Ramona, you've spent so many years covering Kobe in L.

A.

What did you learn about Kobe?

The man, Not just the player.

In talking to Pau, you covered both of these guys.

And yet that conversation seems like it brought so much work.

I mean, to be honest, Rachel, like, I covered them up close, and I never realized how close they were until really until after Kobe passed.

And we saw all of the social media post from Vanessa and and and Cat and Pau and just the interactions that they've had.

And I couldn't, you know, I was like, Wow, I I saw it.

I was up close to it and I didn't know.

And it reminded me a little of Kobe's, um, relationship with Michael Jordan, where we kind of realized how close they were after Michael gave that eulogy.

And I respect that because he kept something for himself, right?

Like he shared so much of himself with all of us and with the world.

But he did keep certain relationships for himself out of the public eye, and I don't.

And I respect that.

I think it's beautiful on.

Do you know for me is I think we all What we learned over the past year, as we've all been telling stories, is just who he was as a man.

I mean, he he used to, like, email me when he was writing where he would write those stories in the Players Tribune.

And he would say, What do you What do you think?

These stories I've been writing, I go, you know, I was, like, polite.

I was like, Yeah, that's really good.

Yeah.

What do you really think?

Right.

And he was like, I was like, You want me to, like, read it?

And Red Pennant, he goes, Yes.

Red Pen, the S h out of it.

Right on.

He wanted, like he wanted a real critique and because he wanted to be a great writer and he wanted to know what it took.

And I remember we were doing a story kind of in his last year, and he really wanted to know what my writing process was like because he was transitioning into that world.

And so I told him I usually like Thio get a soundtrack kind of picked songs that that fit the theme of this story, and I get a little method actor about it, and I go tell me some of the songs you listen to and he hit me back immediately.

And Rachel, you wouldn't even believe the songs like it be Trans Siberian Orchestra and CIA.

Um, it would be Kanye.

It would be Tribe called Quest.

It was like all over the map.

But it was the types of songs that he would listen to when he was in his own.

And he was pushing himself and the stories he wanted to hear from me about being a writer, where that's what he got the most excited about.

And he's like, I want to hear that because that's when I hear the passion in your voice.

And I just knew that's who he waas.

I mean, that's That's Kobe, the man he got excited about things that other people were passionate about.

And he wanted to help you take that passion that was inside of you and make the most of it.

Yeah.

I mean, uh, Ramona and I got a chance to talk on the phone.

The other night for about 45 minutes while she was finishing up this piece of pal and one thing pal said.

And I told Ramona that night to Kobe was so cool on the bus in the locker room, so chilling.

I used to tell cause like, yeah, why can't the rest of the world see this dude?

And he said, These efforts can't see that side.

I mean, you know, I mean, like, he always wanted to keep that mamba wall up, but it was beautiful to see that, you know, Powell usedto, you know, kind of work on him to like it's OK like you're still a bad man.

But you could still be, you know, show the world the rest of the other side.

But he just until he was done, he wouldn't do it.

Yeah, for me.

I am so jealous of everybody that got to know Kobe in that sense because when I got to know Kobe, it was just straight.

Laser focus is like, I wanna be the best.

And he was like a machine.

He was a robot.

He was pretty much the terminator, and he let some of us in, but not the degree that he's let these other guys.

And so I'm so jealous about these other guys.

I got to know him a little bit, but not like these other guys and and I'm and I say it again.

I am jealous of you, Man Way worked so much with Tracy McGrady, and as I mentioned earlier in this show, they were so close when they both came in close in age, coming right from high school, they spent summers together staying at each other's parents houses.

And then there was that decade or so of Kobe's tunnel vision.

And then after Robert, as you said, they got to know each other, having kids on the EU circuit together and talking about just rekindling that deep, deep friendship.

The people who got toe be let in by Kobe like Powell, like T Mac, like Matt, so many of us who are lucky to be around him, not just the beginning, but also at the end of Ramona.

You certainly were right there, so thank you for joining us.