LOS ANGELES _ He was named after premium Japanese beef. He spent most of his childhood in Italy. He was a high school basketball legend in Philadelphia.
And he was all Los Angeles.
Kobe Bryant came here a 17-year-old boy, still not a legal adult when he was acquired by the Lakers on draft day in 1996. In a two-decade career played entirely in this city, he scaled the greatest of athletic heights and was tarnished by the worst of personal scandals. He was beloved, reviled and, in the end, revered. He became a father here, retired here, continued to live here and started businesses here.
Los Angeles watched him grow up. Los Angeles watched him stumble. And Los Angeles watched him get back up.
News of Bryant's death on Sunday sent shockwaves everywhere, but nowhere more than here.
Regardless of the complicated feelings that remain over the sexual assault charge that was leveled against him in 2003, he was undeniably the athlete who most represented this city over the last 30 years.
Los Angeles now mourns the loss of its child.
He was a player who, as an 18-year-old rookie in 1997, had the audacity to fire four three-point attempts that became airballs down the stretch of a playoff elimination game loss to the Utah Jazz.
The individuality and relentlessness he showed that day became his trademarks. This city of transplants and immigrants related.
Especially when Bryant won.
Partnered with Shaquille O'Neal, he restored the pride of a city that hadn't claimed a major championship since the Dodgers won the 1988 World Series.
Bryant forever altered the city's landscape.
When Magic Johnson won championships with the Showtime Lakers, this was still a Dodgers town. Bryant changed that, enough to where the Dodgers couldn't reclaim the city even as their recent resurgence coincided with one of the worst stretches in Lakers history.
Bryant and O'Neal also recalibrated the city's expectations, the three consecutive championships they won from 2000-2002 making fans here believe that anything short of a title should be considered a failure. The Dodgers have felt the ramifications of that in recent years. LeBron James will, too, if the Lakers fail to win a championship this year.
That Bryant won was only part of the story. Equally important was how he won.
His ruthless "Mamba Mentality" became more than a personal ethos; it defined the city. He once stayed in a game to sink two free throws after tearing his Achilles tendon. He scored 60 points in his final game.
Whatever his faults, he was Los Angeles sports. He still is.
