Remembering Kobe Bryant, a Man Who Never Trusted in Tomorrow

I was 12; he was 19. In one moment, I learned that the future wasn’t guaranteed.

Bryant in 1998, the year his path crossed with the author’s. Photo: MATT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images

I met Kobe Bryant once.

I was 12 years old, on a trip to Los Angeles with my dad and my sister. We spent a night walking around Venice, and wandered into a Barnes and Noble because my dad wanted to buy…