Bill Plaschke on Kobe Bryant

LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke captures our collective denial and grief:

This can’t be true.

Kobe does not die. Not now. Kobe lives into his golden years, lives long enough to see his statues erected outside Staples Center and his jerseys inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He lives long enough to sit courtside at Staples when he’s stooped and gray, keeping alive the memories of two decades of greatness with a wink, maybe even fooling everyone one last time by retiring in a community next to Shaq.

I spent an hour yesterday, immediately after the news broke, reloading Twitter waiting for someone to post a report saying it wasn’t true.

★ Monday, 27 January 2020