So, since this is Kobe's last year, I decided to give TheColi a little treat...
I sometimes drop in with some crazy sports stories, especially from the NFL/NCAA, because I pretty much grew up in the sport, and have a couple of dope threads somewhere around here, which are basically AMA's. (can somebody up the "True Stories from Sports" thread that had everyone giving personal, crazy pro sports stories? I was gonna post this there.")
So, lets get to it - my close friend grew up with Kobe. Only within the past few weeks have we really talked about it, but his stories are always dope.
Basically, his dad is a former NBA player, and grew up/close friends with Kobes father, so he has known the dude since birth (Kobe is about 3-4 years older), and has little kid pics together and all that.
So, Kobe was a regular dude, until he left to go to Italy, and came back basically "un-American" lol - he said he was really into soccer, culture, different languages, etc - just was a different dude. The crew was basically my friend, and Kobe, with Kobes cousins, and they all just basically hooped allday, everyday. Basically, Kobes cousin (who looks just like Kobe when he showed me his IG) was the high flyer, KB was just fundamental. Kobe would go to his hs games, even as he got bigger - that is, until he was a senior, where he would walk around in Kangols and sunglasses - but even after the NBA, he was like family.
He said the "strange" thing at the time is that Kobe would never hang out much outside of the court and home - he would skip every social event, because he was obsessed with working on his game - at 13, 14 15 years old.
The "greatest" basketball moment he says he ever saw in his life, was a 10th Kobe playing in a winter tourney against a guy who was considered the best in the state. He said everyone knew this dude, and this guy was a senior who was crushing everyone (the name escapes me.)
So basically, there was a stolen pass, and he said the whole gym kinda stopped - which is unusual, because it was a real HS game, so it was basically Kobe vs the Dude 1-on-1. Kobe crosses the dude with the God Shamgod (which he said was crazy, because he used to practice it every day, and everyone was like wtf, but he knew that was the move Kobe worked on every single day on air), and viscously dunks on him (he said we didnt even know Kobe could dunk like that) - but here is the kicker. He says for some reason, the gym was super quiet, or low for the moment, so you could here what the dude on court said.
10th grade Kobe looks at the dude (who fell down) and just says "Merry Christmas." 
The gym explodes, everyone goes crazy, and they have to briefly shut down the game. The Legend of Kobe is born.
I have more for you coming soon:
- He was there for the Jerry Stackhouse (who was in NBA) vs. Kobe (who was in hs) 1-on-1 Urban Legend
- Kobe's "generous" stimulus packages for his college buddies and cousins
- Practice habits
- Bean Bryant & why Kobe is GREAT
greatness
