Completed Event: Men's Basketball at UNLV on February 7, 2026 , Loss , 78, to, 80
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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Insider: Majerle, Lopes mourn Kobe
1/27/2020 11:42:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
GCU head coach struck as father more than competitor
Kobe Bryant's basketball greatness made it so that his Sunday death shook the world with the sharpest sting on the basketball community, like a GCU Basketball Practice Facility that opened with a morning pall among Grand Canyon coaches, players and managers Monday.
For Lopes head coach Dan Majerle, it hit at every level. The former NBA All-Star played against Bryant for the last five seasons of his career, broadcasted games as Bryant turned legendary and worked as a Phoenix Suns assistant coach trying to game-plan against him during the 2010 Western Conference Finals.
But Sunday's helicopter crash tragedy struck Majerle as a father of four, first receiving the news on a phone call from his son, Max, a high school junior, and then thinking about a similar experience with his two older daughters. During his final NBA season, Majerle took McKenzie and Madison, then 6 and 7 years old, on a team flight to Houston that incurred dangerous turbulence that made him question bringing them.
"I can't imagine the thoughts going through his head," Majerle said Monday morning as he did a series of television and radio interviews.
The paternal pang also struck when he learned Sunday that Bryant's 13-year-old daughter and two other teenage girls were among the nine victims.
"That sadness went to incredible sickness," Majerle said. "My heart dropped in my stomach. I felt nauseated. It's so sad for everybody. We all understand what Kobe meant to basketball and everything he's done but for me when it really hit home was having your 13-year-old daughter on that flight, going to an AAU basketball game, taking her on a trip, being a father and to be in that situation with your daughter is sickness for me as a parent of four."
Majerle gathered the stunned team in the GCU video room, which adjoins a Jerry Colangelo Museum that has USA Basketball portraits of Kobe Bryant as part of a tribute to the gold-medal teams Colangelo assembled.
His message was about how to seize the opportunity they are fortunate to have and give maximum effort, as Bryant did to take his talent to an elite level.
"We're very lucky to do what we do," Majerle said. "I'm lucky to be a part of basketball and coach at this great university. They're lucky to be here to play basketball. I tell them all the time that you never know when that is going to end for whatever reason. Never take anything for granted. When you do something, do it 100% with all your might and all your love and share your feelings with people who you love every day."
Some GCU players were born at the start of Bryant's career but his 20-year career made admirers of all of the Lopes, many of whom wore his shoes at Monday's practice.
Junior center Alessandro Lever played in the same northern Italian town, Reggio Emilia, where Bryant played before moving from Italy to the U.S., just as Lever did in 2017 to enroll at GCU.
"It is heartbreaking to hear about what happened to Kobe, his daughter and the other people on the helicopter," said Lever, who consider Bryant to be his favorite player. "You never expect something like that to happen. I didn't want to believe it when I heard it. I thought it was impossible or a bad joke. It's heartbreaking for me and everybody in the basketball world.
"He was a great competitor. He had the Mamba mentality to never give up. He was one of the greatest players to ever play."
Freshman forward Bryce Okpoh wears No. 24, which Bryant wore for his final 10 Lakers seasons after switching from No. 8.
"Kobe was the first player I started watching when I was little," Okpoh said. "It goes Kobe, then LeBron (James). It was really tough to hear about. I had a couple tears go down. It was hard on the whole world. You can see that it's down right now in the gym.
"I liked his work ethic and his desire to be perfect. He was one of the players who was close to being perfect in every aspect, not just basketball. That's why everybody looks up to Kobe and wants to be like Kobe."
Five of their meetings came when Majerle played in Miami and the final three was in his last playing season with Phoenix. In the last face-off, Majerle made three 3-pointers to lead a Suns upset despite Bryant's 36 points.
Majerle puts Bryant in the same legendary echelon of opponents he faced with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.
"Not only were they so talented but they had the mentality," Majerle said. "First guys in the gym, last to leave. They were never going to be outworked. They'd score on you and never allow you to score on them. The most competitive guy you'd ever meet. And then you see what he's done after basketball. He dives into everything 100%. Everything he did had greatness, even as a father. He poured himself into his kids. The Mamba mentality is something that set him apart.
"I tell our guys all the time that you have to put everything that you have every day into your craft and into your life and do it 100% because you never know when that ability to do that will stop at a moment's notice."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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