Kobe Bryant's Impact on Candace Parker: The Competitiveness Knows No Boundaries

The unexpected passing of one of basketball's greatest and brightest stars, Kobe Bryant, has generated a shockwave of devastation not just in Los Angeles but in every basketball-loving country in the world. As a matter of fact, we haven't seen this huge amount of mourning since the death of Britain's Princess Diana and, that of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. And just like the deaths of the latter two, Kobe's death, coupled by the death of his 13-year old daughter, Gianna, and 7 others, literally stopped the world moving for an entire day.

The incident was so devastating that it took a few more days before Vanessa Bryant finally came out with a statement about the incident. And let's face it, folks. Almost every basketball fan got hit by the unexpected passing of a generation's legend because Kobe Bryant, first and foremost, is a hero to an entire generation of basketball fans and players alike. And we're not talking about men basketball lovers alone.

Due to the incident, the NBA decided to postpone the scheduled game yesterday between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers out of respect to the Lakers franchise and more importantly, to the city of  Los Angeles. Instead, TNT's The Inside Crew aired a special which allowed some basketball icons to speak about Kobe Bryant and what he has done for the Lakers, the game of basketball, and how he touched almost every human being during his lifetime. As Steve Nash said it, "And sadly now, we realize that his greatest impact is how he brought the world together,"

In the special which was held live in Staples Center, guys like "The Logo", Jerry West, Shaquille O' Neal, Charles Barkley, Dwayne Wade, among others took turns in explaining what Kobe Bryant meant to each and their respective careers and family. And yes, Kobe Bryant did have an impact on WNBA players like Diana Taurasi but among all WNBA stars, it was Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks who had a great and memorable friendship with the Black Mamba himself. After all, Candace Parker, a two-time WNBA MVP, is considered as one of the greatest WNBA players and incidentally, Kobe will forever be the greatest player to wear the Purple and Gold.

But what exactly did Parker share that made it unique?

For starters, Candace Parker used to train with Kobe Bryant even after the latter's retirement in 2016 and that indicates the amount of time Kobe gave to help Parker keep his "GOAT" status. But more importantly, Candace Parker saw Kobe's the same competitiveness in his daughter, Gianna Maria. In fact, the 33-year old Parker shared the one instance when she met Kobe during the Beijing Olympics when Kobe and his daughters walked up to her and then Kobe pointed out, "You see these two girls? They'll gonna break all your records one day,"

And according to Parker in another interview, one of those girls was Gianna and that little Gianna could barely hold a basketball back then. That competitiveness Kobe was imparting on his daughters is just another proof that his competitiveness knows no boundaries. And in one of his interviews with Jimmy Kimmel, the Black Mamba shared that when people were joking that Kobe and his wife, Vanessa, should try for a son so that someone would continue Kobe's legacy. In that instance, Gianna would but in and say, "Oy! I got this,"

Just looking at how way things were going for Gianna before the terrible accident, she would have been great in Connecticut and eventually, in the WNBA. Sadly, we won't be seeing the rise of Mambacita in the big league. 

Candace Parker also noted that in the last 4 years, the Sparks had Kobe Bryant watching some of their home games at Staples Center and in most instances, he was with his daughters. That means a lot to the WNBA in general as Parker said it, "The NBA had him for 20 years. He embraced the WNBA in the last 4 years," In short, we would have seen the Mamba Mentality crossing boundaries through Gianna. And Parker, for one, knew that had that incident didn't happen, her records would indeed be broken by Gianna. 

Photo is from Los Angeles Times