Kobe Bryant’s post-NBA life as a poet and animated filmmaker
Alexandra Clarke and Elle Hagedorn are the co-hosts of The Replay podcast, here at The Step Back.
We are not exactly huge fans of Kobe Bryant. That said, you don’t miss out on an opportunity to watch a live conversation between one of the greatest players in NBA history and one of the greatest players in NFL history. So on Sunday, we went downtown to the TriBeCa Film Festival to watch Kobe Bryant and Michael Strahan, alongside animator Glen Keane. The three talked for an hour following the premiere of Bryant and Keane’s recent collaboration, Dear Basketball.
Dear Basketball is an animated short film based on Kobe’s The Players’ Tribune retirement poem. If you think animated short film, poetry, and Kobe Bryant sounds like a bizarre combination, you’re right. Post-NBA Kobe is bringing all his intensity to “storytelling,” and it is all kinds of amazing. It was an hour-long conversation about cartoons, culture, and most importantly, Kobe. We learned so much, including…
Michael Jackson was his greatest inspiration. You might have thought Michael Jordan inspired young Kobe. You would be wrong. Kobe revealed that he found strength in the way the other MJ approached the game. It turns out, early in his career when Kobe was a bit down on himself, The King of Pop gave him some advice. He told Kobe to stop being so self-critical and to shift his focus toward studying other people. It was deep. Really deep. But mostly made us want to see Kobe lip sync “Man in the Mirror.” Kobe also revealed that he is a huge classical music junkie. Apparently, Kobe often had Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in his head during intense games.
Kobe’s literary tastes are interesting. In addition to highlighting Michael Jackson, Kobe told us he gets his literary inspiration from three main sources — J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin, and Edgar Allen Poe. In other words, Kobe Bryant is stuck in middle school English class. This also made us want to see Kobe read “The Raven.” Can Kobe just go on tour already?
Kobe forgot about his final NBA game. Remember when Kobe scored 61 in his final NBA game? Kanye was there. We were all watching. Well, it turns out Kobe forgot he had a game until 4:30pm that day. We obviously don’t believe him, but he said he was so caught up writing he completely spaced on his final NBA game. We suspect this was a classic Mamba moment, trying to show us all how intense he is about his new passion, “storytelling.” If it is true though, we are happy to help Kobe learn how to set up alerts on his Google Calendar.
He likes to make his wife, Vanessa, cry. No, it is not what you are thinking. We all know about the famous press conference and that ring. This is totally different though. Kobe said he first knew his film Dear Basketball was great when he showed it to Vanessa and she cried. He figured if he could make her cry, it must be powerful. Related, Vanessa was in attendance on Sunday and looked fabulous. This was The Replay’s first in-person super famous WAG sighting, and it totally lived up to the hype.
Next: The Replay -- Carmelo and LaLa Anthony call it quits
He is done with basketball, for real. Kobe is done with the sport. So done, he does not even have the NBA package. He only discovered this when he went to watch a game late in the season and was told to “call his cable provider” because he did not have the channel. Though he has no interest in becoming a coach or commentator, he did say that he provides guidance to several “friends” who still play. He wouldn’t explicitly name those players, but we would like to recommend he add one to the rolodex. Kobe, nobody is better positioned than you to advise on dealing with Phil Jackson and marital issues. Please give your old Olympic teammate, Carmelo Anthony, a call. Maybe even take a listen to our last podcast and join the #prayforLaMelo movement!