Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Sunday morning and the entire world stopped because of the impact he made for the game of basketball. But as great of a basketball player Bryant was, he was also making waves in the film industry. In 2018, Bryant won an Academy Award for the animated short film Dear Basketball. The Lakers legend wrote and narrated the four-minute film, which takes a look at Bryant’s journey from a kid dreaming of playing in the NBA to making it a reality.
With the win, Bryant made Academy Award history as he became the first professional athlete to win an Oscar.
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“I don’t know if it’s possible. I mean, as basketball players we’re really supposed to shut up and dribble but I’m glad we do a little bit more than that,” Bryant said as he accepted the Oscar via USA Today.
“Thank you, Academy, for this amazing honor. Thank you, John Williams, for such a wonderful piece of music. Thank you, Verizon, for believing in the film. Thank you, Molly Carter, without you we wouldn’t be here. And to my wife Vanessa, our daughters Natalia, Gianna, and Bianka. Ti amo con tutto il mio cuore [I love you with all my heart]. You are my inspiration. Thank you so much, guys, thank you.”
Before the Oscars, Bryant talked about how him being nominated for the award was big for athletes moving forward.
“I’ve always been told that as basketball players the expectation is that you play,” he said to The Undefeated. “This is all you know. This is all you do. Don’t think about handling finances. Don’t think about going into business. Don’t think that you want to be a writer — that’s cute. I got that a lot. What do you want to do when you retire? ‘Well, I want to be a storyteller.’ That’s cute. This is … a form of validation for people to look and say, ‘OK, he really can do something other than dribble and shoot.’”
Bryant also explained why he wanted the film to be animated.
“Once I wrote the story … it called for animation,” he added. “Games where you play great games, where you play terribly, days where you’re training, you feel unstoppable, and days when you feel like [you’re] not going to get through it. It had to be hand-drawn animation because of the imperfections that come along with [all] that because … as a viewer you can feel the soul of … Glen Keane as he’s animating. You can feel the texture of it. Twenty-four frames per second. No step skipped.”
