Feb 3, 2020 at 7:41 PM
One is a country boy from the middle of Kansas, the other a city kid from Boston, but Mitch Ballock and A.J. Reeves share a bond they never knew existed.
Like so many other college basketballers, Reeves and Ballock played with heavy hearts over the last week. They are Kobe Bryant fans the same way the hoop generation before them loved all things Michael Jordan. They’ve worn the Kobe sneakers and studied his slick, patented moves. When the news broke on Jan. 26 that Bryant, his daughter Gigi and seven other passengers perished in a helicopter crash in the hills outside Los Angeles, they didn’t want to believe it.