In the wake of the news of Kobe Bryant’s death, the sentiment was shared across social media to take the time to let your loved ones know how much you care. To let grudges go. To forgive people for their mistakes, and ask forgiveness for your own.
Jay Williams may have summed it up best during his emotional tribute to Kobe on ESPN, imploring people to move past the little things.
Today’s a tough day. Today’s a hard day. I hope that everybody at home, you give that person next to you — whatever thing you have wrong in your life with them, it might be small or big — let that s–t go. It doesn’t matter,” Williams. “None of that stuff matters, man. This is about life and being precious with every damn second we have here.
It wasn’t just the “people at home”. The death of his friend moved Kendrick Perkins to try and mend fences with former teammate Kevin Durant.
Perkins tweeted out his apology on Sunday afternoon just hours after the initial news about Kobe’s helicopter crash broke.
Just wanted to tell you I Love you my brother and whatever I did to hurt you I’m sorry bro and hope you forgive me!!! I love you bro real Talk! @KDTrey5.
Just wanted to tell you I Love you my brother and whatever I did to hurt you I’m sorry bro and hope you forgive me!!! I love you bro real Talk! @KDTrey5
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) January 26, 2020
Perkins added in an additional tweet several hours later the Bryant, “would’ve wanted us to move past our differences”, and said his new life motto is “what would Kobe do?”
My new motto with everything is, What Would Kobe do? He’d want us to focus more on the loss of his daughter. He’d want us to get past differences with our brothers and move on. He’d never want the game to be cancelled or be stopped. He’d want us to keep going! #RIPKOBE
My new motto with everything is, What Would Kobe do? He’d want us to focus more on the loss of his daughter. He’d want us to get past differences with our brothers and move on. He’d never want the game to be cancelled or be stopped. He’d want us to keep going! #RIPKOBE🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) January 27, 2020
Perkins and his former Thunder teammate got into a Twitter feud earlier this month that started over Perkins calling Russell Westbrook “the best player to put on an Oklahoma City Thunder jersey”, implying that Durant lost the right to that title when he left OKC for Golden State following the 2016 season.
Perkins also updated his profile picture to one of him and Bryant, with his arm around Kobe.
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/WNE4KcwPhB
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) January 26, 2020
Kobe, his daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed when their helicopter crashed 40 miles outside of Los Angeles on Sunday morning.
As of this writing, Durant has not publicly responded to Perkins’ apology.