Nut­shell: How Did Kobe Bryant Im­pact You?

With the pass­ing of NBA leg­end Kobe Bryant at age 41, Bethel Uni­ver­sity stu­dents and pro­fes­sors ex­pressed their grat­i­tude and grief for the man known as “The Black Mamba.” 

“I am life­time LA Lak­ers fan and all of my fa­vorite play­ers have been Lak­ers in­clud­ing Kobe.  His mamba men­tal­ity is some­thing that I be­lieve I will take with me. Hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to my craft.” – Theodore Williams, Pro­fes­sor of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions 

“Kobe im­pacted me as a player by his drive and de­ter­mi­na­tion to be the best he can be his en­tire ca­reer, but I was even more im­pacted by how he gave back to the game in help­ing men­tor younger play­ers and hav­ing an out­ward fo­cus to­wards the end of his ca­reer. Also, he was in­ten­tional about be­ing a great hus­band and fa­ther. This was awe­some to see as I have a wife, 3 young chil­dren, and 1 on the way.” – Steve Drabyn, Men’s Bas­ket­ball head coach 

“Kobe was a leg­end to me. From the first time I stepped out on the court, he was one of the few NBA play­ers I knew of. I was never a Lak­ers fan, but I was an enor­mous Kobe fan, es­pe­cially how he tried so hard to pro­mote girls’ bas­ket­ball. The re­la­tion­ship Kobe and Gigi had re­minds me of the re­la­tion­ship I have with my own fa­ther. Think­ing about this all brings me to tears and hurts so badly, but he was a beast on and off the floor and left an im­mac­u­late legacy, one we can all smile and re­mem­ber with awe.” – Syd­ney Williams, Sopho­more Eng­lish Ed­u­ca­tion ma­jor and Wom­en’s Bas­ket­ball player 

“Kobe Bryant was a child­hood hero to me. I grew up a Lak­ers fan and he was a huge in­spi­ra­tion to me be­cause of the ef­fort he put into every­thing he did on and off the court. No mat­ter what he did, Kobe put his all into it. It deeply sad­dened me to hear of his pass­ing, but through his death we were able to see just how many lives he touched. The world will miss Kobe Bryant.”  

– Devin Rogers, Ju­nior Eng­lish ed­u­ca­tion ma­jor 

“To be hon­est, I'm not to­tally sure how to an­swer. I've been a bas­ket­ball fan for years now, and so I've ob­vi­ously known of Kobe since I first started fol­low­ing the NBA. I was never a Lak­ers fan, nor was I par­tic­u­larly a fan of his on the court. I ad­mired his tenac­ity and his grit. "Mamba Men­tal­ity" is a phrase I'm quite fa­mil­iar with, and I've shouted "KOBE" on a fair num­ber of waste bas­ket buck­ets. So re­ally, when he was alive and just do­ing his thing, I'm not sure Kobe did af­fect my life. That said, his death made me feel a lot of emo­tions I could­n't re­ally ex­plain. I was left try­ing to process the death of a man I did­n't know per­son­ally or even have that strong of a con­nec­tion to. There was just some­thing about some­one so seem­ingly un­touch­able, so strong, so el­e­vated, dy­ing in such a chaotic, ran­dom, non-sen­si­cal way that hurt. It was a harsh re­minder that life does­n't re­ally care about your achieve­ments or your ac­co­lades. It re­minds me of the lyric from ‘Wait for It’ from Hamil­ton: ‘Death does­n't dis­crim­i­nate; it takes, and it takes, and it takes, but we keep liv­ing any­way.’ So, I don't re­ally think I can point to any one thing and say, "Kobe im­pacted me in this way." All I know is the world is a lit­tle darker place with­out him.” – Bryce Yo­der, Ju­nior Lib­eral Stud­ies ma­jor 

“I would say Kobe is the rea­son I started play­ing bas­ket­ball. His work ethic on-and-off the court in­flu­enced me in so many ways. His mamba men­tal­ity is some­thing that will live with me for the rest of my life.” – Kee­nen Boyce, Se­nior Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Busi­ness ma­jor 

And fi­nally, from Brother Tim Erdel: "It may be sac­ri­le­gious to say it, but Kobe took my num­ber."