As they left the court, a win earned, a step taken, Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie embraced.
The shock of Kobe Bryant’s death has rippled through the NBA and beyond. In Brooklyn, Bryant was a significant presence in the life of both Brooklyn guards, in different ways.
Irving, the dynamic point guard who was a No. 1 overall pick and in 2016 an NBA champion, twice an All-NBA selection, sought guidance about how to operate at the NBA’s highest levels and manage it on a personal level. He found a willing mentor, even if the student took some time to absorb it all.
“I asked him for help probably a little while ago, about four or five years ago I asked him for some help and I don’t think I was probably ready to be a mentee at that point. In some ancient — I’m gonna go real deep on you guys, you know I am — in some ancient texts they say when the student is ready the teacher will appear and I had that type of mentorship relationship with him where I was able to ask him almost anything no matter how nervous I was or how fearful I was,” said Irving. “He just was easy to approach with those types of questions about what goes on in a day-in and day-out basis of chasing something that’s bigger than yourself and when you’re trying to leave a legacy or leave something of a mark on a game they’re gonna come with a lot of sacrifices, there’s gonna come a lot of hate, there’s gonna come a lot of love and there’s gonna come a lot of balance that you must create in your life. He left a lot of teachings, a lot of breadcrumbs I call them, and I just followed every single one.”
Irving learned the Bryant news on Sunday afternoon while at Madison Square Garden preparing for that night’s game against the Knicks. He left the building and did not play in the game, and the Nets had an off-day on Monday after the weekend back-to-back set.
They returned to work with a Tuesday practice session before Wednesday night’s 125-115 win against the Pistons. The only exception from the norm, head coach Kenny Atkinson said, was that Irving was a little quieter than usual at practice. The next step, for Irving and all the Nets, was to play Wednesday’s game.
“I knew he was locked in yesterday at practice,” said Atkinson. “It surprised the heck out of me. He was so locked in; you’d have to ask him. He was super-competitive in practice yesterday. I thought we were going to have one of those days where you’re just going to understandably not going to going to get much from him. So, his preparation for the game, it was impressive, and he carried it over tonight. I didn’t see any moments of doubt or insecurity, or emotionally — really good with his teammates. My opinion is, I think it’s his haven. This is his comfort zone and the place where he feels comfortable. But I’m sure on his drive home tonight, when he is sitting at home alone, I think a lot of those feelings will come back. But this was good for him, playing this game.”
Dinwiddie’s connection was more from a distance, the L.A. kid idolizing the city’s biggest basketball star throughout his childhood. That was the weight behind a postgame connection in Brooklyn last month, when Dinwiddie scored 39 points against Atlanta with Kobe and daughter Gianna watching courtside, from seats adjacent to the Nets’ bench. That was the night Bryant told Dinwiddie he was “playing like an All-Star.”
“For me personally, that was big time for me as a person,” said Dinwiddie. “I don't really search for typical or more traditional validation because of the role that I've had and understanding what that kind of means in the scope of things. That was a place where I definitely sought to find some validation.”
Against the Pistons, Dinwiddie went for 28 points while following through with his planned tribute to Bryant, switching from the No. 8 to No. 26. The Nets played a pregame tribute video and acknowledged all the victims of Sunday’s helicopter crash. Two courtside seats, the ones Kobe and Gianna sat in back in December, were vacant for the night, flowers in their place. Throughout the night, “Kobe Bryant” chants rang throughout the arena. In the final minutes, after having left the game, Irving waved them on.
“I think it helps to be home,” said Atkinson. “To hear the Barclays crowd, chanting Kobe’s name, and then the seats there — it felt we could touch it a little more because we were home. I don’t know if that makes sense. That’s how I felt anyway.”
Afterwards, Irving said it was all “open wounds still.” It will be that way for a while. But he’ll continue to move forward with Bryant’s lessons.
“It was what he helped you see inside of yourself, always,” said Irving. “It wasn’t something, the words that he said, it was something that was always there inside of you that you knew was there but you had to tap into it and he tapped into it all the time when he was playing the game of basketball, when he was around his family, but he was that type of teacher.”