Every story that comes out about Kobe Bryant is better than the last, and we’re still getting new ones more than five years after his untimely passing. Danilo Gallinari appeared on the most recent episode of Run Your Race with Theo Pinson, and he shared a tale that perfectly exemplified why Kobe was such a legend.
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Like most NBA players, Gallinari revered Kobe, and he jumped at the chance to meet him in the summer of 2008. Gallinari was playing in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, while Kobe was there practicing with Team USA in preparation for the Beijing Olympics. He waited about an hour after his practice, then Kobe arrived.
Kobe, of course, grew up in Italy when his dad played professionally there, and he put that worldliness to good use in impressing Gallinari. The two shared a conversation in Italian, which Danilo clearly appreciated quite a bit.
He gifted Gallo a pair of signed shoes, then left a handwritten letter for him in his room afterwards. “I’m like, ‘Wow, this is amazing,'” the 14-year vet said. “Not a lot of people in the States can say my name right,” Gallinari said, “and I hear somebody say, ‘Hey Danilo, come here’ in Italian. I go, ‘Who’s speaking Italian in Vegas at Team USA practice?’ I look and it’s Kobe.”
If that encounter demonstrated what a gem Kobe was, the next time Gallinari saw him proved that he had a much harder edge when competition was involved.
“Kobe has been amazing with me, I’m thinking, ‘OK, he’s gonna say something nice before the game to me in Italian, whatever.’
Gallinari paused before dropping the bomb. “He didn’t talk to anyone that game. You know before the tip-off, you give a dap, or you say hi, hey, whatever. He came on the court, stayed in his position, didn’t move, didn’t talk, didn’t look to everybody, nothing. I’m like ‘OK…’ And this guy goes for 61.”
Gallinari learned a valuable lesson that day that there’s a way to treat people off the court, but that all goes away in the heat of competition. Kobe’s “mamba mentality” wasn’t just a catchphrase, it was a way of life, and he proved it yet again.
It’s a tricky balancing act to have the love and respect of your peers for the magnanimous way you treat them when the game isn’t going on, but to leave them in fear and awe for what you’re able to do once the ball is in the air. Kobe perfected that better than anybody.
