As I was sitting at my dining room table Sunday afternoon, enjoying brunch for my mother’s birthday, I got a text from a friend that didn’t make sense.

“Kobe died,” it read.

At first, I had no idea what he was talking about until I immediately checked Twitter. As the news trickled on my page, it still didn’t make sense.

I then rushed and turned on the television. I was in shock.

Reality set in and my adolescent and young adulthood memories flooded me.

I just sat down on the couch and sobbed.

Kobe Bryant was my favorite player in sports. He played for my favorite team. He made me so happy over the years.

His death, along with eight others in a helicopter crash, which included his 13-year old daughter Gianna, John and Keri Altobelli, their daughter Alyssa, who played on Gianna’s basketball team, Christina Mauser, an assistant basketball coach, the mother-daughter combo of Sarah and Payton Chester and the pilot Ara Zobayan, painted a Sunday that I soon would like to forget, but know that I never will.

People all over the world were affected by Bryant in some way or another, without ever meeting him. I tried to understand why my emotions were so attached to him on Sunday, since I’ve never mourned a celebrity death.

I couldn’t understand why I was crying.

Maybe it was from the times in my driveway that I practiced Kobe’s form, or walking past the office garbage can and floating a piece of paper in the air, saying “Kobe.”

Maybe it was the countless hours of Lakers’ games I’ve watched over the years, seeing him will the franchise on his back over and over.

I grew up with Kobe and even though we didn’t know each other, his persona elevated me.

His supreme talent on the basketball court made him easy to be beloved by every Laker fan and respected by NBA fans, but his competitive grit is what attached my fandom to Bryant.

There weren’t many players that worked as hard, that paid attention to the details or that demanded the best from his peers like Kobe.

When I got into youth coaching over 10 years ago, I know I had Kobe Bryant traits in my coaching principles.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but I can guarantee you that nobody that we competed against worked harder or was more prepared than us.

Sports figures are looked at as heroes through the eyes of many, whether that’s right or wrong is subject to opinion, but they’re the people we watch on TV, whose shoes we buy, whose jerseys we wear, who we try to emulate in the smallest possible ways.

Bryant certainly didn’t lead a perfect life, but he battled through all of his circumstances and came out a better person. He was imperfectly human, which resonated with me.

For someone who was a polarizing player to many, Bryant became a warmer figure in his post playing days. His business pursuits are well documented, but his development of the Mamba Academy, a full service sports and human performance compound for youth sports and athletic performance, was what I followed after his Laker days.

His love for his four children and wife, Vanessa, was also endearing and became more about who he was in his second act of life.

As I attended the Lakers game in Philadelphia Saturday night, I had hoped that Kobe would be in attendance to see LeBron James pass him as the third all-time leading scorer in NBA history, but when The Athletic’s Bill Oram asked him that question last week, it cemented what really was important to Bryant at this stage of his life.

“Go?” he asked dismissively in Oram’s article. “I got four kids, man. I can barely come here.”

Selfishly, I wish Kobe would have flown to Philadelphia instead.

I wanted to see him one more time on a basketball court.

I wish he would have skipped out on his daughter’s basketball game Sunday morning, because this tragedy doesn’t happen.

But the reality is none of us can change the past. We can only move forward and while Kobe’s NBA career made him a legend, his life after basketball is probably what he enjoyed more.

So, as people always say when someone dies suddenly, love the ones close to you, but also try to make changes in 2020 that will make you a better person.

Be nicer to people. Stop hating so much. Appreciate life. Give back.

Kobe did more good with his time on Earth than anyone came dream of. It’s something we all should strive to replicate in some form.

I just wish it didn’t have to be at the expense of Kobe Bryant and those who perished.

It’s been days since the tragedy and that cryptic text message has been deleted from my phone, but I still don’t believe it.

Kobe Bryant may be gone, but his legacy will live on forever.

Thank you for everything Kobe.