By Pranav Iyer
Follow the journey @amaznhq !
AN AMAZN HQ FEATURE STORY
Growing up, Ashley Chea had two coaches that really shaped her into the high school phenom that she is today, her dad and herself. She would spend days on end attempting to recreate the moves of her NBA idols through videos she saw on YouTube and find ways to implement them in her game. Naturally, as a Southern California native, a lot of these moves were those of Kobe Bean Bryant. There was even one specific fadeaway move of his that she claims to have watched over and over for an entire year.
Flashforward to 2019 and she’s scrimmaging with her 8th grade Cal Storm Jr. NBA squad against the Kobe-coached Mamba Ballers. Kobe was sitting behind her while she was on the bench, as he tapped her shoulder to attract her attention.
‘You have a nice jump shot, Kobe said. “Where’d you learn that from?’
“Only from the best,” Ashley said with a smile.
“You’re a special one,” Kobe responded.
The two continued to have frequent interactions and Kobe started calling her by her nickname ‘Ash.’ He would give her tips on perfecting his patented fadeaway and bestow his wisdom about how to approach the mental aspect of the game.
‘People are always going to have haters, especially if you’re special,” Kobe said.
“What do you mean by that?” Ashley questioned.
“People are always going to look down at you just because you’re not Black or you’re not white or you’re not Hispanic,” Kobe said. “… So just do you.”
ENVISIONING OURSELVES IN KOBE
Ashley, like so many other Asian and Asian Americans across the globe, tried to be like Kobe and copied his every move. Kobe is someone that unequivocally revolutionized the game of basketball on a worldwide scale. Though not frequently brought up, it can be argued that the segment of the population that he impacted the most were the Asian and Asian American communities. Not only did he help to play large roles in integrating basketball in sporting cultures back East, but he also helped to establish basketball as a sport that is now deeply tied to Asian American culture.
Kobe’s rise to success really began when the globalization of basketball throughout Asia was taking off. He quickly became an icon in countries like the basketball-crazy Philippines and China, and in India, where the basketball fan base was steadily growing. Socio-cultural anthropologist Stanley Thangaraj remembers many students choosing Kobe as their English name back when he was teaching English in China from ‘03 to ‘04, highlighting the country’s craze over him.
For the Filipino community, what stole the hearts of so many, was that he showed genuine and constant love to a country that had constantly been neglected by mainstream society.
“It’s different when it’s Kobe,” artist and founder of Pinoy Hoops Mike Swift said. “Kobe is one of those that has been coming back to the Philippines ever since his rookie year. So he has made friends with people here and the culture. … The love for Kobe here is f***ing nuts.”
Kobe’s stardom was also well before Linsanity hit — meaning a time when there was yet to be a prominent example of Asian American success in the NBA. Yet, for some reason, there is a stark parallel in which Asian basketball lovers talk about both Kobe and Lin. It’s the feeling of envisioning themselves in him in ways that are incomparable for players like LeBron James or Michael Jordan. It’s almost as if many in the Asian community feel as though Kobe was one of their own.
“Kobe was Jeremy Lin’s inspiration,” Pacifica Christian’s Riyaan Jiwani said. “So that just puts that in perspective. This guy that we look up to as Asian people, was looking up to him.”
“His experience being bilingual having spent a considerable part of his life in Italy and having that type of global outlook, makes him much more easily cosmopolitan and stereotyped as well rounded in the ways in which Jeremy Lin was,” Thangaraj said. “What that does is that Kobe, for many folks, seems to align with much more of the ways in which we tell stories about ourselves as Asian Americans as hard-working, as always global, as multilingual, as savvy.”
But more so than anything else what stood out was the universal-nature of the Mamba Mentality, a term that has almost become common knowledge by now. Rather than being defined by his personality, Kobe was one of the only athletes to ever be largely defined by his approach to life. This broke down barriers of color and physical attributes and allowed for a sense of relatability.
“The mentality transcends time, it transcends basketball, and it doesn’t discriminate,” basketball coach and trainer Josh Lozano said. “… Kobe’s whole idea was to get people to pursue excellence. People can relate to that. You don’t have to be 6’8”, 250, 10% body fat to pursue excellence. You can be an Asian who’s 5’5”, that can’t jump that high, but as long as you pursue excellence and the best version of yourself, then it’s all good. … And that’s why people wanted to associate being like Kobe.”
Even when the hoop dreams ended, it was a way of life that many Asian and Asian Americans adopted. Oftentimes, by living out Kobe’s message, it was an outlet for them to escape common racial stereotypes.
“[For] Asian American men, already seen as less masculine or emasculated, the Mamba Mentality is an expression of a certain type of aggression, certain type of toughness that is desirable,” Thangaraj said.
KOBE TOOK A CHANCE ON ME
The Jiwani family had always been a Lakers family, more specifically a Kobe family. A proud South Asian American family with three siblings who were all basketball crazy — Amaan, Riyaan and Annika. Annika, the youngest, had her first interaction with Kobe at a tournament. She ran into him as he was coming out of the restroom. But it wasn’t Annika who initiated the conversation to ask for a selfie or an autograph. It was actually Kobe who called her out.
“Oh, you’re Annika, right?”, Kobe asked. “You’re the shooter, you’re number 11 right.”
“Yeah, how did you know all of this?”, she responded perplexed.
“Oh, don’t worry, I got my eye on you,” he smirked.
Kobe really did have an eye on her. At another tournament that took place at the (previously) enormous American Sports Center, Kobe was stealthily observing Annika’s game from numerous courts away and watched her drain seven threes in a game.
Soon after, he had his assistant reach out to Annika’s dad and just like that she was invited to a tryout for the Mamba Ballers. After an impressive showing, Kobe told her to ‘get a jersey’ and she was officially on the squad that every 8th grade girl hooper dreamed of being on.
