“Always picked my phone” Naomi Osaka reveals how Kobe Bryant was her ideal big brother
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Naomi Osaka and Kobe Bryant
Tennis star Naomi Osaka reveals her relationship with late NBA legend Kobe Bryant. Kobe was killed in a helicopter crash along with his young daughter Gianna Bryant. Naomi Osaka was featured in a story in GQ’s Modern Love issue with her boyfriend Cordae, where she talked about her and Kobe’s friendship in detail.
Naomi Osaka said, “I would say he was like the older brother/uncle that I wish I always had. He was someone that, no matter how busy he was, for some reason he always picked up the phone when I called him. And I remember once, after the [2019] U.S. Open, I called him after one of my matches and he was just hanging out with his youngest daughter. He’s someone that gave me advice.”
After Kobe passed away, Naomi wrote a heartfelt letter to her close buddy, which she tweeted. It read, “Hey… I don’t really know what to do so I’m writing you this letter. Thank you for being you. Thank you for inspiring people everywhere, you have no idea how many hearts you’ve touched. Thank you for being so humble and not acting as big as you are.. Thank you for caring and checking up on me after my hard losses.” She concluded, “Thank you for randomly texting me ‘You ok?’, cause you know how f***** up my head is sometimes. Thank you for teaching me so much in the short time I’ve been lucky enough to have known you. Thank you for existing. You will forever be my big bro/mentor/inspiration. Love you.”
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Naomi Osaka talks about the best advice Kobe ever gave her
Naomi always used to be in contact with her big brother, Late Kobe Bryant. She approached him whenever she needed him, and he reverted. In the story done for GQ’s modern love issue, Naomi was asked about the best advice Kobe gave her. She replied, “I was asking him questions about how to handle the media and press when I was getting news articles written about me whenever I lost. And that was really stressful. I remember he told me, “Imagine that you’re a lion and you’re hunting your prey. So you see a deer off in the distance. And if you watch Animal Planet, you always see the lions looking at their prey, and they have gnats around their eyes. Think of the media and the press as gnats, and you’re the lion, so never get distracted. And you never see the lion trying to swat away the flies or anything like that.” Indeed both the athletes shared a close bond.
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