MambaAndMe

My name is Alan J.J. Nadeau III, I'm 18, and I'm a high school senior and Unified basketball player from Hinsdale, New Hampshire. We just finished our season a couple weeks ago, and when we were playing, my jersey number was 24. So in their honor, I put Kobe's name & numbers on my socks, and RIPKOBE & RIPGIANNA on the back of my shoes. I took the court in our first game after Kobe's death, a home game no less, against Conant High School, and scored 10 pts, including two 3-pointers (and yes, after I MADE the shots, I yelled Kobe. Not before, after), along with a couple rebounds and steals. The end result would be a 44-40 win. In our next game, an away matchup with Stevens High School, and in a hard-fought game, we came out victorious, 44-35. As for me, well, Kobe was with me that day, as I scored 14 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk. I also made back to back 3-pointers, the first of the two being a one handed hook shot, something I haven't made since the last game of our 2018-19 season. To say the least, I was very enthusiastic.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play in either of our final two games, including our Senior Night finale against ConVal High School. But during the pep rally earlier that day, I did something special. I put tape on the back of my Unified jersey to spell out KOBE, and when our team got called out, I came out last, holding the jersey up for everyone to see. I did the same thing when I got my picture taken following the ConVal game.

All in all, I had a lot of fun, and Kobe will be greatly missed. RIP Kobe.