Heat’s Spoelstra a year later on Kobe, ‘I still can’t believe that he’s not here anymore’

A year later, it still seems unimaginable.

“I just remember everybody coming into my office,” Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of that Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena, after his team had just completed a practice, “and it just went throughout this building.”

Kobe Bryant, at 41, was dead, the Los Angeles Lakers icon killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California, along with 13-year-old daughter Gianna.

Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of that tragic moment, with Spoelstra recently reflecting on the competitor he coached against and developed admiration toward.

“It goes far beyond history,” Spoelstra said of Bryant’s legacy. “There’s just an iconic respect for the generation of players that are in this league right now or even the ones who are going to come into this league.

“I still can’t believe that he’s not here anymore. And I can’t believe it’s been a year.”

With the Heat off Tuesday after the weeklong trip concluding Monday night against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center, it will allow time for further reflection.

For Spoelstra, the lessons from Bryant are ones that endure and inspire.

“Everything he represented as a professional, as a competitor, that just really has forced everybody to honor that, because that was so different,” Spoelstra said. “That was so uncommon, how he approached competition, how he approached doing whatever was necessary to win.”

Bryant’s commitment to the game included an iconic moment in 2011, when, after an 8-of-21 shooting night against the Heat, he returned postgame to the court at AmericanAirlines Arena for an hour of shooting drills, facility staff pausing their cleanup to witness the perseverance.

Bryant had been scheduled to be inducted posthumously into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, with that ceremony pushed back until May 13-15 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Former Heat forward Chris Bosh had also been eligible for enshrinement into that class, but his selection was delayed in order to allow for a more intimate ceremony for Bryant’s class.

The Heat had several iconic moments against Bryant, including Shaquille O’Neal facing his former Lakers teammate after joining the Heat, and Dwyane Wade breaking Bryant’s nose during the 2012 NBA All-Star Game and then going on to develop an abiding friendship. That included, in 2015, Wade being among the first told by Bryant that Bryant would be retiring at the end of that season.

Of Wade, Bryant said after his final career game against the Heat, “I love him because he was a vicious competitor. He’s vicious. He’s mean. We can have those type of battles and then afterwards hang out and have a conversation then lace them up and go right back at it. I enjoyed competing against him. He’s the hardest player I’ve ever had to guard on a screen and roll.”

In the wake of Bryant’s death, Heat guard Tyler Herro suggested the entire NBA retire Bryant’s No. 24 jersey.