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Dear Basketball by Kobe Bryant: The Players’ Tribune
Discussions Questions:
- What are your earliest memories of your favorite sport / hobby / passion?
- At what moment did you fall in love with your sport / passion (Kobe 6 year’s old)?
- I never saw the end of the tunnel. For many of you the tunnel may have ended? What was it like?
- “I did everything for YOU, because that’s what you do when someone makes you feel as alive as you’ve made me feel.”
Lesson ideas:
- Dear [student’s passion]: Students will compose a poem or letter to his / her passion.
- Create a visual (either hand drawn or computer generated) of you passion.
- Write a letter to someone special.
Dear Basketball,
From the momentI started rolling my dad’s tube socks
And shooting imaginary
Game-winning shots In the Great Western Forum
I knew one thing was real:
I fell in love with you.
A love so deep I gave you my all —
From my mind & body
To my spirit & soul.
As a six-year-old boy (Highlights)
Deeply in love with you
I never saw the end of the tunnel.
I only saw myself
Running out of one.
And so I ran.
I ran up and down every court
After every loose ball for you.
You asked for my hustle
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more.
I played through the sweat and hurt
Not because challenge called me (USA Redeem team)
But because YOU called me.
I did everything for YOU
Because that’s what you do
When someone makes you feel as
Alive as you’ve made me feel.
You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
And I’ll always love you for it.
But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.
This season is all I have left to give.
My heart can take the pounding
My mind can handle the grind
But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.
And that’s OK.
I’m ready to let you go.
I want you to know now
So we both can savor every moment we have left together.
The good and the bad.
We have given each other
All that we have.
And we both know, no matter what I do next
I’ll always be that kid
With the rolled up socks
Garbage can in the corner
:05 seconds on the clock
Ball in my hands. 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 (Time runs out, such a sad reality not in sports, but life)
Love you always,
Kobe
HOMEWORK: HUG someone you love. Extra Credit Hug someone else!