PORTLAND, Ore — I find it ironic that I was standing right outside of the Moda Center yesterday when I found out that Kobe Bryant passed away.
Kobe affected so much of my youth playing in that very building, or as it was known during his playing years, the Rose Garden.
Of course, it was there that I found out he was gone forever.
For most people, their first heartbreak comes at the hands of a boy or a girl in school. For me, my first true heartbreak came, in part, because of one Kobe Bean Bryant.
The year was 2000 and I was eight years old.
The best analogy I can use is that I was perhaps flirting with sports. I didn’t know much about them, sat down and watched every once in awhile, but my feelings weren’t serious.
That all changed in the spring of 2000 when the Blazers played the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
How serious was I you might ask? Well, apparently writing on myself in sharpie serious.
I wrote "Blazers rule, Lakers drool" down my arms and "Blazers win, Lakers lose" down my legs.
Oh, did I mention it was my first communion just a few days later?
God bless my mother for pulling off a minor miracle and somehow scrubbing all of the sharpie off.
Anyways, if you didn’t get the picture, I was ALL IN.
Every day going in to school I would read the sports page cover-to-cover. I remember hanging my backpack up and talking fervently to all the boys about the game the night before. The Blazers were going to the NBA championship.
Except they weren’t.
That’s when Kobe stepped in in game 7 and demolished my hopes and dreams.
The Blazers were up 15 in that game in the fourth quarter. Kobe helped lead a furious comeback. With about a minute remaining he put the nail in the coffin. Twice.
First, a jumper over one of the most famous players in NBA history, Scottie Pippen, to give the Lakers a four-point lead. Then on the next possession, he sent a lob to Shaq who laid down a thunderous dunk. The Lakers were up six points and it was over.
The Blazers lost 89-84. That was the moment I had my first heartbreak.
But it didn’t matter.
It was also my first taste of my first love and that was that. I’d go on to passionately follow sports in the Pacific Northwest, all the while actively cheering against Kobe. Every Blazers win over him, no matter the time of year, felt like a monumental occasion. Maybe it was like healing the scars from an ex.
However, in his final game ever, I still stood on my office chair at my first TV job in Great Falls, Montana, losing my mind as Kobe went for 60. He may have been my ex, but I still had a personal relationship with him. I couldn’t help but cheer.
So thanks for the heartbreak Kobe.
Without Kobe, who knows if I fall in love with sports.
Without Kobe, who knows if I’m on your television screens in Spokane.