LOS ANGELES _ Kings coach Luke Walton went for a walk when the team arrived at its hotel in Los Angeles about 2 a.m. Thursday.
Walton heard about the massive Kobe Bryant memorial that was overtaking the LA Live entertainment complex across the street from Staples Center, right outside the team hotel. Something told him to go. He had to see it for himself.
Bryant was someone Walton considered a friend, a teammate and a brother. They spent nine seasons together with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning back-to-back NBA championships in 2009-10.
Walton had to pay his respects. He had to come to grips with Bryant's unthinkable death. So when the Kings arrived in the middle of the night for Thursday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Walton followed his heart into the darkness, into the pain.
He walked out to the site of a makeshift memorial that has quickly become nothing short of a shrine, adorned with purple-and-gold balloons, basketballs, Bryant jerseys and his signature shoes.
"It was emotional," Walton said. "There were people there at 2 in the morning. It was fenced off, but one of the nice security people let me in. There was a group of people chanting 'Ko-be! Ko-be!' You're looking around and you see how many people he touched."
Walton walked past the candles and the cards, the flowers, the signs and thousands of handwritten messages that cry out to the city's fallen hero.
"Thank you Kobe."
"We love you Kobe."
"Heroes come and go, but legends live forever."
Bryant, 41, died along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others in a helicopter crash Sunday in the hills above Calabasas. Tributes have poured in from around the world for a global icon who inspired a generation of young players across the planet.
Walton has felt this loss deeply, but something happened when he wandered out into the darkness early Thursday morning. Amid the flowers, the cards and the flickering candles, he found a little light.
"It was emotional and a lot of memories came flooding back," Walton said. "It was powerful and it was nice. It was 2 in the morning and it was quiet besides when the 'Kobe' chants happened, and even that felt like a spiritual experience. You're standing in the middle of all this stuff and out of nowhere you start hearing chants of his name."
