INSPIRATION

talk show. Kimmel would go on to host Bryant's memorial at Staples Center and spoke about the many murals created to honor his friend, and not just in l A across the country and Kobe's hometown Philadelphia, in Italy, in India, the Philippines, China, York, Phoenix, Boston, for God's sake, in places where he would be booed on the court, Kobe has missed. So we're here at Venice Boulevard in Mid City. Mike Asner says he's a Kobe Bryant super fan, which

includes his love for the murals painted of Bryant. Bryant's daughter Gianna, the Lakers in Los Angeles. This is a very well known mural by an artist Gustavo who goes by g Z dot j R. It's the Leave a Legacy mural that was done actually with the Lakers before the playoffs last year and gusted an amazing job. He added Kobe and the trophies after they won the championship. Um. So this is one of the most famous murals throughout the world and people have come here to reflect and

to show their respect and gratitude. I mean, you're looking at, from my opinion, a beautiful work of art. But there's a lot of messages here Slee around social justice and uh, you know what this team has, what the city and what the world has gone through. But you know, this team, specifically for me as a huge Lakers fan, means a great deal overcoming adversity all year, um, pushing for what

I believe is right in the world. And you know, they won the championship and this reflects them winning that championship. After learning that Briant's death, Asner says he was so moved he had to do something, anything, to honor Bryant. So he decided to create a website which shows the locations of all the known murals of Bryant around the world.

And it started with an Instagram page at Kobe Mural uh than at Kobe mural dot com website, and at this point there's an interactive map with over four murals around the world. And my whole purpose here is just to make it easy for fans. It's not money making operation, it's not a business. It's just purely out of love for the fans, the families, and obviously Cobe and the Lakers. So how do you know where the murals are at?

You know, it's funny. In the beginning, it took a lot of work to find them and just to get the accurate information because it's hard to get accurate information sometimes um these days. So in the beginning I would really dig and scour and try to find these locations. But over time fans are not reaching out to me,

which is really impressive and beautiful. Um. It's been a really nice community of fans around the world, every corner of the world, who at this point, when they're working on something, they notify me, and then I'm just going to notify the fans. So you know, there's not a lot of greater things on social media sometimes, but this is one nice positive from my perspective, to bring us together to do something to get back and um, you know, I'm just grateful to the artists and fans around the world.

I assume l A has the most murals. Yeah, you know, it's hard to keep track, but um, we're over four hundred throughout the world. I believe about two d fifty plus in southern California. That includes Orange County where I'm from, up to Los Angeles. Um, you know, there's murals all over the country and United States, but almost every corner of the world there's a mural. And what's really cool is we've seen a lot of murals where he grew

up in Italy and he spent time in France. He would travel to China and Asia in the off season and left a really big impression there. So I'm just amazed and humbled and grateful for this work that's being done. But every artist has their own unique style and perspective, and that's what makes us really special. It's not the

same thing everywhere. It's really unique. Each time something goes up and one of those artists goes by our tune, our tune, whose real name is art Goes to Kochikian, says he was so moved by Brian's death he painted an entire mural on the wall of a business in Studio City within twenty four hours afterward of the fatal

crash went public. I got out of the shower and when I got out, Um, first thing I noticed my phone was going off and it was about Kobe and the first article I see in the second and I'm opening up different social media's and every single post was about it. And I just I just lay down on the bed for a while and I'm you know, obviously it's a big inspiration for me, and I was just trying to wrap my head around it and trying to

figure out if it was real or fake. I kind of first thought maybe it was fake, but then when I seen all those posts, I was like, oh, oh, sh this is real. Um yeah, I just and and and I had a I had a date right then. That's what I was taking a shower. So I went to meet this girl in Beverly Hills. And when I got there, I'm like, you know, I kept on thinking about Wow, Kobe said, Kobe's did and I'm like, I

