I was born on 1998, 2 years in Kobe's career. I knew growing up my dad was a die hard Lakers fan since the Magic era. As a toddler I was never a fan of basketball until my 8th year of existence when I decided to watch basketball with my dad, because my cartoon show was after. The lakers was playing that time during the 2006 nba season they're really not that strong that time, but Kobe was on his way to the to the top or to his prime so I watched and curiosity just hit me and started to asked my dad countless of questions about Kobe, during that time when someone mentions basketball all I can think of is Kobe, that's the time I told my dad that I want to be like Kobe and play basketball, and of course since my dad played during his days and a big basketball fan he obliged and spared his extra time to train me, until I learned to play on my own and work on the very basics of the game and I became a player in our village on a youth team, this might be funny but playing as a kid I never wanted to pass the ball because I grew up watching kobe play. All jokes aside I continued playing basketball and starting to learn the reality of basketball where you can't always win, since my dad put me in a weaker team to help me build the inner dog in me to not rely on teammates but to do my best to win, and it's sweeter that way once you win, and it made more hungrier I continued working hard despite winning, and still having a "kill list" like kobe. I was still in elementary during this time and I would want to challenge seniors, that's how dedicated I am to be the best and that;s how kobe greatly influenced me. To be honest I evaluate my self as a good basketball player at 16 years old I started playing commercial leagues in my country, but tragedy hit me when I tore my ACL. Well, that didn't stop from training without having to run and jump. I worked on my shooting. That's also thanks to Kobe because he never took a day of despite of being injured. And to this day I'm working as hard as I can to get back where I was before my injury. It's my 1st year right know getting back from my injury and still didn't stop me from working. Sometimes when I fell like being unstoppable I would say "what would kobe do in this situation?" He would still work, I sometimes slack off because of getting better again but thinking about kobe and what he's known for (work ethic) I can't slack off knowing that I just getting started for another challenge. All this things I wrote the sweetness of victory, the feeling of defeat and the results of working your ass off each and every day boils down to Kobe influencing me about basketball and the very reason why I love it more than anything else. Kobe said "mamba out" but for us lakernation "live on my idol"