It has been roughly one week since Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven other passengers died in a helicopter accident, but the tributes for the Los Angeles Lakers legend continue.
Former New England Patriots wide receiver and Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy Moss was the latest athlete to pay his respects Sunday before the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. His tribute was as emotional as you could imagine, as Moss can relate to Bryant as both a former superstar athlete and a loving father.
Here’s what Moss said about Bryant during “Sunday NFL Countdown” on ESPN:
I think it’s just hard to talk about Kobe. Kobe Bryant was one of the, some of the greatest athletes of our world, of this generation’s athlete. You know, and I’ll take it back to when I was a kid, being able to respect and look at a man like Michael Jordan. Everything he meant to the game of basketball. You know how many kids around the world tried to emulate Michael Jordan. Come out with commercials. ‘I want to be just like Mike.’ And here comes a young kid straight out of high school to be able to get to the NBA and show us everything that we tried to do in the backyard to try to emulate arguably the greatest basketball player. But he put a stamp on this world. Not just in basketball but just as a whole. And just to have a man like that gone at such a young age. I told my wife that I was going to say this and this message is to the Bryant family, I’m sorry for your loss. In my Moss household, it’s Mamba forever.
And I just want, you know, I’m sorry I’m up here emotional, but that’s the first time I’ve heard anything about Kobe Bryant since his death. And since we were at the Pro Bowl, I had a lot of messages on my phone talking about, ‘Randy, you didn’t take time out to give Kobe his respects.’ But I didn’t want to say anything live on national television because we didn’t know if things were true or not. And I really appreciate you all giving me this platform but man, when I say ‘Mamba Forever’… I’m a big Michael Jordan fan, I really am. But when I say it’s ‘Mamba Forever,’ man, I say that Kobe Bryant to me, man. You take politics out of professional sports. Kobe Bryant is the best and the greatest basketball player, and I’m not saying since he’s here, anybody can check my resume. I love the game of basketball. Kobe Bryant, man, is the greatest basketball player, no disrespect to any of the greats out there. But now that he’s gone, I say it when he’s here. The greatest basketball player I’ve ever seen dribble a basketball is Kobe Bean Bryant man. God rest his soul.
Pure, raw emotion out of Moss.
Bryant was 41 when he died.
