In the wake of Kobe Bryant’s sudden death, makeshift memorials abound for the NBA legend, and rightly so. Bryant was a bona fide American icon who transcended the game he played to near perfection for some twenty years. So many of us grew up witnessing him will himself to victory countless times on the hardwood. His patented fadeaway has been mimicked a million times and counting all over the world in gyms, schoolyards, even offices.
Unlike so many other athletes though, Kobe dispelled our dogmatic notions of black and white. His intrepid spirit defined him as patently American in the vein of so many mavericks before him. In doing so, he shunned the many stereotypical trappings associated with athletic stardom.
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