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BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- 70 days ago, he bidded farewell to his basketball career. Now, Chinese fans had another chance to cherish his career's prime time with him, including the 2008 Olympic final against Spain and 2010 NBA Finals against the Celtics.
A special event, themed "Love Last Forver", was held in the Wukesong Arena here on Friday. Around 1,000 Chinese fans were fortunate to pay tribute to their beloved Kobe Bryant, an NBA icon almost for the past two decades.
Bryant finished a four-point play to seal the win for the Dream Team in Beijing Olympic Games' final against Spain and get back the gold medal that they missed in Athens.
A little surprisingly, this moment just ranked third in a pool among Chinese netizens, shy of his 81-point performance against the Raptors and 2010 Finals victory over the Celtics.
"That was so hard. That was the most enjoyable because it was extremely difficult to beat them," commented Bryant on the seven-game series against their arch-rival six years ago.
"The first time I arrived here in 1998, I immediately saw your passion and electricity for basketball. Your eyes were a mirror image, reflecting back the same commitment to hard work, dedication and determination that were in mine. There was an immediate connection and it's drawn me back to you ever since," Bryant read a letter to his Chinese fans.
"Before hard work, dedication and determination, though, needs to be the ability to dream...Now, it's my dream to challenge you and teach you about using your imagination to achieve the impossible."
The event was part of Kobe China Fund, founded by China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, to show Bryant's responsibility in doing charity. Cooperation between the Foundation and Bryant aims at promoting Sino-US youth communication in education, sports, and culture, and offering kids in less developed areas in China a good opportunity to be involved in sports.
"It's important to give back, inspire the next genertion and give them every tool that they need to try to search for potential. Everyone has to take his responsibility to inspire the next generation to become the best person himself," said the NBA third all-time leading scorer.
"It's a great opportunity to help to inspire and teach kids. There is so much power and magic in dreaming, and we want to be able to assure that these kids are able to achieve those goals, and understand that if you have a dream, you can accomplish that dream," he added.
Several Chinese sports celebrities, including diving Olympic gold medalist Gao Min and seven-time table tennis world champion Liu Wei, expressed their best wishes to Bryant after his retirement from professional basketball.
"Because of you, Chinese youth has shown more interest in NBA and the game of basketball. Wish you all the best in your life and career," said Zheng Haixia, who steered Chinese women's basketball team to a sliver medal in 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
