When Kyrie Irving wasn’t ready to address the media Tuesday, two days after leaving Madison Square Garden upon learning of the tragic death in a helicopter crash of Kobe Bryant, his friend and mentor, it was teammate Kevin Durant who first stepped up to speak for the Nets.
Addressing reporters in a team setting for the first time since media day in late September, Durant, who is out this season as he rehabs from Achilles tendon surgery, opened up about how the Nets are grieving, as well as what Bryant meant to him personally.
“It’s still hard to process this,” Durant said. “It’s a tragedy. It makes so many people in the world so sad. Having an opportunity to compete against Kobe and being around him in a human space was a joy. Those emotions just start coming out at once.”
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed Sunday while flying to Bryant’s basketball facility in Southern California. Authorities still are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred amid a dense fog.
“It’s hard to comprehend all of this, but just having that time and those moments with Kobe, it was always about pressing forward,” Durant said. “At this time, it’s so hard to do so, just the amount of impact he had on all of us, you know? It’s hard to keep going, as a basketball community, as a world as a whole. I know we’re just mourning, sticking together when it comes to this.”
Durant talked about the impact that the Lakers legend and future Hall of Famer had on everyone he came in contact with, whether it was as a friend, mentor or competitor. As someone who simply admired Bryant for all that he was, Durant just loved being in his presence.
He said he always tried to emulate in his own game Bryant’s laser-like focus.
The first-year Net said he’s applied Bryant’s “Mamba mentality” to his recovery from his Achilles tendon tear, an injury Bryant suffered in 2013. But it was the curiosity that Bryant had for the game of basketball that really resonated with Durant.
“That’s what stands out to me,” Durant said. “I remember he asked me about a pin-down I came off of one time, and I’m like, ‘You’re Kobe. You know?’ I could talk about the memories and the small interactions I had that he probably didn’t know touched me, but I could go on and on.
“I’m just grieving with his family, his close ones, his loved ones and everyone that was in the crash. It was just tough to take. It was devastating. So many lives were affected. Just praying for everybody who was involved.”
Durant thought it was beneficial for the team to get back onto the court Tuesday and practice, adding that everybody grieves differently. Irving is expected to play Wednesday against the Pistons after missing Sunday’s loss to the Knicks, and Durant feels like everybody is mourning in their own way.
“I tried to write, think about what I would say or what I would write,” Durant said. “It was like nothing was big enough, you know? That’s how I feel when it comes to Kobe Bryant. That’s his mark he left on the earth. It’s like, it feels like nothing will ever be big enough to truly honor Kobe Bryant.”
