"How We All Can Be Like Kobe." Cup O' Joe, 16th Edition.

Yesterday morning, Sunday, January 26th, after a good week of work, seeing my son and his new bride in Carlsbad, CA, then spending time with my UCLA Fraternity brothers in LA (attended my first Quincea?era, which was a lot of fun), I was at the Burbank Airport, about to board my SWA flight home to Boise, ID, connecting through San Jose.

While waiting for my flight to start the boarding process, all the while taking inventory of my past week and thinking through what I needed to accomplish this week, I remembered that I should post this event on my Facebook page ( and then posted it on the pages of the two basketball clubs I help run, Idaho Elite and Tree of Hope ID):

https://www.facebook.com/joehdevera/posts/10215691278851036

Yes, thanks to the help of fellow Tree of Hope coach, Maurice "Mo" Hines, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Kobe Bryant.

So, around 9:00am PST, I wrote a short text block on Facebook about me meeting Kobe and seeing his impressive Mamba Sports Academy facility in Thousand Oaks, CA, added the pictures you see on the post and the one above the title of this article, hit "Post/ Publish", then tried to nap during both flights to San Jose then to Boise.

When my flight landed in Boise around 1:45PM, as my kids say, my phone was "blowing up" with texts and Facebook notifications on the news of Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash, killing him, his beautiful 13 year old daughter, Gianna, and 7 other passengers.

The words "tragic", "shocking", "surreal" and even "absolutely freaking horrible" aren't strong enough words to express how I felt yesterday after hearing and confirming the news, and how I still feel now.

While rushing to get off the plane and meet my wife, Emily, who was picking me up from the airport, and trying to answer the multitude of texts from friends and family that knew I met Kobe on Saturday, I couldn't help but remember our conversation during the time I met him on Saturday, 4 minutes before the tip off of the game between his and Gianna's Mamba team vs. Tree of Hope (Seattle, WA) 2024:

• Me ( with sweaty palms, nervous as all get out): "Hello Mr. Bryant - very honored to meet you, not only because of what you've done on the basketball court, obviously, but what you're currently doing in support of girls basketball".
• Kobe: Thank you. Do you coach girls?
• Me: Yes, I do. I run a club program, affiliated with Coach Mo's program, that has about 100 girl players in Idaho. You need to come up sometime and see it for yourself, if you're able.
• Kobe: Maybe I will. Until then, keep doin' what you do.

Cue the picture taken by Coach Mo above, then the game ensues. Despite Coach Mo's Tree of Hope 2024 team beating Kobe and Gianna's Mamba team pretty handily the first time they played in October 2019, the Mamba team won Saturday's game by 5. We then did the customary "good sportsmanship end of game" handshake/ high five line, where we congratulated the Mamba team and their coaches for their victory. Kobe was busy talking with one of the Tree of Hope 2024 players, so I didn't have a chance to thank him again before I had to rush out of the gym to get to the Quincea?era in Santa Monica that evening.

Little did I know, or heck, little did ANYONE know that my conversation with Kobe yesterday would be one of his last conversations, ever. The gravity of this has been weighing on me since yesterday, and will probably continue for quite some time; not just because of my immense fortune of meeting Kobe and Gianna, but now, thinking back of how our conversation went and, most importantly, what I observed while coaching against Kobe during that game - how he acted and carried himself as a parent, coach, and well - just being Kobe.

This, my friends, is what leads to the title of this article - how, in my humble opinion, we should live our lives in the attempt to live with the purpose and intent like Kobe Bryant lived his life. Yes, I definitely know and realize that there will be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people that are closer to Kobe than me; they will say more profound things, with more eloquence, I'm certain, simply due to them having a better perspective on this subject due to their relationship with Kobe. The simple fact that I feel that I have the authority to write this article, despite only meeting with him for less than 1 minute, shaking his hand, and then taking a picture, can be questioned - I get it.

But, isn't that really what made Kobe special? Like me, how many people were touched by Kobe, even if you only had a brief moment to meet him, pass him on the street or see him at an event, maybe have the good fortune to spend a few moments with him, all the while knowing who he was and what he accomplished, to then take that opportunity to inspire ourselves to be a better basketball players, better coaches, better fathers, better people?

