It remains challenging to comprehend that Kobe Bryant has not been alive to witness the majority of his post-NBA career accolades. He was absent for his Basketball Hall of Fame induction, the NBA All-75 team, or the recent unveiling of his statue outside of Crypto.com Arena.

Bryant, along with eight others, including his daughter Gianna, perished in a tragic helicopter accident on Jan. 26, 2020. Four years ago feels like two decades in the COVID world.

The 2020 NBA All-Star Game, which introduced the Kobe fourth-quarter score, took place in Chicago three weeks prior to his passing. His public memorial followed eight days later, and 16 days after that, the world came to a standstill. Bryant’s family, like millions of others, had to face the grim reality of grieving loss during a viral plague.

I had no time to come to terms with the loss of someone whom I first saw on the news when I was seven, and then watched on TNT for two decades. I remember watching his episode of Moesha almost as vividly as I do his serendipitous last shot against the Utah Jazz.

It is also challenging to fully comprehend his death because I reside in Los Angeles. Bryant’s devoted fans are ubiquitous, and I was familiar with their unwavering loyalty and obsession. In LA, this fervor is magnified because almost everyone in the second-largest metropolitan area in America is part of that group.

I moved to LA just over a month before the start of the 2018-19 season. The tension highlighted in the media about how Lakers fans received LeBron James was evident, and it still holds true.

Watch the Lakers at a bar here, and inevitably one or all of these three phrases will be spoken: “He’s still not Kobe,” “Kobe would’ve made that shot,” “Kobe’s the best.” If James, or the player he passes to, misses a shot, a five-minute discussion about Bryant will surely ensue.

Bryant’s ardent fans act as staunch defenders of his legacy. This often includes dismissing the troubling sexual assault allegations made against him by a 19-year-old hotel worker in Colorado in 2003. She accused him of raping her, while he claimed it was consensual and the charges were eventually dropped, as the young woman refused to testify.

Bryant later issued an apology in which he did not acknowledge the alleged lack of consent, and now most fans believe Bryant to be “innocent”, despite the matter never being fully resolved.

How the Pandemic Warped Time

Hearing Bryant’s name so frequently just before lockdown, then scarcely hearing it because I couldn’t be around people, and then hearing it again as soon as I ventured outside, coupled with all the murals out there, it’s almost as if he never left.

A lengthy, personal conversation with a fan about Bryant will eventually turn somber, but when it comes to general sports talk, he is considered the standard bearer. I recall a conversation with my landlord’s son a few years ago. He isn’t a huge basketball fan, and I can’t recall the player I was describing, or even the sport they played.

However, when I finished describing the player’s traits, his response was: “Oh, like Kobe.”

Bryant doesn’t feel deceased here, because people here do not speak of him in past tense. They say Kobe would do it differently, not Kobe did it differently. Kobe is the best, not Kobe was the best.

In a place fueled by celebrity power, there is one who will never fade away. For someone like me who never met Bryant, it would probably take leaving LA for the finality of his death to sink in.

Bryant was not able to personally receive the accolades of an all-time great. His wife has stepped in on numerous occasions. Sorry, Drake, but for those of us who are fortunate enough, there will be someone who stood by our side in most instances other than shooting in the gym to represent us when we are gone.

Since we never witnessed Bryant’s stride slow like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s or the aging in his eyes like Jerry West, the dynamism that resided within him still echoes into the world. That is certainly one reason he doesn’t completely feel gone. But what truly keeps him alive are the people who refuse to let his memory fade away.