Locals who received fist bumps and coaching advice from Kobe Bryant will never forget the basketball legend

Ryan Broccolo with wife Megan and son Brayden pose for a photo in front of a Kobe Bryant mural.

By Matt SzaboStaff Writer

Aug. 24, 2020 7:10 PM PT

Ryan Broccolo’s 2-year-old son Brayden never got to see Los Angeles Lakers superstar and Newport Beach resident Kobe Bryant play basketball.

But he did get to meet him.

The “Black Mamba” met Brayden Broccolo at a children’s book fair at Orange Coast College last October. He signed a book for Brayden, and they exchanged fist bumps.

“I was first a fan of the athlete he was, then more so a fan of the person he was with the whole Mamba Mentality,” said Ryan Broccolo, 41, a Fountain Valley resident. Broccolo attended Bryant’s last game in April 2016, in which he scored 60 points in a win over Utah, as well as his memorial service at Staples Center last February.

“After he retired, he showed that no matter how busy you are, no matter how much you have going on, you always have time to be a great father,” Broccolo said. “He inspired me on and off the court.”

Bryant and eight other people, including his daughter, Gianna, and longtime OCC baseball coach John Altobelli, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Jan. 26.

Sunday would have been Bryant’s 42nd birthday, and Monday offered another chance to remember the five-time NBA champion. It was designated as Kobe Bryant Day in Los Angeles and Orange counties, since the date “8/24” has both the numbers that Bryant wore during his 20-year career with the Lakers.

Ryan Broccolo and his son, Brayden, show off a signed copy of Kobe Bryant's book "Legacy and the Queen" on Monday.

The Lakers were set to wear “Black Mamba” City Edition jerseys for Monday night’s Game 4 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs against Portland.

Corona del Mar High School junior Nia Halafuka will remember being coached by Bryant at times. Gianna’s Mamba team and the Riptide, which Halafuka played for, shared gym time at the Newport Coast Community Center and would sometimes scrimmage against each other. Though Nia’s team was older, Bryant liked for Gianna’s team to play tough competition to get better, Nia’s mom, Angela Bradford, said.

Then, there was the time that Bradford’s older daughter, Malia, was shooting in the CdM gym following a basketball camp.

“Malia was practicing shooting foul shots, and I kept yelling ‘Brick!’ at her and she kept missing,” Nia Halafuka said. “Kobe said, ‘With all those bricks, you could build a house.’ That was pretty funny … He was just really chill, super calm all the time.”

Matthew Crooks holds the family dog "Kobe" in his Huntington Beach garage.

Huntington Beach resident Matthew Crooks is a lifelong Lakers fan who painted his garage in the team colors, purple and gold, more than a decade ago. A championship banner and various plaques reside in the garage.

The whole family, including longtime Edison High School girls’ soccer coach Kerry Crooks and their three kids, roots for the Lakers. It was a sad day for the household when Bryant passed away and when the NBA season was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I don’t how many times, with the shutdown and no sports going on, that I watched different programs on Spectrum with old games of the Lakers,” said Matthew Crooks, 50. “Kerry, she’s probably had to sit through Game 7 [of the Western Conference Finals] against Portland in 2000 about 20 times. That’s the epitome of that Kobe era, right? The lob [to Shaquille O’Neal] to seal it. I’m happy that basketball is back, but I think that Kerry is probably happier, because she doesn’t have to watch the replays with me.”

As for Bryant’s legacy, one recent addition to the Crooks garage is an image of Bryant shooting a jump shot. It’s printed on the wall next to the weights that children Trey, Ethan and Riley have been using during the pandemic.

“That’s to try to get them to work hard,” Matthew Crooks said. “He did.”

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