Podcast: Celebrating Kobe Bryant

As the Los Angeles Lakers community, the NBA and the world as a whole continues to mourn the tragic deaths of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others last weekend, it’s also important to remember the good times.

To do so, “I Love Basketball” host Sabreena Merchant was joined by Jacob Rude (also of the Silver Screen and Roll podcast network) to celebrate Kobe by reliving some of his greatest moments.

With the All-Star Game being redesigned to honor Kobe, Sabreena and Jacob went through their best Kobe All-Star memories, including the year he won the dunk contest, and how much harder he always appeared to be trying than almost everyone else who was just treating it as a normal exhibition game.

They also talked about other proposed changes to the game to honor Kobe, and how the players can really offer the ultimate tribute by just taking the game as seriously as he did — remember, we’re talking about a man who once broke his nose in the exhibition.

And with the Lakers finally getting back on the court to play Portland tonight, they reminisced about how Kobe always seemed to particularly enjoy beating the Blazers, and discussed their favorite memories of him doing so (yes, of course, his lob to Shaq is included).

You can listen to the full episode below, and subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

You can follow Sabreena on Twitter at @sabreenajm, and Jacob at @JacobRude. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to our YouTube Channel.