Grief comes in waves, and sometimes it hits you when you aren’t expecting it. So while it still just doesn’t feel real that Kobe Bryant is not going to walk out on stage on Saturday and accept his spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday with what surely would have been an all-time speech, the late Lakers legend is not going to be there. Instead, others will have to speak for him.
That is profoundly tragic for reasons that go far beyond basketball. There is no getting around it. But during what is sure to be a bittersweet few days of celebration still tinged by sadness, we here at Silver Screen and Roll are going to try and round up how everyone around the NBA is remembering the man known as the Black Mamba as he joins basketball’s timeless figures in Springfield.