GFU Students Remember Kobe Bryant

Reported by Megan Stewart

It was a Sunday morning when word spread about basketball icon Kobe Bryant’s helicopter accident, which killed an additional eight people, including Bryant’s 13-year old-daughter.

Two students at George Fox University (GFU), Matthew Dirckx and Emilio Mancol had just come back from church -- and they couldn’t believe what had happened. 

“I thought it was fake,” said Mancol. But as the two GFU basketball players read more and more articles about Bryant’s death, reality began to set in. 

Dirckx laid in bed the rest of the day, scrolling through social media posts dedicated to the famous athlete and honoring his legacy. Mancol talked it out with a few of his buddies and eventually returned to his room to cry. Both basketball players called their moms over the phone. 

“He was our generation’s Michael Jordan,” Mancol said. 

Dirckx grew up in Southern California where the Lakers played and remembers Bryant’s massive influence on his peers. 

“Everyone would emulate his fade away jump shot and say ‘Kobe’ when they shot it into the trash can. Everyone just looked up to him and his hard work,” said Dirckx.

Mancol was one such fan. In addition to studying Bryant’s game footage to improve his game, he has always adhered to the famous Mamba Mentality, constantly asking himself the question, “What Would Kobe Do?” 

“That was always the quote from me,” Mancol said. “Whenever I didn’t want to work out, I’d be like, ‘What Would Kobe Do?’ If I was missing shots, I’d be like, ‘What Would Kobe Do?” 

Mancol also applied this mindset to other aspects of his life. On the anxiety-inducing days, like when he took his driver’s license test and underwent his first knee surgery, he wore a “Kobe shirt” as a reminder not to fear. 

Kylin Collman, a member of the GFU Women’s Basketball team, remembers how electrifying of a player he was. 

“He was so mesmerizing to watch, and ultimately the reason I first started playing basketball,” Collman wrote in an email. “As I continued with my own basketball career, I have always loved watching Kobe play. He was the villain to the team he played against because of his unwavering competitiveness and fierce nature.” 

Jaycie Bobbit’s whole family, extended and immediate, loved Bryant. One year, they took their great grandfather, a life-long Lakers fan and Bryant follower, to a game, so that he could see one of his favorite players thunder across the court in-person. One of Bobbit’s cousins, who also played basketball for a number years, even named her dog Kobe. 

When Bryant passed away, everyone in Bobbit’s family was devastated. But no one was as crushed as her younger brother, who, after watching Bryant play, picked up a basketball at age two and has yet to put it down. Now a senior in high school, he is hoping to receive a college athlete scholarship. After the news broke, he posted various articles and videos about Bryant on social media, in honor of the man who instilled in him a love for basketball. 

“You grow up with someone who you really look up to, and you may not even know them, but they still impact your life in a lot of ways,” said Bobbit. “And basketball has impacted my brother’s life in a lot of ways.” 

But what truly set Bryant apart was not his talent with a ball, but his character, Bobbit said. For one, her family admired his loyalty, which is evident in his decision to dedicate his entire professional career, all 20 years of it, to the Lakers. They also appreciated how Bryant encouraged and supported other basketball players on and off the court, when he could have easily succumbed to petty rivalry. 

Additionally, Bryant demonstrated what it meant to give 110% percent at every opportunity.  

“He’s a constant reminder to always work as hard as I can,” said Dirckx, “and that other people are working just as hard as I am, and I always just need to put in the extra effort to make sure that I’m a step above everyone else.”

Bryant’s tenacious attitude influenced other aspects of people’s lives, too.

“He definitely showed a lot about the importance of working hard and having dedication to everything you’re doing, not just in the sport of basketball,” said Bobbit. “I think it inspires everybody in any profession they’re in and any goals that they have, or things they want to achieve, and I think that’s really impactful to people.”

Despite retiring from the NBA in 2016, Bryant continued to revolutionize the game and the world around him up until the day he passed.

“I think the saddest part [of his death] was just knowing he had so much more ahead, like for women’s basketball and the WNBA,” said Dirckx. “It’s just sad that we never got to see that second phase of his life.”

Photo by Yahoo Sports