gotta do something about this. So I left the date so I could go start the mirror, and I started that night, and I pulled the twenty four our session. I went and took a little baby nap, came back another two hours, and I finished the whole thing without even knowing twenty four is without even thinking twenty four is Kobe's number and two was her number. Gness, So yeah, I just jumped on it because I thought I something you had to jump on right away. I mean, I

forget about the inspiration. You know, I've done many murals about Kobe, but it was just this guy demands the respect. You know, he's he's all about l a he has l A he. He brought a lot of pride and inspiration to the city and the whole Mamba mentality. Millions of people are talking about it, practicing it. You know, he had a big impact. He is l a he. I I looked at him as one of our idols. I guess if Michelangelo was alive, Kobe would get a statue. You know, it sounds like he was not only an

inspiration to you as an athlete, but just as a person. Yeah, he was. You know, he was a good role model, good father. I just had a baby girl, so I'm a girl dad too. Now you felt compelled to put something on canvas, in this case the side of a building. So where did you paint this and what did you decide to do? Um? I I had already painted the whole side of that that wall, that business, and it was the front facing wall left and I we were

gonna paint something else. They wanted a Marilyn Morrow, I believe, and I just wasn't really feeling a Marilyn Morow. So I kind of took the weekend off. I went to Vegas, got drunk, came back, and that's when Kobe happened, and I'm like, okay, it's it's almost like you can't make this up. You know, the signs already pointed where what I should paint there, so that wall was ready to go. I just didn't want to paint what I was supposed to paint. And when Kobe died, I'm like, I'm not

painting anything else but this. And I even told the guys I was painting for, I'm like, I'm gonna paint Kobe. And at first they were like, oh, you don't know let's talk about it. And I'm like, it's either I paint Kobe. I'm not painting anything, you know, And that's how pretty much they were like, okay, let's start on that. What came to you? What was the first image that

came to you that you had to paint. I wanted to, I really wanted to showing the image of Kobe kind of looking up in the sky where in a way saying that here I come. And uh, when I found a good picture that match said it was the one where he's biting his jersey. It's iconic picture. Then uh, you know, I was already planning for the mural. And that's when I found out Gig died. I didn't I didn't know Gig died that first. Then when I found a gig died that, I'm like, wow, there's no way

I can't put her in this. It would almost be disrespect for their family, you know. So, um, I just started searchings pictures kind of looking upward, and I on two images that kind of matched, and and then the rest I just sorry, I don't know what the mirror is gonna look like. I never know what my mirror is gonna look like because chances are while I'm doing it, I'm gonna get a bright idea and it's gonna shift course, but the main concept is still going to be there.

That's why I don't like to do a mural knowing what I'm It's just to me, it's boring because you want my creativity and spend of an hour or a couple of hours while I'm sketching it, or you want my creativity for a whole week while I'm gonna be painting it. So last minute I could get a bright idea, and as I'm painting, I'm getting more ideas coming at me. So it was a very fluid process for you. Yeah, I never know what it's gonna look like, not not

even the canvas pieces. So twenty four hours. Do you remember the final thing you painted when you said okay, I'm done and you step back. It was the shading on the jersey and I stepped back and I was like, well that looks good. It's almost life like. And I mean that experience was so cool. Every time I looked up, and I mean every time I looked back, there was like thirty to fifty people were taking pictures. You know,

you could you could see I'm causing traffic. People are swart, you know, breaking their neck, just slowing down the traffic, looking trying to swear from the second lane to pull over so they could come take pictures. People you know, bringing candles, lighting on flowers, memorials, pictures and just posting by the wall. It just it just turned into a memorial. It was. It was kind of cool just seeing that process.

