Um, he was a friend and a brother.

I love them, And I'm sure I'm speaking for a lot of other people who knew him.

Michael wilbon knew him better.

All of the players, uh, that were close to him in the MBA.

His true contemporaries.

They obviously knew him better than me.

Um, but to be 12 years older than him and to have known him since he entered the league or even before that.

I met him once before that.

When he was not more Pennsylvania, Uh, lower marien.

But to know him for his long as I did, um, you know, again, 12 years older than him, I looked up to him, Uh, because you used the words, you know, just intellectually curious.

I'll just simply say he was brilliant.

Hey, spoke three languages fluently, obviously English, Spanish and Italian.

I believe that he was almost finished if he had not already been finished learning German and Mandarin.

Uh, just a brilliant brother.

Business savvy, highly intellectual, Um, incredibly tenacious and everything that he decided to do.

Andi was a true true motivated.

He was about pushing you to be all that you could be.

Hey, certainly did that with me.

I used to talk about what he looked at me doing some of the career aspirations that I have fed off of conversations with because he was that brilliant.

And when he spoke, you listen, because you knew that he was somebody that had something very, very significant to say.

Hey wasn't about games, only game he was about with the game of life and pursuing it with a level of vigor that could ultimately help you ascend the heights that you did not even know that you could reach.

Um, And when he talks, when you talk about him being who he was, he was clearly an ambassador, a zwelling, because he was somebody that grew strength over recognizing his ability to motivate so many other people.

Because when he was younger, that wasn't the case.

Hey came across as being about himself.

He was about winning at all costs.

Having that tenacious mentality becoming a champion.

Solidifying himself is one of the greats who have ever played this game.

And then, obviously, through trials and tribulations, he grew to appreciate so many more things about his life and about the life of so many other people, particularly that of his wife is beautiful Children.

The list goes on and on and on.

And so as a result of that, he just became mawr and more comfortable in his own skin.

And the more he conquered challenges, the more at peace he became.

And, you know, just being a five time champion, the league scoring champion.

Ah, league M v P um, you know, uh, Olympic gold medalist and all of this other stuff, just a phenomenal things that he had accomplished in his career.

The last time I saw him was on New Year's Eve, 3.5 weeks before he passed away.

And, you know, we were partying together.

New Year's Eve in L.

A.

Andi was the happiest that I've ever seen.

He was completely at peace.

His guard was down.

Um, anything that he had to prove was on Lee to himself.

He knew that he had reached a point of stratosphere in his life and in his world, where he was completely validated and there was nothing else to debate or argue about his stature, his cachet on his ascension in the world of sports and beyond.

And so when you look at that to know Kobe for his longest, I've known them.

The mic will bonds of the world and so many others that have been covering the NBA for so long to see him in that place mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

It was just not only incredibly uplifting.

It was just a beautiful, beautiful thing to see.

Because at age 41 just imagine that for a second y'all to be 41 years of age and to know Okay, you've achieved the level of success.

Well, um, significance, cachet, all of these different things.

There are no more questions.

The only pressure that's left in your life is the pressure you bring on yourself.

And that's it.

We all dream toe have that kind to reach that kind of place mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

And he was at a point where again talking about his beautiful daughter Gianna, she's going to UConn.

Stephen A.

It's gonna be all American.

Stephen A.

She's going to the w n ba.

She's gonna be a star in that too.

Wait, wait until you see this girl.

That's how he talked about her.

He loved all his Children and he was so in love with his wife, Vanessa, to know that, you know, at age 41 such a such a wonderful life.

What he had evolved into such a wonderful person is gone from us, you know?

Rebuild PLASCHKE COLUMN In the Los Angeles Times today Brady pretty much says it all.

Still can't believe he's gone.

You still feel his president.

You still feel him around you.

Uh, but that presence that you feel also serves to remind you that he is no longer here.

And when you see that video of him sitting courtside with his daughter and LeBron coming over to hug him, look at the smile that it was on his face.

Look at how happy he waas and how content he was with his life and where he was this place in it.

I'm going to see him gone now.

It just still hurts.

It hurts a lot, and it's gonna hurt for a very, very long time.

I think it's gonna hurt forever because no matter how much further in life, we all go.

The fact that you know that he was going at the age of 41.

It's just something that's pretty damn hard to get over when he has so much that he was still willing to looking forward to giving the world God has a plan for all of us.

We understand that, Uh, but some a bit more harder to stomach.