“He Just Died”: Tragic Kobe Bryant Accident Left MLB Superstar Crying on the Phone to Derek Jeter
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Lakers Kobe Bryant against the Rockets at the Staples Center Sunday. (Photo by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Marlins’ rising star, Jazz Chisholm, is like most of us who saw Kobe Bryant as the ultimate hero. He was one of the last few people who met the NBA legend in person. He was supposed to meet him again on January 26, 2020. But that meeting never happened and Chisholm was left devastated by the realization he’d never be able to meet his idol again. While spiraling, he turned to another one of his idols, Derek Jeter for comfort.
In an interview during spring training, Chisholm recalled that painful moment he was waiting for his meeting with Bryant and was informed of the helicopter crash. Crushed, he called Derek Jeter, then the Miami Marlins’ owner, and cried to him, “Bro, I was just supposed to meet Kobe and he just died. That was my idol, now you have to step up.’ Those were my exact words to Jeter.”
He narrated his last encounter with Bryant on the Pivot Podcast. The Bahamian-born athlete said that Bryant and Jeter were the two athletes who influenced him the most. He described the Black Mamba as his “number one idol.”
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Chisholm was at the Mamba Academy in LA where he briefly met Kobe. He had so much to talk to Bryant about, but the latter had to cut the meeting short because of his packed schedule. He did, however, promise to meet him on Sunday, January 26.
Kobe Bryant was Jazz Chisholm’s favorite athlete and all of his dreams were about to come true.
It was the morning of January 26, 2020. @j_chisholm3 on his way to Mamba Academy to sit with his idol when he learned Kobe and Gigi’s helicopter crashed. The @Marlins All-Star was… pic.twitter.com/HnubNvwEMs
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) March 19, 2024
“My dreams about to come true, I’m about to meet my idol, talk to my idol,” Chisholm described his emotions leading up to that Sunday. Once he heard of the crash, Jeter put his pieces back together.
Derek Jeter stepped up for Kobe Bryant’s fan
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Derek Jeter himself had a strong admiration for Kobe Bryant. He was one of the first athletes to pen a tribute to him on The Players Tribune immediately after the Lakers icon and his daughter passed. Not only was he composing that letter, he was also being a mentor to his heartbroken team, including Chisholm.
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The Marlins CEO uplifted the young athlete and came through in a big way during his grief. “He [Jeter] told me I was supposed to be his shortstop of the future, my idol died, you’ve got to step up to be my idol, and from that day on, he literally treated me like his son,” Chisholm revealed about what Jeter told him.
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Chisholm has a lot more raw emotions about Bryant that so many can resonate with. Though he could never get his questions answered by the Bean, he’s channeling that Mamba Mentality in his game.
Written by:
Edited by:
Caroline Joseph