Magic Johnson Says It will Take Years To Get Over Kobe Bryant's Death

Johnson spoke about Bryant on Sunday before the Lakers hosted the Boston Celtics

Before the Lakers hosted the Boston Celtics on Sunday, Magic Johnson spoke about how much Kobe Bryant meant to him, the city of Los Angeles and the world. 

Johnson, who spoke alongside a panel of former Lakers and Celtics players in front of a select group of season ticket holders and reporters, recalled when he first heard of Bryant after he worked out with the Lakers in 1996 as a teenager out of Lower Merion High School.

"I get a phone call from Jerry [West] and Michael [Cooper] that said, hey, this 18-year-old kid is the real deal," Johnson said Sunday. "Jerry said this is the greatest workout we've ever seen from anybody, just think about the Lakers history, and so I said, okay, wow."

West, who was the Lakers' general manager at the time, recently said on TNT he had to stop that workout because Bryant was embarrassing Cooper, and he knew then and there that he had to acquire him. The Charlotte Hornets selected Bryant as the 13th overall pick in the 1996 draft, but the Lakers had arranged to immediately trade for him in exchange for Vlade Divac. 

Bryant impressed everyone with his tireless work ethic and his drive to be the best. 

"When he came as a rookie, the commitment to being great, working hard each and every day, he was up at 3 or 4 in the morning, already did a two-hour workout, then would come here and workout with the Lakers," Johnson said. "He was committed to just dominating and he did."

Bryant won five NBA championships with the Lakers over his 20-season career. He was an 18-time All-Star, a two-time Finals MVP, a one-time regular season MVP in 2008 and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. 

Johnson went on to marvel at some of the things Bryant accomplished in his career.

Bryant scored 62 points in three quarters in a game against Dallas in 2005. He had a career-high 81 points in game against Toronto in 2006. He had four consecutive games in 2007 in which he scored at least 50 points. He famously made two free throws after sustaining a torn Achilles' tendon in a game against Golden State in 2013. And in his final game before retiring in 2016, he scored 60 points against Utah. 

"Who goes out at 60 points in their last game?" Johnson said. "It was truly amazing. Every night you might see something that you would never ever see before again."

Lakers' owner Jeanie Buss also spoke about Bryant on Sunday, pointing out that Bryant used the team's crushing loss to the Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals as motivation to help the United States men's basketball team win the gold medal in Beijing that summer and the Lakers win two-straight titles in 2009 against Orlando and 2010 against Boston. 

"We lost to the Celtics in 2008, and it was probably the worst summer that we had to go through after losing," Buss said. "Kobe went right into the 2008 Olympics and won a gold medal, so he kind of channeled that losing to beat Spain in the final. And Pau Gasol, who was one of his teammates, really struggled in that 2008 Finals. You know, Kobe decided that he really needed to bring out Pau and challenge him. And certainly what that means and that Laker fans know, is that [the team] went on to win the next year, defeating Orlando in the Finals, and it wasn’t until 2010 that we were able to have a rematch of that 2008 Finals...It bonded us forever."

After Bryant retired, he poured himself into storytelling, winning an Oscar in 2018 for his short film 'Dear Basketball,' which was based on a poem he wrote. He also devoted himself to his family, spending as much time as possible with his wife Vanessa and his four daughters, Natalia, 17, Gianna, 13, Bianka, 3 and Capri, who was born last summer. 

Bryant and Gianna died in a helicopter crash along with seven other people on Jan. 26 as they were headed to the Mamba Sports Academy, where Bryant was going to coach Gianna in a basketball game. 

"Pat Riley told all three of us this," Johnson said as he stood next to Cooper and Kurt Rambis. "You won't enjoy what you accomplish until after it's over. Kobe was living his best life after basketball. His relationship with his kids, with his wife, the the work in the community. He was about women's athletics, the WNBA."

Many players around the NBA grew up idolizing Bryant and after he retired, he became a mentor to a lot of guys around the league. He held a mini camp last summer for select NBA players at his Mamba Sports Academy. 

"He worked out with everybody," Johnson said. "The list of players that this man worked out with, Kawhi [Leonard], Kyrie Irving, [Jayson] Tatum of the Celtics, on and on and on. I mean, he would give his time and his knowledge of the game to all these young players."

Johnson also praised Bryant for his work with homelessness and his advocacy for women's sports. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2018, Bryant said Gianna wanted to play in the WNBA. 

"The best thing that happens is when we go out, and fans will come up to me and she'll be standing next to me, and they'll be like, 'You gotta have a boy, you and [Vanessa] gotta have a boy, man, to have somebody carry on the tradition, the legacy," Bryant told Kimmel. "And [Gianna] will be like ‘Oy, I got this. We don’t need a boy for that. I got this.'”

There will be a memorial at Staples Center on Feb. 24 to honor Bryant and Gianna. The date is significant because Bryant wore No. 24, while Gianna wore No. 2 at her youth basketball games. 

"It's hard in a two-minute, five-minute time to say everything he meant to the world, to the NBA, to basketball fans," Johnson said. "He's bigger than life. And it will take... years to get over his passing and his daughter and the seven other people who lost their lives as well."