“[Me] being South Asian and him taking a chance on me, that was crazy,… We’re different and we’re not ‘supposed’ to be doing this,” Annika said about how South Asian hoopers are generally perceived.
Riyaan and Amaan would be at virtually every one of his sister’s practices just to be in the presence of their idol Kobe. Kobe would every so often give Riyaan, the then budding high school sophomore, tips on his game and even celebrate his successes.
“I hit a game winner … and the next morning … he was like ‘Hey, I heard you played last night.’” Riyaan said. “I was like, ‘Ya, I had a game winner!’ He’s like, ‘Bro! Let me see! Let me see!’ So I pulled out my phone, I showed him the clip. He was hype, like hugging me, punching me in the chest.”
Letting the experiences all soak in.
SOAKING IN THE WISDOM
As a proud product of the Bay, Josh Lozano was a die-hard Warriors fan always rooting against Kobe’s on-court success. So it felt extra special when the team he was coaching blew out the Mamba Ballers the first time they matched up. After the game, Kobe, who had been in his zen-like coaching position, pointed out to Josh that he was ‘coaching too much.’
“‘Let the kids figure it out,” Kobe said. “Put them in positions to critically think. Ask them questions. Empower them to make decisions.”
Until then, he was running highly complex and researched sets that were designed to get easy buckets. They were working and his team was winning games, but he realized from Kobe’s advice that he wasn’t challenging his players mentally in a way that would prepare them for success down the road.
Kobe also went on to share his understanding of the triangle offense to Josh over a one month span. Josh would fire question after question, just trying to obtain any and all insight from Kobe.
“He always has a prolific answer for a lot of questions,” Josh said. “He was prepared for this like some sort of oracle.”
And as the friendly team rivalry ensued, Josh and his team got their fair share of victories before Kobe and his squad were able to notch their first. But as soon as they did, Kobe let him know.
“I remember the first time he beat me, he was super excited,” Josh said with a laugh. “He was like, ‘Man, we finally beat you f***ers.’”
AN IMMORTAL BEING
At Mamba Academy, Josh was just capping off his first day of coaching at the Mamba Cup as he stumbled into Kobe in the restroom where the two wished each other good luck for the next day. Josh was feeling good, knowing his team was going to be playing for the championship the next day.
But for Annika, it just wasn’t her day on the court. The shots weren’t falling for the girl who was always heralded for being the silkiest of shooters. Kobe approached her as she was visibly disappointed with herself about her performance.
“Don’t overthink everything,” Kobe said. “Stop being hard on yourself because trust me, I know how that feels. I’ve done it to myself before. Everything is going to workout fine, just trust me and my plan and you have to trust yourself. ”
After all, he needed his sharpshooter to come mentally prepared for Sunday. He gave her a hug and bid her a farewell for the night.
That was Jan. 25, 2020, the last time that Annika and Josh would see the coach that had had such impacts on their lives.
“I just think about that every day,” Annika said about Kobe’s last words to her. “And now I know I have to … just trust myself because he trusted me to trust myself.
A man who society essentially viewed as immortal passed away at 41.
“Kobe was supposed to be 105 years old in a wheelchair courtside at Lakers games,” Josh said. “He’s supposed to be going around the world giving speeches or lectures. That’s what I envisioned.”
Just hours before his passing, The ‘House of Kobe,’ an entire community center made in honor of him, was launched in the Philippines. And within 24 hours of his death, Mike Swift put together a mural to pay homage to Kobe and his daughter, Gigi, that made waves around the entire world.
Exactly a year later, at 8:24 a.m. on Jan. 26, 2021, Swift and his team displayed their newly painted Kobe-inspired basketball court. And as an even larger gesture, Congressman Eric Martinez, who owns the House of Kobe, announced a plan to build Gigi’s Cradle, a multi-purpose building ‘dedicated to the dreams, hopes and vision of our youth’ made in the memory of none other than Gigi herself.
After Kobe’s passing, Josh started what he called ‘eight days of Kobe,’ where he posted once a day for eight days about the ways in which Kobe had directly impacted his life. For someone who isn’t accustomed to sharing emotions, he says it was his way to express how he was feeling at time.
Kobe was known to be one of the biggest public advocates of girls basketball. Josh has attempted to do his part in picking up where Kobe had left off through his community efforts. Most recently, he has started hosting private runs, called We Run, that features some of the top high school, college, and pro female talent in Southern California. The mission is to help create community and provide exposure for these young women in a way that’s almost unprecedented.
“I’ve just been trying my best to keep the girls game cohesive, together, and keep propelling it forward,” Josh said. “… Let’s keep pushing the needle. … And I think that’s what [Kobe] wanted to do.”
For Ashley Chea, she has been playing for Kobe as a way to honor him for all that he had taught her, saying she plays with ‘his brain and my heart.’”
And for Annika, it is trauma that she is still dealing with, having lost her role model and many of her fellow teammates. But before meeting Kobe, she never had the thought that she could go anywhere with basketball. Now, she’s forever grateful that Kobe took a chance on her, a South Asian American girl who was told by society that she didn’t belong there. And in her mind, the Black Mamba is still guiding her every step of the way.
“I would have dreams about me playing college basketball and him watching me still in the stands,” Annika said. “… He was there from the start and when nobody believed that I could make something happen in basketball, he knew. He had a whole plan for me and I just thought that we would go through it and that would be my life. But even now, when I’m in my backyard, I’m shooting and I just feel his presence there.”
Thank you for reading! Make sure to follow the journey on IG @amaznhq and on YouTube !
Any questions, contact Pranav Iyer at iyer.pranav4@gmail.com!
