The public wake for Kobe and Gigi Bryant at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Monday afternoon brought the NBA to a halt. The event, hosted nearly one month after the tragic death of the Bryants and seven others in a helicopter crash, featured a litany of the NBA’s present and former greats to remember the life of the Lakers legend and his young daughter.
Michael Jordan’s speech about Kobe Bryant brought us a side of him we had not seen
Watch Michael Jordan’s emotional Kobe Bryant tribute speech.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The event was full of memorable and emotional moments. One of them occurred when Michael Jordan took the stage to eulogize a man he repeatedly referred to as his “little brother.”
Jordan gave a heartfelt tribute to Bryant and spoke about how his death taught him to never take a single day for granted. Then Jordan brought a necessary moment of levity to the proceedings by poking fun at the old “Crying Jordan” meme that was everywhere a few years ago.
As tears ran down Jordan’s face, he said: “Now I’m going to have to look at another crying meme for the next .....”
“I told my wife I wasn’t going to do this because I didn’t want to see it for the next three or four years,” Jordan continued. “That is what Kobe Bryant does to me.”
MJ’s entire tribute to Bryant was moving. You can watch the entire thing here:
“When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died,” Jordan said. “Those are the memories we have to live with and we learn from. I promise you from this day forward I will live with the memories of knowing that I tried to help my little brother in every way I could.
“Please rest in peace, little brother.”
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