Atlanta Hawks veteran Vince Carter was understandably an emotional mess when he was asked to share his thoughts on the untimely passing of Los Angeles Lakers legend and longtime friend Kobe Bryant.
Carter admitted that he was absolutely shocked upon learning about the tragic accident:
“I wasn’t ready for it,” he said, via Jeff Schultz of The Athletic. “Last time I cried was family passing. But he was family.”
Vince Carter, who was drafted in the NBA three seasons after Kobe Bryant, was also able to provide some insight on Kobe and his decision to retire in 2016 after a decorated two-decade-long career:
“He said, ‘I’ll be OK,’” Vince Carter said. “Move forward to New Jersey (Dec. 21) when we had a conversation after the game. I said, ‘How is it?’ He said he’s the happiest that he’s been and getting the opportunity to see his kids grow up, helping his daughter figure out the game. Then he asked me if I was ready. I said, ‘I’m back and forth with it all the time.’ He said, ‘You’ll enjoy it. It’s peaceful.’ He said we’ll connect soon and we’ll talk about it and the steps he went through. The last thing we talked about was we were going to do whatever we could do to the best of our ability to talk about our daughters.”
It's quite difficult to read Carter's narrative without being emotional, so we can only imagine how deeply hurt Vince is right now. This is merely a glimpse into the type of relationship he had with Kobe, but based on this alone, we are able to appreciate what Carter meant when he said that he lost a family member in Bryant.
Kobe Bryant died at the age of 41 on Sunday in a helicopter crash that killed eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianni.
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