Kobe Bryant’s high school teacher shared an interesting story about the late Los Angeles Lakers legend, and a heartwarming one at that.
Jeanne Mastriano was Bryant’s 10th-grade English teacher and taught him speaking arts in his 12th grade at Lower Merion High School, Philadelphia. And she held the guard in high regard,
Speaking to WBUR’s Bill Littlefield, Mastriano relived one of her best memories about Bryant, which she termed a “really long story” and it happened when he was playing the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. She couldn’t recall whether it was Game 3 or 4, but she did remember that the Lakers lost a humdinger of a contest.
They all — all the people on that court — played full out. The Lakers lost by, like — I don’t know — two points. It was back and forth and back and forth. And I turned to my husband, and I just said, “You know what’s a shame? It’s so beautiful. This was such a beautiful battle. And it’s all about the struggle. It doesn’t matter —” And I just ranted about how beautiful it was, and what a shame it was that one half of the men on that court were gonna go home absolutely devastated.
Then I said, “I don’t know how the Lakers get it together to go in for the next game. They just left everything there.” And my husband just listened to me, and he just said, “Well, you should tell him that.” I said, “Well, Kobe has plenty of people around him to tell him that.” And he said, “Well, he doesn’t have you.” And I was like, “No, I’m not gonna bother him.” So we go to bed.
Her husband’s words stuck in Mastriano’s head, and she eventually decided to tell Bryant her thoughts in the aftermath of the loss.
Kobe Bryant Responds To His High School Teacher’s Message
It was around 3 a.m. when Mastriano rang up the superstar and explained how she felt before introducing herself at the end of the call. She also added that she never heard anything back.
Eventually, the Lakers continued to play, and they beat the Celtics. Soon after, the high school had a new gym that Bryant inaugurated. Before the event, she received an email from the press about how the school’s coach felt about Mastriano talking to the star.
“And I got an email at school saying, “How does Downer,” — Downer was Kobe’s coach — “How does Downer feel about you talking to him, giving him advice during the Finals?” And I wrote back, “What? I didn’t talk to him?” He sent me a link to an ESPN article, and there it was in print: “Yeah, I talked a lot with her through the Finals.” I was like, “What?”
We were gathering in this little anteroom. And we were sitting quietly in the room, and I just brought this article up, and he said, “Yeah, well, you remember? Remember when you called me during the Finals?” And I said, “Yes, but the article says we ‘talked.’ Conversation implies that one person speaks and the other person responds.” And he [Kobe] laughs, and he says, “Well, I’ll tell you: I saved that message and I played it over and over and over again as I was getting ready for the rest of the games.”
Trust Bryant to make note of what his mentors would tell him, and that served as one of the factors behind his tremendous success on the floor while also showing his quality as a great human being off of it.
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