Kobe

The reactions across the board about Kobe Bryant’s death were pretty similar. Of the people we interviewed as a group, it was shown that Kobe had some sort of nostalgic appearance amongst them. The most popular phrase I heard was, “I grew up watching him.” They idolized him and this generation Kobe was our ‘Michael Jordan.’ The questions we asked UMass students were, “How will you remember Kobe Bryant?”, “Where were you when the news broke and what was your reaction?”, and “Should journalists be reporting on the prior rape case?”

All the students questioned were in shock and disbelief of Kobe’s death. When they found out that TMZ were the first to report it, they thought it was a hoax because of TMZ’s reputation as a tabloid organization. Brandon Estrada of UMass said,  “I was at my house and no one believed me. I saw it on Twitter and was like ‘Yo, Kobe just died,’ and everyone was like ‘You’re messing with me.’ It was interesting to see the way the news trickled in because it wasn’t like a lot of verified accounts, it was more like just unverified.”

The tricky thing about the interviews were the order in which we asked them, when the first two questions were asked, they believed it was going to be a whole-heartedly piece. You could see the nostalgia radiate off their face and could hear it in their voice but then we asked them the final question and the interviewees were taken back and had confusing feelings on the rape allegations of 2003. Personally, it was tough to ask that question because it was a tragedy that pulled at the heart-strings of many especially with the death of his daughter. Some of the answers we received was that we (as reporters) have to wait but should mention it later on. The other answers mentioned that we should report it despite how it looks because it is part of his legacy. The students that were a part of the interviews were at a very young age when the allegations took place.