You know, you do a lot of murals and not too many get that same kind of attention, and that just tells you the importance of the guy you're painting. You know, I've done many murals and nothing was really to that caliber. Because within like that twenty four hours, I had almost about five six news stations pull up behind me. When you were I'm sure you were in the zone. You were doing your thing, you say, you step back and looked at it, and and then are

you ever completely satisfied with your final product? No, I'm never satisfied because I always feel like that could be more done. But sometimes you just gotta learn to know when and enough is enough. You know, sometimes too much is too much and it can be overkilled. But um, you know I got this saying my favorite pieces my next piece. So I'm never really looking forward to the one I'm doing. I'm looking for the looking forward for

the next one. I've done many Kobes, but ever since he passed away, I've done two one the other ones on las Anega in Venice. It's like high it's Kobe daughter and he's got angel wings and the angel wings is turning into hands and wrapping around gianna Um. It's on Global Motor Sports. Is that satisfaction for you when people want to take their pictures in front of it and they look at it. Some got emotional. A guy spoke, we got teary eyed. Yeah. Matt Barnes pulled up. He

got tear eyed too. Um, you know, he played with him. A lot of a lot of people got teary eyed. There was some lady that pulled up Marrow. She had that Lakers ring and she had some sort of connection with the family and the Lakers Championship ring. Uh. And yeah,

you see a lot of people tearing up. And they were coming up to me shaking my hand, thank you for doing this, and I'm like, thank you for loving it, you know, like to me, this is more of an obligation, you know, it's like, you know, I don't want to keep bringing up Michelisba. We do our part. We just painting outside and stead inside. When you talk about inspiration, he were talking a lot about you felt compelled to do this within twenty four hours. You even broke a

date to do this. I mean, he must have been a pretty powerful influence on you. Yeah. Yeah, you don't really get the motivation to jump up and paint too often. So if I finished that whole wall and matter one day, I just it's cool, you know, I enjoy it. And and even though it was like three am, nobody was around and there was no wind, and then all of a sudden, these two huge like gusts the wind and leaves going everywhere, and and then it just stopped again.

And I'm like, was that something? Like? Was that something was? It was Kobe Angiana just breezing by over here, but it was it was crazy. My whole body just got goose bumps. So were you by yourself overnight doing this? Yeah? I was already Usually during the daytime, at nighttime people are there, But overnight that's the only time I'll get peace,

the only time I could actually focus. That's what my phone is off and people are not asking questions, and you know, I can actually focus on the project the hand. What's that like when you're by yourself and your thoughts and you're painting a portrait of someone who just died hours earlier. Oh, you do do a lot of thinking. Like I cried throughout that over neither um just thinking about it. But um, I like it. I mean, I think most artists are nocturnal. They should be producing artwork

at night. So, like I said, that's the only time you can actually get some peace, peace and quiet and peace of mind. Way you know, you have no distractions. The text message can be a distraction if I'm painting. Um, so when there's no distractions, you can literally be locked in your zone for five hours and not notice five hours just went by. Do you continue to do copy inspired portraits from your I had like fifty people asking

me to do Kobe stuff, and I just refused them. Um. I didn't want to just be a generic artist that just keeps going around doing Kobe for higher I just thought, if I was gonna do him, I was gonna pick and choose where I wanted it, what location, If it was gonna you know, make an impact or not not to feel right. Yeah. Yeah, And and art it's basically by feel right. Like recently I did a mural and it was just a great mural, but I did not like it because of the location, because it was not

on the big street, even though it's commissioned. It's like, deep down inside, you're like, this artwork does not belong on this street. This artwork belongs on somewhere where people could actually enjoy it, you know, take pictures of it. So um, yeah, you definitely got to feel it out. I like the reactions to people. Murals like our Tuns continue to attract fans. What brought you to this location?

Kobe Bryan was one of my favorite players. One of the most visited murals is tucked away in an alley about a block away from the Los Angeles Convention Center. A group of four friends recently traveled from Detroit, Michigan, to visit l A and one of the things on their list a visit to this mural. Meet Gabby, Marcel Milano, and a guy who calls himself Cheese. They all agree that Bryant was an inspiration, and here's how they felt about seeing the mural. For the first time, told as

best as possible through their face coverings home. Just like being able to like to take his drive from like how he was on the court and put it into his family now. It was really just like the most important thing I just liked about the man um. I just see a man that was passionate about his craft and what he does and put his all into it.

