamba teammate,

Payton Chester, and her mother, Sarah,

as well as assistant coach, Christina Mauser

and the pilot, Ara Zobayan.

There was so much loss in this story.

The families on the helicopter--

Everything about it was so hard.

[Elle] You feel so bad because you say,

"The helicopter crash that killed Kobe, Gianna

and seven others." They weren't others, you know?

They were people.

[Mark] I drove to Calabasas where the crash site took place,

trying to get details about the nature of the accident.

I then went to a local church that was right across the street

from the crash site that wound up becoming a safe haven

for a lot of the mourning Kobe Bryant fans

that were there.

After that, I went to the Mamba Sports Academy,

and there I saw Kobe Bryant fans laying out different memorabilia

outside of the facility.

And I think the common denominator

with all those different stops, you just saw so many fans

in grief and mourning, losing someone that they loved dearly.

[music]

I didn't even cry until the reality of the moment,

when you're sittin' there on TV and we're flashing back through

his greatest moments. It just hits you.

And that's when the tears start flowing

because this is your brother, the guy you went to battle

with in basketball games, the guy you sat in the back

of the bus with, had jokes with,

the guy you sat in the locker room with

and laughed with.

[Lamar] I lost a lot of people in my life.

But I've never had a brother.

But when Kobe passed away, I knew what it felt like

to lose a brother.

[Rob] For five and a half years, we did a podcast

with Shaquille O'Neal. Monday morning rolls around.

We're scheduled to tape the podcast at 3:00.

We connect him remotely from his home.

And we open the microphones.

"And the floor is yours. What do you wanna say?"

And Shaq spends about 10 minutes just trying to fight back tears.

"I'm hurt. I'm devastated."

Surmising, basically, how we all felt at the time.

[music]

[Narrator] Two days later, the Lakers postpone their game

against their cross-town foe, the Clippers.

It is the first time an NBA game has been canceled

since the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.

[Scoop] I just think at the end of the day,

it was the right thing to do to not play that

basketball game.

The moment can be replaced, but Kobe's not somebody

you can replace.

[music]

[Shaq] Yeah, sometimes like immature kids,

we argued, we fought,

we bantered or insulted each other with off-hand remarks.

Our feud. In truth, Kobe and I always maintained a deep respect

and a love for one another.

When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died.

And as I look in this arena and across the globe,

a piece of you died.

[Narrator] In the days and weeks after Kobe's death,

more than 25,000 candles, 5,000 signs and letters,

and 1,300 basketballs are placed outside the Staples Center.

Maybe a month after I go to L.A. and you see murals,

just murals everywhere. Lakers stuff everywhere.

Kobe, Gigi faces painted on

almost every single brick wall.

[Joy] To be successful and to be a legend

in a city like Los Angeles, that really shows you

the star power that Kobe had

and the connection that a lot of people in this city

and Lakers fans have to him.

[Elle] We knew Kobe since he was a teenager.

We grew up with Kobe and he grew up with us.

We saw him become a father, become a husband.

We saw him become a man.

We saw him learn in real time.

And so he felt like he belonged to us.

[Chris] This just tells you how important Kobe was as a player

and what he meant to a lot of people that never met him.

When Kobe passed, um, that's something honestly,

I still think about.

When he passed, it stopped the world.

[Nyleigh] Gigi, she didn't get to live her life.

She didn't get to go to the league like she wanted to,

to leave her legacy.

That was shocking. She was so young.

[Elle] But when the details started coming out

about the senselessness of it all,

it just felt more tragic than I could have believed.

[Narrator] The National Transportation Safety Board

investigates the crash... and releases a report.

They note that Kobe's long-time pilot made several

mistakes that led to the crash.

He took off in foggy conditions and flew into clouds

without using his instruments.

While in the air, he lost his ability

to tell up from down,

which caused him to careen into the hillside in Calabasas.

[music]

[music]

[Narrator] Adding to the tragedy is

that just seven months earlier, Kobe and Vanessa had welcomed

their fourth daughter, Capri, into the world.

