I had to watch parts here and there as well. Just too much to handle all at once. Every speech hits you in the feels.
It was an excellent tribute. I am saddened this tribute had to exist at all.
She truly channeled some Mamba Mentality today.
Woke up with the flu, spoke at Kobe's Service, flew to the Bay Area, had time for a 10-minute warmup, and then became the first player (men or women) in D1 history with 2000 points, 1000 assists, and 1000 rebounds, just before getting her NCAA D1-record (men or women) 26th triple-double, all against a top-five team, on 2/24/20 (Gianna, Kobe, Sabrina).
Insane talent.
Most of the basketball pundits I heard said that MJ and Kobe were not close. I was surprised to see him speak. I don't think we ever heard MJ speak from the heart like that. He was always the sports quote guy.
MJ is more emotional than people think, I mean the most famous NBA championship moment is probably him hugging his first NBA title in 1991 in tears with his dad next to him, and then again in 1996 when he would win on Father's Day and broke down, obviously emotional remembering his father.
Has Phil Jackson spoken at all since Kobe's passing? It seems like it hit him pretty hard to not be able to speak about it, he looked pretty devastated at the memorial.
Surprisingly by contrast Magic looked the most composed. Sometimes the more stoic people get mistaken for not being emotional enough but really they often feel things more deeply in a lot of ways.