When a celebrity or athlete dies before their time, many of us take the news hard because we felt some connection to them as fans. But it’s a different kind of reaction when you are part of the industry or sport in which that celebrity worked or that athlete competed. So it was when news of the death of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant this weekend reached Brian Butch. Butch is a former UW-Madison star and a McDonald’s All American player at Appleton West High School who also played professionally in the US and overseas, including a stint with the NBA’s Utah Jazz before injuries cut his career short. Butch currently co-hosts the “BJ and the Bear” show, heard locally on 95-3 and 99-1 The Score in the Fox Valley and he can be seen and heard nationally as an analyst on basketball broadcasts for the Big Ten Network. Butch was in the WAPL studio with Len Nelson today to share with listeners his thoughts and memories of Kobe.
“I had a chance to share the court with Kobe for a moment in a preseason game. I remember Demarre Carroll had the ball on the sideline and was keeping it away from Kobe . Kobe tried to take it but Carroll kept the ball until Kobe just ripped it from him out of his hands. That’s the wrong thing to do…and this is only preseason, mind you. Kobe’s only playing ten minutes in the game so it shouldn’t have been a big deal but he’s so competitive that a switch just went off in him. At that point he was 17 years into his career and he already had five championships but when that switch clicked he went and rattled off ten straight points on us. It’s those moments that separate the greats from the rest of us. To see that switch go off and to have that seat for it right there in the moment is something I’ll always remember.”
Butch said his first thought upon hearing news of the helicopter crash which took Bryant’s life had nothing to do with his profession but rather that Bryant’s family had lost a father. Butch, himself the recent first time father of a baby daughter, said the fact that Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed in the crash while on their way to a basketball tournament in which she was to have competed hits especially hard.
There are only few athletes who have the kind of worldwide impact on sports and culture like Bryant did. Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods come to mind. But Butch says the loss of Bryant is different in that he’ll never have the chance to realize the fulfillment of his career’s second phase…and we’ll never have the benefit of it.
“No question this death is different. Normally with icons you get a chance to remember them fully, to see them go into the hall of fame and make that speech. He’s going into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September. But we won’t get to see that with Kobe. We won’t get to see him court side passing on his knowledge to younger players. You saw yesterday how younger players especially, the ones who grew up watching him, were devastated by the news. Throughout the day Sunday you saw NBA guys in tears while they were playing and we’re going to miss that connection because he won’t be here to nurture it and be part of that culture like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan have done in giving of their insight and knowledge to the next generation. As a basketball guy, that’s what I’m sad about. Basketball needs that and Kobe was all about it. But now he won’t be here to pass it on.”
[WAPL] [BJ and the Bear]
