With sadness in his voice and his eyes peering down, Jayson Tatum reflected on how Kobe Bryant was more than just a player to him.
“Everybody knows how much he meant to me,” the Celtics forward said to the media on Tuesday. “From somebody I really looked up to, he really was my hero. The reason I started playing basketball to becoming a friend and a mentor, somebody that I could talk to and help me out with a bunch of things on and off the court. It’s been a tough couple of days.”
Many have been mourning the loss of Bryant, who passed away from a helicopter crash on Sunday.