I see greatness. Kobe Bryant. Was this the epitome of hard work and dedication and definitely an inspiration even like someone I thought was like I just broke my hands. So I remember a photo with him when he was shooting with his broken wrists and like still practicing, like in his pajamas, you know what I'm saying, So he feels inspiration even to this day. It was it was the drive. He had everything you've seen him do, he put his heart to it, like he literally left everything

on the floor every night. People hated him and practice because he worked so hard. He literally would cut you out if you wouldn't work in his hard ast him. If you didn't work as hard as him, you couldn't play with. For me, it's like how many people really looked up to him from the kids to the adults, he really had a lot of Like even if you look on this wall, you got millions of people signing

autographs and sending their piece to Kobe. It's a dope man, Like he did he did this thing while he was here. Everything that he did outside the basketball, he still applied the same drive, the same determination. He's still put in the same amount of efforts. So the fact that that was just his mentality overall was definitely inspiring. And to let you know, like you don't have to just stay focused on one thing. You can apply the same pressure to everything aspect of your life and you know, just

watch it blossom. So he's definitely that guy. Just watching and watching his legacy, And honestly, I've never been like a huge basketball fan, but seeing like when he passed in how he affected so many people around the world. You know what I'm saying, they kind of like put something on me like, oh, I gotta go harder. You know what I'm saying, I gotta I gotta credit legacy

just as just as good as his. And the feeling of seeing Kobe Bryant for the first time on a larger than life mural almost crying literally like that was just how much of an inspiration, how dope he was to everybody. And it's just like it's an energy right here or wherever you see him, it's like it's an energy in l a Like honestly, you step here, you know him, and like you know everybody that passed that

was from here, you can feel the energy. Like standing in right here, I can feel his energy coming up. Another artistic homage to Bryant, and the mayor of Los Angeles talks about Bryant's inspiration in philanthropy. As the death and life of Kobe Bryant continues, the mural has become one of the most popular ways to show love and

respect to Bryant. The website Kobe mural dot com currently lists more than four hundred around the world, most of which are in southern California, But within hours of the crash that killed Bryant, another type of canvas would fast become the place for portraits of Bryant, Bryant's numbers twenty four and eight, Bryant's daughter Gianna, and the Black Mambas for artists. We're doing about four a day each of us, so maybe anywhere, like for sure from ten to twenty

tattoos a day just for Kobe. Mikey Montoya owns and operates Sunny Days Tattoo Parlor and Arcadia that's about an hour east of Los Angeles. He and his artist Ricky remember learning about the crash ms actually flying in from New York and um, we had landed, we had got in our vehicle, and then um, we saw it. Actually he saw it on social media, so he's like, hey, guess what happened. And we just kind of took a pause.

We were on the freeway and we both like kind of silent for a while, and um, kind of in shock. That's where it took me. Montoya says, as soon as he opened his shop, he knew things were going to be different. It seems like every walks of life was coming in and wanting to get something, even if they couldn't actually afford a tattoo. They were, you know, getting the money together to get this number eight or twenty four,

just a little mamba or anything. The colors. It was pretty wild, you know, the people showing their um kind of their emotional outlet towards it all, in which I had a little bit myself and I these people getting it permanently. It was. It was very I don't know, like um kind of sad, kind of the most as were all over the place, even tattooing it. Not knowing these people tattooing it. It's not like their father and mother.

But to me, um, some of my customers were like saying that Kobe was like their father, mother or brother or whatnot, no matter the gender, it's just the role he played. Which I didn't see it like that, but now I do, now, you know. It was it was pretty cool. We were doing like each artists, say, there was four artists. We were doing about four a day

each of us. So maybe anywhere like for sure, from ten to twenty tattoos a day just for Kobe or making appointments or just um, even just Laker tattoos they wanted, you know, not necessarily just the eight. They wanted Lakers. And usually like kind of couples came in either friends or a group of friends or you know. Yeah, so they were all talking about it and it um. It struck everybody a little bit differently. It was weird us especially the younger age people, like I would say, anywhere

from like thirty down down. They were really into getting the little Kobe tattoos. Montoya's friend Ricky is a tattoo artist at the shopping is also a big Kobe Bryant fan. Probably his logo itself, the mamba symbol of the one of the snake, his his main logo for the night for Nike. That was probably the most popular one for everybody. The snake itself, the amount of scales, on the amount of different shades and and just a very intricate logo.

