Favorite Poet: Kobe Bryant

It was in third grade that I bought my first basketball jersey. It was for a dress-up day during spirit week, and I was extremely excited. I remember rushing my mom to the mall so that I could buy not just any jersey, but my favorite player’s jersey. Despite being one of the biggest Bull’s fans to this day, there was nothing I wanted more that week than Kobe Bryant’s Lakers jersey. Coming up, Kobe was THE man, constantly winning championships like it was nothing. I remember my uncles used to have huge watch parties for the NBA finals and would always root for Kobe as a collective. Even my grandparents and mom, who barely knew English, watched, or understood basketball; knew about the living legend. They called him “ko-beach,” or cabbage, in our native tongue of Guajarati, making him immediately their favorite player. Even before his passing, cheering for and looking up to a man for his talents to the degree that people did with Kobe was insane. Though many people disliked Kobe, it was impossible to not respect the man, as he was the one single handedly putting all the haters teams away in the playoffs year after year. Everyone knew how crazed he was, he trained like there was no tomorrow, and was a basketball fiend and psychopath. It wasn’t until the day he retired that there was nothing but love from every basketball fan in the world. I remember him dropping 60 points on the Utah Jazz, going out like he was meant to. It was glorious to watch, but basketball would never be the same without him. At the end of that game, that was it: we were never going to see Kobe play again.

After his retirement, I heard about him winning an Oscar and all, but I never really cared. Not until he died. Then, for a POYC, I looked up Kobe’s poem, and I fell in love. Watching the Oscar winning animated short of Kobe’s spoken word poem, there was a tinge of sadness, as up until his retirement his entire life was consumed by basketball. He did nothing but work his ass off so that he could go out there and be Kobe. And once he retired, he decided to write a poem encapsulating his career and addressing the game he loved and dominated for so many years directly. It was his way of saying his sincere goodbyes to the sport of basketball, and not long after writing an Oscar deserving poem, he passed. His entire life was consumed by basketball, and the poem showed that perfectly. He wrote it almost as if he knew he didn’t have much time left on this Earth, directly telling the game just how happy he was to have given it his all without a single regret to show for it. He was happy, because everything he gave to the game was reciprocated, leaving Kobe even more grateful for the opportunities it gave him: not only to play and travel the world, but also to teach and spread his love and knowledge. Even in his short time after his career and writing his poem, he focused his life on training his daughter Gianna, while also working with a few select young NBA players, many of whom are now stars in their own right.

This year I have realized that when studying poetry, you have to approach it from a personal viewpoint. Both in how you relate to the poem, and how it makes sense for the author to write. That reason is why I think Kobe and his one poem would be perfect for teaching in an academic setting. For someone so impactful and inspirational to be passed up on for a lack of an English background would be a shame. Not only is his poem incredible and full of power from the perspective of the author, it also induces emotions in the reader, letting them see into the love Kobe had for the game, and how to move forward when being forced to move away from something you love. How to appreciate and love it still, while being hopeful and optimistic for the future. Learning the story of Kobe and combining sports and literature is something we have yet to do, and this would be a good first start. In terms of background needed, the backstory I provided would be perfect, with added focuses on the skill and greatness of Kobe within the sport of basketball, and the tragedy of Kobe and his thirteen-year-old daughter Gianna’s death. Understanding why Kobe decided to write poetry in the first place would also be very important to cover. From this point on, analysis of the poem would be left completely up to the reader to decipher.

Teaching this poem can be incredibly fun. I love descriptive poems, like The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop, because they put an image or short “movie” in your head, with nothing but words. While the reader has full creative control, there are a few constants among everyone’s image, but everyone’s is different. This poem comes with a Kobe approved Oscar winning illustration to show, so I think it would be fun to have everyone read the poem and come up with their own versions of the illustration first, either discussing or writing down their ideas. After comparing ideas and seeing how they differ, maybe between people with a lot more or a lot less knowledge on Kobe, the class could compare to Kobe’s short film as a collective, focusing on the differences between the two and trying to figure out what caused them. After this activity, given some spare time, it would also be fun to just watch some of Kobe’s greatest moments in game, appreciating and remembering him for what he was best at, aside from writing poetry.

A transition from the world of literature to the world of sports would be extremely unique and very creative. Learning about and reading from the collection of an athlete millions love and look up to is completely different from learning about some old dead dude named Shakespeare. It would spark interests from most and stir up participation unlike that of when reading other things. I would say teaching this is definitely worth trying.

What impact do you think combining sports with an English class will have on engagement? Will it be a positive or negative influence?