Outside Staples, LA sheds tears, even as Kobe Bryant’s life remembered inside

February 24, 2020 LawsonRealtyGroup Real Estate News 0


Stacy Mendoza stood in tears Monday on a sidewalk outside of Staples Center, where inside an epic tribute was happening in the name of a basketball legend gone way too soon.

Echoing from cellphone speakers all around her was the voice of Vanessa Bryant.

Without tickets, Mendoza, of Las Vegas, only had the moment to listen — a moment to connect with Vanessa Bryant, a mother still grieving in the midst of a nightmare since Jan. 26, when her husband, Kobe Bryant, 41, their daughter Gianna, 13, and seven friends died in a helicopter crash in the Calabasas hills.

Inside: Tears.

Outside: Tears.

“As a mom, listening to Vanessa’s speech … that was deep,” Mendoza said, her voice breaking in the moment.

She could not imagine losing her own children, she said.

“It’s beyond sad.”

And yet, like Mendoza, thousands — from not just Southern California, but from all over the world — descended on Staples Center on Monday for one last chance to say goodbye to the legendary Laker and his daughter Gigi, and honor the lives lost in a tragedy many on Monday said they were still processing, four weeks later.

Many were there to get in to the arena — the “house that Kobe built.”

But many, like Mendoza and scores of others, had no tickets, or hoped they could get in and couldn’t. They came just to be part of a massive collective grieving experience.

That experience unfolded yet another layer of L.A.’s diversity, bringing together young, old, families, couples, rich, poor, vendors, artists.

And the world came — from Germany, from Italy … .

People like Kristijan “Kiki” Beslic, of Germany, came. No tickets. Just to be there.

“I grew up with Kobe since ’98. I’m happy and honored to just be here … and to feel the energy with all of these Kobe Bryant fans,” said the “super-collector” of all things Kobe.

“We’re just here catching the energy,” he added.

Kobe Bryant Fans cross Figueroa Street where street vendors were selling food and Kobe Bryant memorabilia during Kobe Bryant’s memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday, February 24, 2020. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

But there was another thing.

Hobbled by a disease that makes him unable to walk most of the time, Beslic was on crutches as his cousin Mimi accompanied him along the sidewalks outside Staples and LA Live to soak up the experience.

And that’s where Kobe’s “Mamba Mentality” came in.

“Just take your crutches and go out and push it to the limit, because Kobe would do it no other way,” he said.

The Mamba Mentality. It was a recurring theme among the crowds outside Staples on Monday.

It’s a mentality they know well in France, from where Elfaad Mnemoi and his friends came on a trip to the U.S. to watch NBA basketball games — a trip planned before Bryant’s passing.

Mnemoi is blind, but that didn’t stop him from appreciating the athletic greatness of Bryant, whose notoriety stretches around the world, from China to Italy. Mnemoi was able to see Bryant play in the icon’s early years. And though he has progressively lost his sight, the athlete’s greatness was embedded in his mind. And with the aid of technology, he was able to continue enjoying Bryant’s games.

“Even though you can’t see it, you can feel it,” Mnemoi said in French through his friend, Antoine Despres, who along with Cheikhou Diaby, accompanied him along Olympic Boulevard.

Franchesca Flores knows the feeling. The Guatemalan native came from Colorado. She had no tickets. But she was determined not to miss the experience, and to pay tribute in her own way.

That tribute came in the form of her deep blue-colored formal gown — made over three days — especially for Feb. 24.

“I wanted to do something for Kobe on this day. It was a little expensive. But for Kobe, I’d pay anything. Kobe taught me a lot. He taught me if something gets in the way in my life, I’m going to make it and do it.”

Many on Monday, whether they were coming from Southern California, or from a far off place, were still processing the loss of Bryant, who so many grew up watching at Staples or on television screens.

Kobe Bryant fans lineup for his memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday, February 24, 2020. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

As they waited in line to get in to the arena, one woman said, just watching those games brought her family closer together. She was there, with that family, to thank Kobe.

Others, like Kendall Shinmoto, of Pasadena, and her friend Spencer Daley, reflected on the train ride to the arena: Yes. They wanted to celebrate a life gone too soon, now that after a few weeks, they can at least absorb the loss without the feeling of such shock that came in the day and immediate days after the crash.

“For a lot people, it’s closure,” Shinmoto said.

But others were still struggling.

“I’m crushed. I haven’t been the same since I heard the news,” said Ray Martin of Huntington Beach, donning his Lakers championship jacket from 2009, as he hurried to get through an access point at Olympic Boulevard. “It looked like he was going to have an even better second act.”

For Martin, the memories of Kobe stretch back to when he saw Kobe play for the first time (in person). Kobe was was 17. It was Summer League at the Long Beach Pyramid, and Kobe scored 27 against the Detroit Pistons. To bookend it, he saw him in person again, in the superstar’s last game, 20 years later, when he dropped 50 at Staples.

“It’s hard to lose an icon,” he said as he hurried to make his way toward the arena.

Back outside Staples, the day went on — a flurry of vendors selling everything Kobe — hats, pictures, t-shirts, street food.  A sea of No. 24s and No. 8s flooding Figueroa. Some hip-hop blared from a nearby food truck. An older man, dressed in Lakers paraphernalia, dribbled a basketball across a street. Dazed children stood taking it all in. The ink dried on Kobe art.

L.A. — and the world — said goodbye.



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