Honestly, this had a bigger impact than I thought it would. The day it happened, it just seemed so surreal. But a part of me was irritated that it would be another case of 24 hour news cycles full of hero worship.
Then I threw a crumpled ball of paper in the garbage - you ask know what happened next. It went in and I yelled KOBE as loud as I could. It was then that I realized the subliminal effect he had on an entire generation.
It didn't really hit home until Sunday night, though, around 9:00EST. My baby girl was fighting sleep, so I went into her room, grabbed her from her crib, and rocked her to sleep, intending to put her right back in bed as soon as she was sleeping.
Sometimes we don't follow through on our intentions. I sat there with her for hours. With the news of Gianna, it hit me just how much more horrible it had to be for him as a father. When you become a parent, something clicks and your entire purpose changes. You make a promise to do everything in your power to protect that precious, innocent life. In those last moments together, I can't imagine what he must have felt; but I'm willing to bet there was at least a moment where he felt he had failed her.
As I sat there in my daughter's room, her in my arms, rocking her to sleep, I held on just a little tighter, not wanting to imagine how awful it must have been, how scared she was, and how scared he was for her. As a basketball fan growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, this is definitely a great loss. But I didn't actually start to feel it until I thought of it from the point of view of a father with a daughter - that's where the tears actually started.
Anyway, that's my two cents in this situation. Sorry for the long-ish post. Carry on with your day.
This post was edited by Urinal on Jan 28 2020 07:16am