{"id":287201,"date":"2020-01-27T09:36:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1116439"},"modified":"2020-01-27T09:36:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:36:17","slug":"lakers-superfan-jack-nicholson-pays-tribute-to-kobe-bryant-in-rare-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/lakers-superfan-jack-nicholson-pays-tribute-to-kobe-bryant-in-rare-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Superfan Jack Nicholson Pays Tribute to Kobe Bryant In Rare Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Around Kobe Bryant<\/a><\/strong>, Jack Nicholson<\/a><\/strong> knew he was in the presence of greatness.<\/p>\n

Though the 82-year-old Oscar winner has retreated from the spotlight<\/a> in recent years, he remained a committed Lakers fan, stepping out just to cheer on his team<\/a> at the Staples Center. And today, as the world mourns<\/a> Bryant’s devastating loss, he is paying tribute to the NBA legend<\/a>. “My reaction is the same as almost all of L.A., where we think everything’s solid, there’s a big hole in the wall.” Nicholson said in a rare interview with CBSLA<\/a>. “I was used to seeing and talking to Kobe\u2026it kills you. It’s just a terrible event.”<\/p>\n

Their first encounter, however, will make you smile. “I teased him,” the actor recalled. “It was at the Garden in New York and I offered him a basketball and asked him if he wants me to autograph it for him. He looked at me like I was crazy.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Overtime, he became Bryant’s cheerleader. “I sat right behind his jump shot on the left hand side,” he said. “I can see him going up and I can tell the first instant if it’s going in.”<\/p>\n

“I remember the totality of how great a player he was,” Nicholson added. “We’ll think of him all the time and we’ll miss him.”<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the 41-year-old superstar died when his helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California. The fatal accident killed all nine passengers<\/a> on board, including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter<\/a> Gianna “Gigi” Maria-Onore Bryant<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Jack<\/p>\n

Noah Graham\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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While Madison Square Garden, the Staples Center and LAX paid tribute to the fallen star by lighting up in purple and gold<\/a>, his friends and fans\u2014including Derek Jeter<\/a><\/strong>, Gigi Hadid<\/a><\/strong> and Barack Obama<\/a><\/strong>\u2014took to social media to honor on of the greatest athletes of our time. <\/p>\n

“Words can’t describe the pain I’m feeling<\/a>,” his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal<\/strong> wrote. “I loved Kobe. He was like a little brother to me. We used to talk often, and I will miss those conversations very much. He was a fierce competitor, one of the greats of the game and a creative force. Kobe was also an amazing dad who loved his family deeply\u2014and took great pride in his daughter’s love for the game of basketball.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Our thoughts are with all of the families affected by this heartbreaking tragedy.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around Kobe Bryant, Jack Nicholson knew he was in the presence of greatness. Though the 82-year-old Oscar winner has retreated from the spotlight in recent years, he remained a committed Lakers fan, stepping out just to cheer on his team at the Staples Center. And today, as the world mourns Bryant’s devastating loss, he is paying tribute to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-03 12:22:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}