Popular requests would have to be his portrait, the one especially when he's grabbing his jersey and waving around. I forgot which game it was, but anyways, grabbed his jersey and he shakes it. That's like probably the most popular one that everyone gets. The largest one was probably like ankle up to up to the knee. I think it was behind the back pass to shock when he was number eight. And because Ricky is a big fan of Bryant's, he says, doing tattoos of the superstar over and over

got a little emotional and they'll come in. Yeah. I would want to put like an extra effort to a little bit more extra time to it just because of the emotional connection, just to make sure it comes out hundred and just better than the usual tattoo. You know. Montoya says people were willing to pay the price most simple tattoo for like say the Kobe it would be like a hundred dollars and that's like super simple. Maybe one color black and a color, and um it could

go up to like a thousand dollars for the portraits. UM, I would say I did more the smaller ones because people didn't have that type of money, you know, on the spot. But everybody wanted to represent or show their love. So a hundred bucks is way easier to come up with then a grand, depending on the placement, if it's on the neck or which these young kids even we're getting them on their neck because they wanted to show, you know, the Kobe eight or twenty four or just

in l A and purple or yellow or gold. You know, a lot of people were getting the Kobe signature too. And I had a young, uh guy, maybe like twenty years old, and he said that Kobe helped him get through high school, that he he like had low self esteem and he looked up to Kobe and I guess his interviews and and this kid really was the only one out of most of them that I tattooed that it seemed like it personally really affected him. Not ever meeting Kobe or anything, but he told me that this

guy is like a father to me. So I was like, WHOA like after the tattoo, is like, I even kind of forgot what I was doing, just listening to this kid more interested in his story, you know. Montoya says, even more than a year later, he still gets a steady stream of requests of Bryant or anything Bryant related coming up. The Mayor of Los Angeles talks about Bryant's work to end homelessness among young people and Briant's creative side would be validated with Hollywood's highest honor. As the

death and life of Kobe Bryant continues. The grieving process for Kobe Bryant's death hit everyone differently with equal emotion. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have written songs about Briant, painted murals, tattooed themselves, and even named

their kids after the superstar. And while these people honor Briant for what he gave them, a lot of people may not realize how Bryant gave back to others, you know, And this issue is one that kind of gets pushed on the back burner because he's easy to point the blame at those who are homeless and saying, well, you made that bad decision, this is where you are, it's

your fault in life. We all make mistakes. What a lot of people never saw was that for his philanthropy and for his business careers, there was all about making something that would make a difference. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti remembers the day he met Bryant. I was a council member now and Ronald McDonald House when he was there very kind of quietly visiting UM to see the expansion of this place that helps families whose kids are being treated for cancer at Children's Hospital and some of

the other hospitals in Hollywood. UM. He was there to just kind of give them some inspiration and say, hey, this trademark gret that I got, I'm gonna give some to you to help you get through this tough moment. I got the impression the very little I knew about Kobe Bryant and watching him, I got the impression he was sort of the real deal. When it came to helping those that needed help and especially the youth. He never wanted to rest on the laurels of hey, I'm

just a sports star. Anything that he was going to put his name to anything he was going to help with. He and Vanessa were going to give it there. All.

