Louisville's Jeff Walz reacts to Kobe Bryant's death
Louisville women’s basketball learned of Kobe Bryant’s tragic death before its game against Pittsburgh Jan. 26 at the KFC Yum! Center. Coach Jeff Walz said several players were devastated by the news, so the team talked about what the former NBA basketball player has meant to the game.
“I said, ‘the reason he is the Mamba, is because of how he played,’” Walz said. “veryone knew him because of how he played and then you get to learn about him as a person, and now all of a sudden you have a great basketball player and a great man. If you want to pay your respects, go out and bust your tail because you don’t get to be his stature as a basketball player by not playing hard every single night.”
Walz said the women’s basketball community is grateful for Bryant’s commitment to the sport.
“Kobe has been remarkable to women’s basketball,” Walz said. “Two weeks ago, he goes up and sees Hailey Van Lith play. It’s hard to put into words right now. It’s something that I didn’t find out about until a little bit before tip and then it was still trying to be confirmed if that was true.
“I feel for his wife, his other children, it is not necessarily what he has done for basketball, it’s about family at this point in time. I have four children myself, for anyone to have to deal with that, you wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy.”
