Basketball Legend Kobe Bryant Talks Love For Philadelphia In 2002 Interview With CBS3's Ukee Washington
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The tributes continue to pour in for basketball legend Kobe Bryant after his unexpected death on Sunday. CBS3's Ukee Washington had the chance to talk with the Philadelphia native many years ago about his love for the city.
The interview was back in 2002.
He asked Kobe about a photoshoot where he wore his dad's Sixers jersey for a Philadelphia magazine cover story.
"I think that people that I have been friends with in Philadelphia, my family, those are the people that really mattered the most to me. Everything else I just kind of let fall off. You will have people like that you, people that don't like you. I felt like it was a great idea," Bryant said during the 2002 interview. "I felt like I would be giving my father the respect that he deserves for raising me and for encouraging me to be the best that I can be in the game of basketball and also showing some love to my old hometown."
Washington also spoke with Kobe's dad when he decided to go straight from Lower Merion High School to the NBA about that big jump.
"I think that is something that we'll talk about as a family and see what Kobe wants to do. He might feel like dad let me for a couple of weeks, let me go for a year. But that is something we will discuss as a family and depends on what he wants to do."