Kobe did not live to see her first birthday.

[Sheldon] I just can't imagine how Vanessa and her daughters

feel going through the whole situation where they're

not having their sister and their dad and husband.

And that's something that nobody ever wants to experience.

[Elle] His family lost him too soon.

His girls,

his youngest daughter that won't know her father,

save from second-hand accounts and pictures.

For his loved ones,

it was just a blip that he was here,

I imagine, for them.

And that's-- that's heartbreaking.

[music]

We love and miss you, Booboo and Gigi.

May you both rest in peace and have fun in heaven

until we meet again one day.

[music]

[Tamika] And to Kobe and the Bryants,

this truly has been a basketball storybook ending.

They say it takes a village to raise a child.

I say it takes the village to make dreams come true.

They started off their journey together doing that.

And look at, both of them ended up being in the

Hall of Fame.

Both of them are looked at as some of the greatest players.

[audience applauding]

I wish my husband was here to accept this incredible award.

He and Gigi deserve to be here to witness this.

I feel like all of us just wanted that moment to--

to hear him talk about his career,

and hear him talk about his family,

and hear him talk about everything that--

that basketball gave him because of the love that

he poured into the game of basketball.

We didn't get that. It was hard.

It's really hard.

[Narrator] Much as her husband did in his poem,

Dear Basketball, Vanessa is sure to thank

all those who supported Kobe on his journey.

To all those who helped him get here, you know who you are.

And I thank you on his behalf.

[Narrator] It's a fitting final tribute to the young man

raised in Italy who translated his love of basketball into one

of the most influential careers in the history

of professional sports.

[David] I think people should know, growing up with Kobe,

he was just a person.

Just a person who had an extreme belief in himself,

had an incredible work ethic, had incredible determination,

and was willing to sacrifice whatever it took

to accomplish his dream.

[Robert] For me to be able to have the chance

to play with him, play against him,

and then get to know him and who he was after

the game of basketball was an honor for me,

because I've played with a lot of greats.

It's just amazing what he was able to accomplish

on and off the court.

[Rob] It's hard to just encapsulate the legacy

that he leaves in the NBA.

Guys to this day emulate his game,

how he studied, how he worked.

And the guys that are successful are the guys that

do it the best.

[Robby] The amazing thing about him that I know is

his legacy and who he was shines through in so many people.

I think the people that were closest to him, too will keep

that memory of him and that legacy of him going forever.

[David] All the people that I'm watching in the NBA now

are people that looked up to Kobe for inspiration.

[Nyleigh] I wish I could tell Kobe thank you for helping

out girls' basketball, showing people that

girls are great and that they can play basketball.

[Mark] I think the inspiration that he's given

to women players, it's gonna be long lasting

and it's gonna affect generations to come

because of the lessons that they're going to pass down

to those players that they learned from Kobe

in terms of their work ethic and training habits,

and approach to the game.

[Lisa] What people mostly are talking about today

when it comes to Kobe Bryant is his mindset.

If you take on this mindset, you're going to be successful.

And who doesn't want to win? Who doesn't want to be successful?

[Lance] The Mamba Mentality, you hear it in not just basketball,

you hear it in business. I teach junior high

science and math,

and I use it in my class all the time.

I said, "Guys, this math is a mentality.

"Even if you mess up, try it again.

"Nobody's perfect. You're gonna get it as long as

you keep pushing and trying to work."

[Scoop] The influence that he was able to set

before he left us is something that's going to

continue to have ripple effects far beyond

any other basketball player that I think has ever

played the game.

[people chanting Kobe]

[people cheering]

[music]

♪ Hit me

♪ It's my time I don't wanna wait no more ♪

♪ No more

♪ I'm not gonna, no No ♪

♪ It's my time I'm not gonna say no more ♪

♪ Hell no I got ♪

♪ I got

♪ Hell yeah Hell yeah ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

[streetcar bell ringing]