DeMar DeRozan is always connected to Kobe Bryant's influence when he plays basketball.
Each game serves as a reminder of the impact Bryant had on the NBA and on DeRozan. Returning to Los Angeles around the anniversary of Bryant's death kept the star's memory at the forefront of DeRozan's mind this week.
Friday marked the four-year anniversary of Bryant's death. four-year anniversary of Bryant's death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., a loss that shook the league in 2020. After a loss to the Lakers on Thursday, DeRozan reflected on what Bryant meant to him as a player and person.
“From the moment he entered the league to his last game, everything about him inspired me to want to be a basketball player,” DeRozan said. “That was my favorite player growing up, that was a mentor of mine, that was somebody I looked up to, I could go to for advice. For me, Kobe, he was everything to me.”
Growing up in Los Angeles during the 1990s, it was impossible to escape the influence of the Lakers and the influence of Bryant. DeRozan admired Bryant as a young player at Compton High School. He attended Bryant's camps as a teenager and received a pair of the star's shoes as a high school senior.
When DeRozan joined the league in 2009 at 20, his relationship with Bryant, then 31, changed from idol to mentor. Bryant instilled his signature work ethic in DeRozan during offseason training sessions, providing the blueprint for the boot-camp workouts that DeRozan now conducts with young Bulls players in Los Angeles each summer. They spent seven years competing against each other before Bryant retired in 2016.
Even now, DeRozan only wears Bryant's line of shoes during games as a small reminder of his mentor's impact on his career.
Players, coaches, and fans across the NBA and WNBA shared memories of Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and the other victims of the helicopter crash on Friday.
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