So, as a sign of my gratitude for being one of the very fortunate few that had the opportunity to meet Kobe, here is my, again, humble attempt to express how our meeting last Saturday has inspired me.

How To Live Like Kobe:

1. In your craft, the secret, which isn't a secret, to success and excellence is to outwork everyone. In the vast number of articles and videos written and produced about Kobe's work ethic, the ongoing message we should gather that he had an overwhelming desire to achieve through hard work, and only hard work, that was unsurpassed by no one. This video with fellow NBA player, Jay Williams, is one of those examples: https://twitter.com/BballCoachMac/status/893814866405765120.
2. Get involved with youth sports, and for that matter, get involved in girls/ female youth sports, STARTING NOW. In many videos now playing on an endless loop, because they should, we see Kobe in interviews and discussions talking about why he got involved with Gianna's desire to play basketball, and how much he valued his relationship with her, his 3 daughters and his wife, Vanessa. Not only was he spending quality time with Gianna and his family when he built the Mamba Sports Academy and helped coached her team, he was sending a message: youth, and in particular, girls, NEED SPORTS. In this video clip where Kobe is a guest on the Jimmy Kimmel Show (TM), Kobe explains why he decided to coach Gianna and her teammates (starting at the 2:09 mark): https://youtu.be/UUVubfIY2ns. In a nutshell, he talks about how he and his fellow coaches want to teach the players "what excellence is about", regardless of whether or not they want to go on to play in the WNBA. That, my friends, is the real value behind youth sports - how to achieve excellence, like Kobe did. So, go out and help coach a girls team, or, go watch as many games that your daughter(s), your daughter's friends, niece(s), grand-daughter(s), friends, neighbors, etc that you can attend. They need your support, they work as hard on achieving excellence as the boys do, and your attendance to cheer them on matters A TON to them.
3. ...and, when you attend a youth sports game, be a spectator and enjoy the game, despite your background, experience and knowledge of the sport. This is probably the biggest takeaway that I have from last Saturday, probably because I'm both a parent that still has a daughter playing basketball (she plays at a NCAA D2 program in Colorado, UCCS) and, again, I run a basketball club. I'm going to use Kobe as an example for my future talks and discussions with parents and, most importantly, for myself. Here is what I observed: During the game, Kobe SAT on the the bench the ENTIRE game. He only stood up to give a player that was coming out of the game a high five or during timeouts. He NEVER belittled a player, questioned a referee, or contradicted his other coaches. He actually SMILED and LAUGHED during the game. Yes, believe it or not, Kobe Bryant was not the hard nosed, 'win at all costs' tyrant that we want to believe he would be while coaching his daughter - he did what we all need to do more often not just during basketball games or sporting events, but in life - HE ENJOYED THE MOMENT. It was quite beautiful, really - more so now knowing what happened yesterday. There are only a handful of people that have the authority to question the coach, yell at referees, or in general, act like fools during a basketball game or any sporting event, and Kobe Bryant is on that short list. Therefore, if Kobe didn't do it, we all had better not do it, EVER.

After a tragedy like yesterday, we all need to come to grips and process this loss our own way. My way is to write an article like this and go over things with my friends. Yours might be different. You might not be a Kobe fan, or you might be a bigger Kobe fan than me. In the end, all of that doesn't matter. All that does matter, in my opinion, is that we take this moment, like so many we experience in our lives, as a reminder of WHAT IS IMPORTANT.

What is important is that we take advantage of the gifts we are given, our talents, skills, and strengths, with as much vigor and energy that we can muster, every day; like Kobe did. What is important is that we continue to evolve, grow, and learn, despite who we are, where we are in our careers and how much we've accomplished until now we must learn from both our mistakes and our triumphs, to become better people; like Kobe did. What is important is that we take advantage of the time we have with our loved ones, with the valuable yet harsh realization that that time, those moments are not only precious, they are finite; like Kobe did.

Carrying on his vision, his legacy, his cause, is how I will try to live my life. So, who's with me?