The death of Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter Gianna Bryant and seven others on Jan. 26, has sent shockwaves throughout the entire sports world.
It seems that no matter what sport someone played or what team someone rooted for, Bryant had a significant impact on that person’s life. Even people who had never met Bryant found themselves emotional over his passing, a feeling that is completely natural and shows just how impactful he was.
Randy Moss is one of those figures, who is a Hall of Fame wide receiver who retired from the NFL in 2012 and is now one of the league’s premier analysts for ESPN. Even Moss, who may have met Bryant but did not spend significant time with him, was emotional while speaking about his life and legacy during ESPN’s pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl.
Moss spoke about what Bryant meant to him, saying that he is not only the greatest athlete of this generation, but is also the greatest basketball player of all time, via ESPN:
Spanning over two minutes, Moss delivers a heartfelt and passionate message about what Bryant meant to him as an athlete. Bryant’s Mamba Mentality spanned so far and became a mantra for so many people well before his death. Now, there will be even more motivation for people to live with that mentality as it’s what Bryant would want them to do.
There has likely never been a death — or really even any type of horrible news — that has unified people the way this has. It seems that everyone in the sports world is in mourning at this time.
And while there is truly no silver lining at a time like this, at least there can be some comfort in knowing that Bryant’s legacy will live on forever and Mamba Mentality will do the same.