Love and Obsession
While Kobe Bryant’s retirement from basketball prompts the poem, the theme of love propels it. What pushes Bryant to play in the NBA for 20 years is his lifelong love for basketball, and love isn’t a moderate feeling: It’s an obsession. The speaker tells basketball, “I fell in love with you. // A love so deep I gave you my all” (Lines 8-9). Love is all-consuming, and love for basketball dominates Bryant’s life starting when he was six years old—pretending he was playing for the Lakers and had to make game-winning shots in their arena. Love transcends age and every part of his body. Love for basketball takes over the speaker’s “mind & body” and his “spirit & soul” (Lines 10-11).
Like a genuine obsession, Bryant’s true love for basketball is unceasing. There is no light at “the end of the tunnel” (Line 14) because there his love is boundless. The speaker says, “I only saw myself / Running out of one [tunnel]” (Lines 15-16). Bryant’s obsessive love keeps him on the go. He notes, “And so I ran” (Line 17). He runs up and down basketball courts and after the loose balls, and the running exemplifies his fixation. He’ll do anything for basketball—basketball makes him feel more “alive” than anyone or anything else (Line 29).
