Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James broke his silence on social media Monday, opening up about the recent deaths of Kobe Bryant and the late legend's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a lengthy Instagram post.
The 35-year-old reflected on the last conversation he had with Bryant after he surpassed the latter for third on the NBA's all-time scoring list. James also pledged to continue his Lakers legacy.
James and Bryant were never NBA teammates, but both were members of Team USA's gold medal-winning squads at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Bryant recently expressed how excited he was to see James pass him in the record books. He remembered receiving a congratulations text from Michael Jordan after he leapfrogged him on the NBA's all-time scoring list, and he wanted to do something similar for James.
"That was the most important thing," Bryant told The Athletic's Bill Oram. "That was cool. Because it's such a brotherhood, such an amount of respect between us as players, and you know the amount of work and consistency you have to put in over time so it's nothing but love and respect."
James returned the favor following Saturday's contest against the Philadelphia 76ers, gushing about what it meant to make history in the hometown of someone he looked up to growing up.
"I'm here in a Lakers uniform, in Philadelphia, where he's (Bryant) from," James said postgame, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "The first time I ever met him, gave me his shoes on All-Star Weekend. It's surreal. It doesn't make no sense, but the universe just puts things in your life. And I guess when you live in the right way, when you just give it everything to whatever you're doing, things happen organically.
"And it's not supposed to make sense, but it just happens. And I'm happy just to be in any conversation with Kobe Bean Bryant, one of the all-time greatest basketball players to ever play, one of the all-time greatest Lakers. The man has two jerseys hanging up in Staples Center. It's just crazy."