“Ciao” in Italian, of course, can mean both saying hello and waving goodbye.
Six years ago, we tragically lost Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, John, Keri, and Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah and Payton Chester, Christina Mauser and Ara Zobayan to a helicopter crash in the city of Calabasas, California.
‘Ciao Kobe’, a new one-hour long Sports Illustrated documentary available on YouTube, doesn’t say farewell to the NBA legend, mind you. Instead, it offers a fond greeting from Italy for the fresh prince of Philadelphia, all before he became a Los Angeles Laker.
Lower Merion high-school was waiting for a kid who was learning all about life and the love of his in the soccer mad Europe. After playing with the Sixers, Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant became a star in the Italian leagues, and guess who was watching courtside, just waiting for a break in play so he could shoot some hoops?
This SI film, that could even rival ESPN’s 30 for 30s, takes a look at Kobe in Italy between 1984 and 1991. Taking in the small towns he lived in, Rieti, Reggio Calabria, Cireglio and Reggio Emilia, whilst his dear dad became a journeyman in The Mediterranean.
Executive produced by Alex Tzavalas, ‘Ciao Kobe’ is directed, produced, presented, shot and edited by young and accomplished UK sports journalist Max Whittle. Turning this passion project into a labour of love and devotion to a childhood hero’s hidden chapter, as dear as basketball itself.
Unravelling his first Kobe jersey like those rolled up tube socks, Max meets many of Kobe’s childhood coaches, mentors, teammates and friends as he drives across a side of Italy few of us have seen. This excursion making for a fortnight of fond feeling and memories. For Whittle, personally, this may be amongst the warmest trips he ever takes.
Saying, this is a “human story” and not a basketball one, Max Whittle shows us the people who had a profound effect on the young man who would become the Black Mamba, and the mentality they helped shape. Retracing Kobe’s sneaker steps and the impression he left on Italy.
Whether balling with grown men in Montecatini Terme as an 11-year-old, asking a coach for a red bicycle, or making sure people spelt his name right, K-O-B-E has always commanded respect, and it started in a place that helped make a hoops icon.
Thanks to Spike Lee’s ‘Kobe Doin’ Work’, we all know that number 24 used to run plays in Spanish with Pau Gasol and other Laker teammates languages. But did you realize he used to curse at the referees in Italian after a bad call so they couldn’t understand him?
Sadly, recently, whether on sports shows or pontificating podcasts, it seems certain NBA media members, or even alumni, want to now discredit Kobe’s legacy and place in the game itself. Perhaps they feel like now it has been more than a few years since his death, they can say what they want. Disrespecting not only him, but the actual game he dedicated his life to.
Really, they should be focusing on how he’d be watching as Gigi would be getting ready to play in the WNBA by now. Don’t doubt it. Or her proud Girl Dad pops.
Saying that, Kobe Bryant once said that his records, like others, were meant to be broken. He’d be happy for the Miami Heat big Bam Adebayo putting up 83 points…even if he does look like Dwight Howard. But congratulations on calling a Hall of Fame career, D12.
Whittle and Sports Illustrated documentary is a refreshing alternative to all this viral social media white noise. A love letter to not only Kobe, but Italy itself, in an envelope of all the epic courts in Naples, Salerno, Milan and Valmadrera, painted across the peninsula in his likeness, like the mosaic of murals back in the City of Angels.
Dedicated to Kobe, Gigi and Joe Bryant, who has now also sadly passed away, ‘Ciao Kobe’ is one of the warmest welcomes you’ll see on film. ‘Dear Basketball’ gave the Black Mamba an Oscar to go with all those rings. This one, is its own gold.
Ciao.
