The Black Mamba

There are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This is an important healing process that most humans endure in response to losing a loved one or someone of great importance to us. 

I was on the phone with three of my older brothers when I saw the article from TMZ detailing the death of the NBA legend Kobe Bryant. We were in the middle of a discussion about the sudden relevance of the Pro Bowl when I interrupted them to read the story out loud. The immediate consensus was that the story was fake. TMZ is known for hoaxes, right? So, we just believed that he was still here, because some people just aren’t supposed to die. We reached the first stage of grief within a matter of minutes, because we were all in denial.

I opened Twitter to see if there was any news about the article, but it was silent. It was another regular Sunday for twitter. The world was calm and quiet then I refreshed my timeline, and the world was broken. More and more news media outlets were posting updates about the fatal helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox? No Rick Fox was not on board, but all of Kobe’s daughters were? No, that’s not true either. The slew of false information sent the world into the second stage of grief, anger.

Until more accurate updates on the crash were posted, fans began to try and make sense of the situation. We had to figure out how the man who instilled the fierce mamba mentality in all of us just passed. Did our real life representation of a superhero really just pass away? The man whose name is called every time we throw a paper ball into a basket. It’s not possible. He was too young, too good, too legendary to really be gone. What if everyone was wrong, what if it was a different helicopter, or what if it’s just a bad prank. With this clouded view of reality, we began the third stage of grief, bargaining.

But then, it all became very real. TMZ reported that Kobe Bryant’s 13 year old daughter, Gianna Bryant, was on board and was also killed in the crash. This is the news that sent the entire world into the fourth stage of grief, depression. We were remembering Kobe Bryant as great player, teammate and role model, but when we learned of GiGi’s passing we also remembered him as a great father.

The last stage of grief is acceptance, but the thing about grief is that the cycle can repeat at any point. It has been six days since we learned of the passing of Kobe and GiGi Bryant, and I still have not accepted their deaths and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because the legendary Black Mamba will forever live in our hearts.