What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Claude.Kabese

3 min readFeb 6, 2020

I don’t have to tell you it ends.

This life — shrouded in mystery, often discombobulating and chock full of surprises.

Sure, we lose people every second of every day but Kobe’s loss will reverberate around the world for years.

And like legends before him, we’ll remember where we were the day he died.

It’s tragic how much greatness dances around us daily.

Yet we are so preoccupied, we can’t grasp just how grand it all is until it is gone.

Love and Basketball

Kobe was many things to different people.

But the attributes all can agree on are his love and hunger.

His love for family.

And insatiable appetite for the game he played at a level most of us can’t comprehend.

Regardless of the noise, pressure, haters and hecklers.

Dude’s game was relentless.

Kobe won even when he lost.

To Be More, Do More

I’ve been in the Sales game for awhile and I’ve had my share of hits and misses.

I’ve worked hard, won and picked my sorry ass up when I’ve fallen.

And despite the slippage, my love for the game always brings me back to center.

Last year, when I watched Kobe’s Muse, I was awed and embarrassed.

Awed at the surgical precision with which he approached his craft and embarrassed that I wasn’t doing the same in mine.

It was a reminder to be more.

Identity

I always identified with #24 because of his experience growing up overseas then struggling to find his place when he moved here.

As an immigrant, my first few years were also rough around the edges as I learned a new language and navigated what it meant to be black in America.

But #8 took that discomfort, flipped it on its head and made it his superpower/ unapologetically.

I will always admire his strength in adversity.

Inspiration

It’s disconcerting to be inspired by someone’s passing.

But, what choice do we have?

To draw inspiration in devastating times is our mechanism for making sense out of senselessness.

And it is in these moments I admit I haven’t lived or loved hard enough.

I haven’t appreciated the undercurrent that tomorrow is promised to no one.

What prowess awaits me if I dedicate every ounce of being towards Goal without hesitation?

Like he did…

One Love

It’s too easy to half-ass your way through it all then victim-blame the universe when your dreams don’t come true.

The truth we all know, but choose to forget, is that one’s definition of success can only be attained through sustained effort.

Doing what you love and loving what you do may be an overused trope.

But damn if it ain’t true!

Grace

We are all graced with the ability to create and orchestrate.

Blessed to the hilt, we still complain about triviality.

Our moment isn’t down the hall and to the right.