My Friend's place is at a place where youth who are homeless in Hollywood go during the day, and that was the second place I saw Vanessa's real kind of passion in Kobe's support of these kids who are you know, going through the worst things and been through the worst things you could imagine in the foster care system, UM, you know, being kicked out of households, lgbt Q youth, UM, folks who have been abused, and they really just quietly

poured their love into that place. UM step up on Second which is a place just around the corner and down the street on on Vine, and other places where you have UM homeless housing and services. They gave a lot too. And then Homewalk, which was the signature, you know, bringing together of over ten thousand people a year to walk and raise money against homelessness. UM. Kobe lent his name to be the chair, but he wasn't just kind

of a chair in name only. He really wanted to know the issue, wanted to know how he could help. And they put their money and their time where their mouths were. Only meeting twice, and he always seemed to me the most humble. He had a firm handshake, I remember, and I remember that he seemed like he genuinely cared about meeting you. He he focused match your eyes with his.

He came in to visit me after I was mayor to tell me a little bit about what he was doing on the business side and the studio, the animation studio that he was starting, and he was so pumped up about it. I mean, his enthusiasm. You could see that he had done his research. He wasn't coming to meet with the mayor at the beginning. He had done

his research, He had his pitch. He wanted to bring that animation back to Los Angeles where Walt Disney and all these great animators had started, and much of it had gone to other states or other countries. And so he had this deep loyalty too. I mean that's the other thing. What other player has played for one team their entire career. He loved l a and he gave everything to this town. He invested here, he invested time here, he gave back here, and he did have just that.

You know. I don't know that he was shy, but he was. There was a certain humility where he didn't really care what other people thought. He wanted to connect with you, and when you're with him, he was focused on you. Is the most important person in the room. And he won an Oscar. Who knew, well, if anybody could go from we have to come up with a new category, because you know, folks who win the Oscar and the Tony and the Emmy and everything else. I

don't think anybody's won a championship in an Oscar. Maybe maybe, maybe it can be corrected, but that's a pretty big jump to go from winning a number of championships, five championships and then an Oscar. That's a pretty phenomenal run. And the oscar goes to Dear Basketball Glen Key. March four, Kobe Bryant wins an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

The six minute film is based on a poem Bryant wrote and was published back backstage, I had the chance to ask him about his win and about his collaboration with award winning composer John Williams. Former Disney animator Glenn Keene also shared in the honor and talks about working on the project. Kobe Congratulations and Steve Gregory with my heart. I wanted to ask you about how much of this project put you out of your comfort zone and what was it like working with John Williams. All of it

put me out of my comfort zone. Um. My, my daughter gave me the best piece of advice. I was a little word about turning us into a film. I've never done that something like that before. And uh, we're in a house and we were talking about as a family, and my little eleven yeard gihna go as well, Dad, you always tell us to go after our dreams. So man up. She's eleven. Man up. So I had the man up and and go for it. Um. And then

working with John was incredible. You know, John speaks about music as if they're they each key has its own soul, and it was amazing to sit with John and to sit with Glenn throughout this entire process and here the same attention to detail that we each half of our craft craft. Um, it's just Um, it's just an amazing experience to be able to to work with. I can't even mean the guys like he's a real life Obi wan kenobi to me. You know, John had written the score.

He's eighty five years old and wrote the whole thing out by hand and pencil, just like the film itself has been pencil. Um. He's a he's an old school craftsman and with eighty instruments. He wrote that. And the day that we were recording it, he was like this little kid just so energized, supercharged. What is going on with Johnny? He gave me a hug, almost knocked me over. I was like, damn, I know I've been retired, but

I've retired that long man almost knocked me over. And he stood up in front of the orchestra and Kobe and I sat there. I suddenly realized he's never heard the music. He just been hearing it in his head, and he wrote it with eighty instruments and recording it and he lifted his arms and it was this beautiful score of the score that you hear and Kobe, Kobe wanted to shout and the red Lake and when it was done, John turns to us and says, I promise you,

it's going to get better. I said, mat, I thought we were done. I thought we were done. It was John. John was incredible. Boy yeah coming up in episode seven. Aside from being a great professional basketball player, a great human being that was also African American. Brian's death leaves a large void in the African American community and still to come Bryant's legacy. The Death and Life of Kobe Bryant is a production of KFI News at I Heeart Media, Los Angeles for the iHeart podcast network.