As one of the most successful basketball players in history, Kobe Bryant was no stranger to awards ceremonies. Even for him, though, there was novelty value and distinctive prestige in the handshakes and back-slaps at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 4, 2018.
Clutching the golden statuette, Bryant accepted the Academy award for best animated short film for Dear Basketball, based on a nostalgic poem he wrote in 2015, a few months before his retirement from the sport. Backstage, he said the honour felt “better than winning a championship”.
Rich and famous after a stellar career with the Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant channelled his relentless work ethic and ferocious ambition into new goals: becoming a venture capitalist and media mogul.
Dear Basketball
