No fan base in American sport ever loved a player the way Lakers fans loved Kobe. We grieve for them and all the families who lost so much today. Tom Pestak and Nate Smith got into the podcast booth and mourned the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and all the victims of the tragic helicopter crash in California today.

Tom Pestak's basketball fandom was intertwined with years of sportshate for Kobe Bryant, and he'd spend hours trolling messsage boards and combing through stats: arguing with Kobe stans to prove that Kobe was the inferior player to LeBron. "Ringz was always their answer." As he and Kobe grew older, it seemed a silly pursuit and Tom gained a grudging respect for Mamba, especially for his never ending competitiveness, and his embrace of being a husband, father, and mentor.

Our best Kobe memories: Games against LeBron in 2008, the Game Seven against Phoenix in 2006 when he refused to shoot, and the last game of his career. In that game, Tom came full circle and was rooting Bryant on to 60 points.We went into Kobe's influence on LeBron and how his singularity of focus was why Kobe was the heir apparent who took the torch from Michael Jordan.

We got into some Cavs history and reminisced about the last twenty years and more, and how Kobe was there for almost our entire adult love affair with the NBA. There's so much history here, and so much lost today. Hug your kids and realize that life is precious. Via Con Dios, Kobe.

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