Tears stain my keyboard as I write this, the reason why many people of my generation fell in love with the beautiful game of basketball, Kobe Bryant has passed away. Not only that, eight other people, including his daughter Gianna, were taken in the crash. People that were loved and gave love. People that had so much more life to give, in an instant taken from the world.
As a young boy growing up in Dublin, Ireland, basketball wasn’t part of our lexicon. Our main sports were soccer, Gaelic football, hurling and rugby.
I remember vividly my grand uncle Val coming to Ireland and meeting him for the first time.