Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka has always been vocal about the role of former NBA player Kobe Bryant in her career. Osaka considered the Lakers’ legend a mentor and always felt that the two were very ‘similar’ to each other.
In a three-episode Netflix docuseries about Osaka’s life, the four-time grand slam champion shared her struggles while dealing with the death of the American basketball legend.
During that time, the Japanese tennis star lost back-to-back matches, and losing her mentor only added to her personal and professional struggles.
In the second episode of the series, Osaka’s coach, Wim Fissette, revealed that Osaka’s straight-set loss to Sara Sorribes Tormo during the 2020 Fed Cup match in Spain resulted from her grief. He added that she was “very sad” because of Kobe’s death, and while she was physically in the court, she wasn’t present there mentally.
“She was very, very sad for a while. And then what happened in Spain, she wasn’t there. She was there in body, but she wasn’t there in spirit.”
The former world number one also felt terrible about losing matches successively, feeling that she was letting her mentor down by being ‘mentally weak.’ One night, she even went on a walk and cried in the middle of the road, unable to accept that Kobe was no more.
“I’m feeling like I let him down. I’m supposed to carry on his mentality in tennis, and here I am…I haven’t won a Grand Slam. I’m losing matches because I’m mentally weak, and that’s so uncharacteristic of him,” spoke Osaka while analyzing her recent losses and grieving the loss of her role model at the same time.
She also shared an emotional anecdote about wanting to reach out to the Lakers’ legend after her loss before his death but holding back. “I didn’t text him that because I didn’t want to feel like a loser—and now I’ll never have the chance to talk to him again,” she said.
At every opportunity, Osaka has tried to pay tribute to the legendary basketball player. She has never stopped talking about how he helped her sail through stardom and struggles.
She also shared a video of her playing tennis with him in which the two could be seen passing the ball to each other before the shooting guard smashed the balls into nets.
He wasn’t THAT bad at tennis haha love you bro. pic.twitter.com/xn1QgFBfsH
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) February 24, 2020
Most recently, in her appearance at the US Open Mixed Madness event, she wore the ‘Black Mamba’ jersey with the number 8 on the front and 24 on the back.
Her doubles partner Nick Kyrgios, too, walked out wearing a Lakers jersey with the number 8. This was an attempt by both tennis stars to honor Bryant’s legacy yet again.
