It still doesn't seem real, and never will.
Kobe Bryant died Sunday at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash.
On Monday morning, Warriors forward Draymond Green posted the following message to Instagram:
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"I’ve waited and waited with hope that this bad dream would end and I never had to make this post. Hoping that someone would report that it wasn’t You in that helicopter like they initially thought. I went to sleep on the couch yesterday while they talked about you on TV. I thought I’d wake up and the story would be gone. Only to wake up to more details of you being GONE. Kobe, I thank you for being the person that you were, the big brother that you were. Not only to myself but to many others. You left a legacy that’ll NEVER be forgotten. We lost one of the good guys. I’ll continue to pray for the Bryant family as well as all the other families affected by this horrific tragedy! RIP BEAN #GoneTooSoon"
How did Draymond deal with the consequences of being suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals? He called Kobe.
Golden State Warriors
Here's an excerpt from an October 2017 article by Clay Skipper of GQ:
Bryant’s words, according to Green: Ninety-eight percent of people are okay with mediocrity or less. Guys like Bryant and Green, though, they're out for something different—greatness. So, Green remembers Kobe saying, “as long as you wait for them to understand you, you’re f--ked.”
“It was the best s--t I ever heard,” Green says. “Because it gave me an understanding of why people don’t understand me. I’m so crazy competitive. I put my competitiveness up there with anyone. How could someone understand that? It’s a different level.”
[RELATED: How Draymond's chat with Kobe gave new perspective on legacy]
Kobe's impact was on a "different level" and his tragic death is something the world never will understand.