‘This can’t be real’: How Celtics players, past and present, reacted to Kobe Bryant’s death
"You set the greatness bar for this Generation," Paul Pierce wrote.
Current and former Celtics mourned the loss of one of the team’s biggest on-court rivals, Kobe Bryant, after his tragic death in a helicopter crash Sunday.
Bryant, 41, who was one of nine people, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, killed in the crash outside Los Angeles, was one of the faces of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the early 2000s. He dropped the 2008 NBA Finals to Boston before hoisting the Finals MVP trophy after a win over the Celtics two years later.
Boston’s Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen took to social media to share their reactions to the news.
“You set the greatness bar for this Generation,” Pierce wrote on Instagram. “Somebody wake me up This can’t be real.”
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“I’M CRUSHED,” Garnett wrote.
Allen shared a similar message.
“This hurts so much!” he wrote on Instagram. “Kobe was the ultimate competitor and I loved him for it. He made all of us step our games up. I just wish I could have one more moment with him to tell him thank you!”
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Celtics legend Bill Russell tweeted a photo with Bryant, saying that he was “absolutely shocked to hear of the loss.”
Jeannine & I are absolutely shocked to hear of the loss of one of my favorite people & one of the best basketball minds in the history of the game! Our hearts & prayers to Vanessa & his girls. @kobebryant you were my biggest fan, but I was yours #RIPMAMBA @NBA @espn @SLAMonline pic.twitter.com/Ll0BD6VWgr
— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) January 26, 2020
Doc Rivers, who coached the Celtics from 2004 to 2013 and currently leads the Los Angeles Clippers, couldn’t hold back tears when asked about Bryant during a press conference.
“He was such a great opponent,” he said. “He had that DNA that very few athletes can ever have.”
Current Celtics learned of the news before taking the court for Sunday’s game in New Orleans, where both teams opened the game with 24-second shot clock violations to honor Bryant.
“I didn’t know that it was real,” Gordon Hayward said on NBC Sports Boston after the game. “To be honest, I had to look it up myself. I was heartbroken. Heartbroken for his family. I mean, being a father, my stomach was hurting, it still is hurting. There’s nothing that you can say to make it better, but I’m certainly praying for him and his family. It’s just tragic.”
Kemba Walker said he thought Bryant would have wanted the league’s seven-game Sunday slate to go on in the wake of his death.
“I’m sure Kobe would want us to play, because that’s the kind of fierce competitor he was,” he said on NBC Sports Boston. “He just had so much respect around this league from players around the world, fans around the world. We love Kobe, everybody.”
Coach Brad Stevens also told NBC Sports Boston that moving forward with the games was a good idea.
“For a lot of these guys, basketball is a sanctuary and being on the court is a sanctuary,” he said. “And if people got to watch those games and watch the 24-second violations and they got to appreciate that as fans, then I think we are happy to do whatever we’re asked to do.”
Jayson Tatum shared an emotional series of photos on Instagram, calling Bryant his “hero” and “idol.”
“The reason I started to play this game, the reason I fell in love with this game,” he wrote. “Growing up wanting to be just like you, to you becoming a mentor, beyond thankful for everything you’ve done for me.”
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Also on Instagram, Marcus Smart said he was “in shock” after learning the news.
“I [couldn’t] guard him. No one could,” he wrote.
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Kendrick Perkins, a member of the Celtics’ 2008 championship team, changed his Twitter profile picture to a photo of himself and Bryant after initially tweeting “Speechless…”
My new motto with everything is, What Would Kobe do? He’d want us to focus more on the loss of his daughter. He’d want us to get past differences with our brothers and move on. He’d never want the game to be cancelled or be stopped. He’d want us to keep going! #RIPKOBE🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) January 27, 2020
Former Celtics star Cedric Maxwell, who played in Boston from 1977 to 1985 and is now part of the Celtics radio broadcast team, shared a photo of the two together and a video, where he told his favorite stories of Bryant.
I’m heart broken. Totally heart broken.
Everyone in #Boston is draped in purple & gold today for #Kobe.
Prayers To the Bryant family, the #Lakers family and the entire #NBA community.
God bless. #RIPMAMBA #RIPKobeBryant #RIPKobe pic.twitter.com/raC0UcuIu0
— Cedric Maxwell (@cedricmaxwell81) January 26, 2020
Other current and former players who shared their thoughts on social media included Grant Williams, Daniel Theis, Enes Kanter, and Brian Scalabrine. The Celtics also released an official statement.
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