Mauricio Codocea
11/26/2020 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 11/26/2020 6:01 AM
Kobe Bryant didn't grow up like most of the other all-time NBA cracks.
In his case, despite being very American, he fed on European culture since he was a child because of living on that continent following in the footsteps of his father, a professional basketball player.
And there, more precisely in Italy, she fell in love with Diego Maradona.
So much so that, as he confessed, he
dreamed of being like him.
In the heat of a country much more soccer-loving than the United States, Kobe became a very supporter of this sport despite the fact that basketball was always a priority.
And he experienced first-hand the glorious decade of Italian football in the 80s, in which the greats of the North (Juventus, Inter, Milan) saw their reign threatened by a humble team from the South: Napoli, who led the Argentine myth.
The battles with other great figures such as Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio or
Ruud Gullit
filled the eyes of little Kobe, who had the opportunity to remember those days of happy childhood and at the same time be closer than ever to Diego during the 2010 World Cup.
During that year, Nike - the firm that wore him - took
the Mamba Negr
to South Africa for a solidarity initiative and, taking advantage of his stay there, Kobe attended some matches of the most important national team tournament.
Kobe Bryant during the match that Argentina beat Brazil 3-0 in the 2008 Olympic Games. AP Photo
One of them, in addition to the match that his country lost to Ghana, was the round of 16 match between Diego Maradona's Argentina against Mexico.
That night of June 27, in a brief exchange with the press at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, Bryant traveled back in time.
"As a boy I dreamed of being like Maradona," said the Lakers star, who had just won the NBA title eleven days ago after a legendary series that reached seven games against the Boston Celtics, legendary Los Angeles rivals. .
That night he didn't see it, but it was no longer necessary.
Kobe had fulfilled his dream two years earlier, in Beijing.
In 2008, during the Olympic Games that he played with the United States - he led the team to recover the gold lost at the hands of the Argentine Golden Generation - he was very pleased.
Such was the joy of the Laker symbol that it put him above any idol he had known as a child.
"It wasn't even when I was a kid. It was last summer, at the Olympic Games. I went to see Argentina-Brazil and, walking down the hall, I met two people: Pelé and Diego Armando Maradona," the crack recalled in an interview with the middle Kickback.
The day Kobe Bryant met Diego Maradona
The memory of another sports legend who died in 2020
"For me, that was like ..." added Bryant, opening his eyes and mouth wide, recapitulating that gesture of astonishment. "Because as a boy, Maradona was like 'the type'. But 'the type'. So for me, meeting him after so many years ... I started 'can I take a picture, can I take a picture with you, an autograph?'. That was my moment. "
And he acknowledged that he gave that photo a very special place: "I have it in my office."
The world mourned the death of Kobe himself this last January 26, 2020, when the helicopter in which he was traveling crashed in California and both he and eight other people, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, lost their lives.
At that time, from the Instagram account of Diego Maradona - fervent and confessed admirer of Michael Jordan, also Bryant's idol - a message was issued to remember the deceased escort.
"All the good guys are leaving. Goodbye, legend," says the publication.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Diego Maradona (@maradona)
Look also
The photos of the worldwide repercussion for the death of Diego Maradona