Kobe Bryant Passes Away: Throwback – How An Animated Short Made Him the First NBA Player to Win an Academy Award (Watch Video)

Many sports fans all over the world were heartbroken on the eve of January 27, 2020, when the news seeped in that NBA legend Kobe Bryant is no more with us. The basketball great died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California that killed eight other people including 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria Onore Bryant. The piece is news has left everyone shocked, and tributes have been pouring in from all the wakes of the society on social media. Kobe Bryant Dies at 41 in Helicopter Crash; Twitter Mourns NBA Legend's Demise, Read Tributes.

Among the tributes, fans are also sharing videos and pictures of Dear Basketball. If you are not aware of this, Dear Basketball was a five-minute-long animated short that came out in 2017. It was made as a tribute to Kobe Bryant's poem written in The Player's Tribune, Chicago in 2017.

The animated short was directed and animated by Glen Keane, who used pencil sketches to create animations. Kobe Bryant himself had provided the voiceover, narrating his poem, while the legendary John Williams had scored the music for the short. Kobe Bryant Passes Away: Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, John Legend and Others Mourn the Death of NBA Legend.

You can catch the glimpse of the video below:

Here's Kobe Bryant's poem taken from The Player's Tribue, Chicago:

"Dear Basketball,

From the moment

I started rolling my dad’s tube socks

And shooting imaginary

Game-winning shots

In the Great Western Forum

I knew one thing was real:

I fell in love with you.

A love so deep I gave you my all —

From my mind & body

To my spirit & soul.

As a six-year-old boy

Deeply in love with you

I never saw the end of the tunnel.

I only saw myself

Running out of one.

And so I ran.

I ran up and down every court

After every loose ball for you.

You asked for my hustle

I gave you my heart

Because it came with so much more.

I played through the sweat and hurt

Not because challenge called me

But because YOU called me.

I did everything for YOU

Because that’s what you do

When someone makes you feel as

Alive as you’ve made me feel.

You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream

And I’ll always love you for it.

But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.

This season is all I have left to give.

My heart can take the pounding

My mind can handle the grind

But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.

And that’s OK.

I’m ready to let you go.

I want you to know now

So we both can savor every moment we have left together.

The good and the bad.

We have given each other

All that we have.

And we both know, no matter what I do next

I’ll always be that kid

With the rolled up socks

Garbage can in the corner

:05 seconds on the clock

Ball in my hands.

5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1

Love you always,

Kobe"

During the 90th Academy Awards (Oscars 2018), Dear Basketball won the Best Animated Short Film award. This made Bryant, who was also the producer of the film, the first NBA player, to win an Oscar.

Check Out The Video Below:

The Grammys 2020 that begun merely hours after the news of his demise came out, managed to play fitting tributes to the legend, with celebs reminiscing about Bryant on the red carpet and the opening acts also paying tribute to him.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 27, 2020 07:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).