While the cities of Los Angeles and Philadelphia are sure to mourn the year-long death anniversary of their native son Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna on Tuesday, another Bryant hometown around the world will do the same.
Reggio Emilia, about an hour’s drive east of Bologna in northern Italy, will unveil Largo Kobe and Gianna Bryant, a space dedicated to the man who spent several years of his youth in the small town while his father, Joe Bryant played for Cantine Riunite, Reggio’s professional basketball team.
“The city of Reggio Emilia and its people loved Joe first and then Kobe Bryant, the child who remembered Reggio with love when he returned to America,” said Emanuele Maccaferri, Vice President of the Reggio Emilia Sports Foundation. said ESPN. “On this sad day we want to remember this happy child who left wonderful memories in so many people in Reggio Emilia.”
The space in the historic center of the city is remembered in honor of the Bryants with a plaque and a newly planted ginkgo biloba tree. It’s a pedestrian street often used by fans who come and go to the city’s basketball arena.
As night falls, parts of the city will be lit up in purples and gold by the Los Angeles Lakers, and a streaming event titled “Reggiano Forever – Reggio Emilia Remembers Kobe Bryant” will be held per COVID-19 protocols. New Orleans Pelicans forward Nicolò Melli, who grew up in Reggio Emilia a decade after Bryant left – two NBA players from a city of fewer than 200,000 – will be the guest.
“The fact that we had the same PE teacher because we went to the same middle school. The fact that we started our youth journey in the same gym, that we had the same coach. Those are aspects that always make me smile,” said Melli said in a statement. “You make me, in a way, a little prouder of how my career began.”
Christopher Ward, a childhood friend of Bryant’s, met him in the late 1980s and they played together on Reggio’s youth basketball team before Bryant and his family returned to the United States in the early 1990s.
“OK, 90% of our time has been basketball-centric,” Ward said in an interview with ESPN this week. “So it was either playing in the back yard or at the gym or playing the Nintendo basketball games or watching tapes – VHS every day. For example, Michael Jordan’s Come Fly With Me, that tape was like 24/7 on TV … It was about basketball in every kind of expression. “
Despite his nascent obsession with basketball, when he returned to Philadelphia at the age of 12 and played in the Sonny Hill Future League, Bryant claimed he had zero points all summer.
“I could believe that the first few years were difficult for him because he left Italy and came to America because everything was so different there,” said Ward when asked about Bryant’s memory. “He could hardly speak slang and be the real American cool guy. He was just a European, a black European who went to the States and as far as basketball goes, you have to have that [city] Approach in the states in the 90s. “
The Bryant Ward knew had loot as a child. So much so that MC Hammer pulled him out of the crowd when Bryant attended a concert by the actor with the baggy trousers in Milan with his mother and sisters.
“We found out – Pamela [Bryant] and the girls told us – that MC Hammer called him on stage to dance with him, “said Ward.” I think they had front row seats or whatever and he was called on stage to dance with MC Hammer because he was really, really good at dancing (in his seat). I remember it very well. “
The coordination was also evident on the basketball court.
“He was a good basketball player. He knew what to do with his body,” said Ward. “But he was very thin at the time. Still very small. So he just had some strength issues. But in terms of technique and everything, he was amazing at basketball. He was like the great Kobe, the adult, in miniature . It was amazing.”
Nearly 30 years after first meeting Bryant, Ward was reunited with the adult NBA star in the Lakers locker room a few weeks before Bryant’s last game as his old friend’s guest.
“I was a dreamer, like he was when we were kids and dreamed of being there (in the NBA). And finally I got there,” said Ward. “Through him, but I got there. So it was very satisfying.”
Bryant welcomed a bit of Italy back into his life. Now Bryant’s old Italian turf will welcome his spirit more and more.
“I know Kobe only lived in Italy for six or seven years, but the Italian period was very, very important to what Kobe became,” said Ward. “What he lived here, what he learned here, was, in my opinion, very important to him in terms of culture and approach to things. … This was a sensitivity that Kobe had that many others don’t.”
