Sports Poets Society

Jae C. Hong / AP Kobe Bryant (left) and his father, Joe, at a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., in 2009.  Their relationship later became strained. JOE “JELLYBEAN” BRYANT, FATHER OF KOBE, HAS DIED AT AGE 69 17 Jul 2024 - Philadelphia Daily News BY MIKE SIELSKI - msielski@inquirer.com  The lasting and most tragic scene from Joe Bryant’s life materialized a month after the death of his son, Kobe. Hundreds of people had filed into the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 25, 2020, for the memorial service for Kobe and his daughter Gianna. Joe, his wife, Pam, and their daughters, Sharia and Shaya, sat near the front of the arena, but none of the ceremony’s speakers had mentioned them or Wynnewood or Lower Merion High School or much of anything about Kobe’s early life. It was as if Joe and Pam were not there. Then, once the service ended, Lower Merion coach Gregg Downer and Jeremy Treatman, an adviser and confidant to Kobe , rushed through the crowd down to Joe and Pam, old friend...

AP -- The Trail Blazers’ Bill Walton (32) battles Julius Erving (6)  of the Sixers for a loose ball during the NBA Finals on May 29, 1977. 28 May 2024 - Philadelphia Daily News By Tim Reynolds Associated Press "BILL WALTON ENJOYED LIFE IN EVERY WAY.  TO COMPETE AGAINST HIM & TO WORK  WITH HIM WAS A BLESSING IN MY LIFE."    - Julius Erving on X formerly Twitter Bill Walton, who starred for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins before becoming a Hall of Fame center for his NBA career and one of the biggest stars in basketball broadcasting, died Monday, the league announced. Mr. Walton, who had a prolonged fight with cancer, was 71. He was the NBA’s MVP in the 1977-78 season, a two-time champion, and a member of the league’s 50th anniversary and 75th anniversary teams. That followed a college career in which he was a two-time champion at UCLA and a three-time national player of the year. “Bill Walton,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said, “was truly one of a kind.” Mr. Walto...