Small but already large. Kobe Bryant, for those who knew him in his Italian years, was a 9-year-old phenomenon and a champion of life. Able to remember an old Calabrian acquaintance when he was already an absolute star between Nba and Hollywood, with an affectionate message of 'happy birthday' and several other personal attentions, in the name of his love for Italy and his happy childhood.
On the playgrounds of the Calabrian province Kobe Bryant was already a local legend at just nine years old. At the end of the 80s his father Joe played in the Viola team of Reggio Calabria in Serie A and he instead played in youth training. And who crossed it then immediately understood that the segmented ball, even in the dusty peripheral fields, was already his business.
Joe Bryant was an infallible basketball machine for Viola driven in the 1986-1987 season by an absolute genius of local basketball Santi Puglisi. Two legends on the field, Bryant senior and Kim Hughes.
During training, on the sidelines, there was always a little boy (so to speak) of 9 years who drove everyone crazy. There was no time when, when the ball rolled in his part, he didn't take it. Then it was produced in memorable 'numbers'. What if it was near the basket? He pulled, pulled and above all scored, and how he scored. The coach was furious, probably because those episodes blocked his intense training and 'distracted' everyone. In short, it was a real show. And the same thing was repeated in the intervals of the league games. All the very young had fun rolling that ball, shooting, scoring and then turning their gaze to their parents. He, Kobe, was the best. He too turned towards the stands, and in the absence of his father - who was in the locker room - he met the proud gaze of his beautiful mother. In 1987, Kobe, only 9 years old, took the field with his group of kids in the legendary Palio box, at the time 'theater' of the deeds of a team that appeared in the basketball that mattered. A Saturday like any other, the youth cartel game: Palmi against Viola. In the early afternoon, the young reggini entered the gym door and, last of the row, he was there: Kobe Bryant.
A real game that slipped away like lightning; all watching the deeds of that little boy who enchanted, treated the ball as few (indeed, as no one) and scored baskets on baskets. "But how do you stop? - asked a basketball player in the Palmese grass - Should you hit him?". And the response of his instructor: "What are you saying? Look and learn!". And at the end of the game, all to congratulate the one who, after a few years, would become a star, a basketball legend capable of winning two Olympics and 5 Nba Rings. Now, the story of that boy, after exciting years, after a life in basketball that counts, has become a tragedy. And also Calabria, a piece of Italy that had remained in the heart of this great champion, cries and remembers a small but already very large child on the playground.