KNOXVILLE — Retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, 41, died Sunday in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif.
Bryant was the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he played his entire 20-year career and winning five NBA championships.
Tennessee men’s basketball head coach Rick Barnes discussed Bryant’s passing on Monday with media.
Below is a transcript provided by UT of Barnes discussing Bryant.
Barnes on Bryant
“You know, I didn’t meet him personally, but the first time I ever saw him I was at Farleigh Dickenson University up in New Jersey during the summer watching a high school AAU event. There were four courts spread out up there and one of my assistants Frank Haith told me to watch a certain court. When there was a break on that court, I looked down at the other end and I see a guy putting on a show and I went down and watched that game. Frank came back and asked if I had watched that game I told him ‘No, I’m watching this kid. If you get me that kid we’ll win the National Championship.’ He said ‘Well the word is his father is going to get hired and he’s going to go with him.’
“He was without question the best high school player I’ve ever watched since I’ve been in coaching. Everything he did back then he just took to a different level. If you go back and look at the way he went about things it’s incredible. Everybody knows about his training and everything. But, getting to coach a guy like Kevin Durant and Kevin telling me he tried to spend time with him, because he wanted to know everything that he was doing. I think guys like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson did all of that for him and I think he’s handed it down to LeBron James. If you look at it, Kobe grew up loving Michael Jordan, then here’s LeBron loving Kobe and Kevin Durant right behind them loving LeBron.
“I think the way to look at it is that once he was done he still had another chapter he wanted to write. The way he got involved with women’s basketball for his daughters, along with everything else. Yesterday, I was at my brother in-law’s funeral when I heard the news, but our assistants were with our guys. When they told them a bunch of our guys started crying and today I got a call that our guys want to wear purple shoe laces tomorrow night, which shows the impact a guy like Kobe Bryant can have. I remember the impact a guy like Magic Johnson had on our teams back then. I remember telling them about his situation with HIV.
“Guys do grow up looking at and watching every move these players make. Kobe is certainly one of the greatest players ever, but it’s the way he did things. He did everything that a coach would want. You talk to your players about wanting to win, the competitive spirit and how hard you’ve got to work. Everyone knows about his six-hour workouts, the running and the work he put on his body and he continued to do that even after he retired. I remember sitting down specifically with Kevin Durant and watching film of Kobe Bryant. I would tell him he needed to add aspects of Kobe’s game to his game. For years coaches used him, because he was everything that everyone wanted to coach.”