Mamba Mentality—Jumping into the Void
Posted on October 05, 2022 by George Miller, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
When someone who is contributing a lot to the world leaves us early there is a sense of responsibility that we feel to step in and carry the torch.
On Sunday I play basketball in a church league. Before we start our games we offer prayer and our thanks. This past Sunday one of the players asked if we could take a moment of silence for Kobe Bryant.
That’s how I found out. I was shocked, but honestly, Kobe Bryant was a little after my time, so I didn’t think much about it. Then we played our game.
Afterward, I was standing next to my teammate who had asked to say a prayer for Kobe. As we watched the next team’s warm-up, he said, “You know, I just can’t get over it…”
“Kobe is the reason I’m wearing this jersey with the number 24 on it. I mean, look out there on the court right now, there’s an 8, there’s a 24, there’s another 8 on the other team… Look at all the shoes, many of them Kobe’s.”
I felt sad and even felt kind of guilty, like… “uh, I didn’t even really notice.”
I almost said something stupid to try to avoid my discomfort, like “yeah, I grew up watching Michael Jordan and if he died I’d probably know how you felt.” Luckily, I had just been on a training in social and emotional intelligence where one of the things I learned about was presence and how to use emotions to make deeper contact with people. For this interaction, I used The Power of Silence and willingly entered into the void.
I shut up and listened to my teammate as he took me on a journey, talking about himself as a little kid who would do the dishes and extra chores around the house and then write a letter to his mom asking if he could stay up an extra hour to watch Kobe Bryant on the Lakers (two hours later due to West Coast time). Kobe was a huge inspiration for him—he ended up incorporating sports into his career. He now contributes to the city of Chicago by bringing athletics into schools.
The more I listened, the more I was struck by the impact that this one man, Kobe Bryant, had on him and then the impact that he’s had on the city… and then thinking about the influence that we all have on each other. It really hit me—and I had almost missed this. I had almost tried to make it a comfortable conversation. It wasn’t comfortable. And trying to make it comfortable would have been disrespectful to the meaning that was happening.
Kobe Bryant’s passing is a reminder that none of us will be here forever and that yet, we live on through the way we impact everyone in our lives. When someone who is contributing a lot to the world leaves us early, there is a sense of responsibility that we feel to step in and carry the torch—and these moments are all around us.
