'Kobe, regardless of if it was a Sunday night game in January or an NBA Finals game, he played the same way – and that was the beauty.' Former Raptors play-by-play announcer Chuck Swirsky shared his Black Mamba memories with loung_s.
Shifting attention to last week’s horrible tragedy, you called many Los Angels Lakers games when Bryant was an active player. Was there a specific memory of him that stood out to you?Well, other than the 81-point game I called, I was introduced to Kobe by his agent, who’s now the general manager of the Lakers, Rob Pelinka.
I’ve known Rob for many, many years and I remember the year after the 81-point game, I requested Kobe for a pre-game interview and normally he does not do pre-game, but in this case he did because of my friendship with Rob. And it’s funny, when you look at that place in time, even before the 81-point game, when I met Kobe he was always very gracious. I can’t say I was a deep, personal friend because I was not, so I don’t want to embellish that. It was a professional connection.
But, when I saw him twice a year, either with the Raptors against the Lakers or the Bulls against the Lakers, he always found time to say hello, come by, chat for about 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, whatever, and he was a great people person. In addition to being a basketball player, he was extremely charismatic.If you think about the game, it was on a sleepy Sunday night with a 6:30 starting time with the Lakers.
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