One of the ways 2020 really stunk was the passing of NBA Hall of Fame inductee Kobe Bryant, who passed away his daughter, Gianna, and a number of others in a helicopter crash. It wasn’t hard to see people pay tribute to Bryant in a number of ways following that tragedy, whether it occurred in the immediate aftermath or at some point later in the year.
On Friday afternoon, a member of the Cincinnati Bearcats rang in the new year with a tribute to Bean. It wasn’t a surprise, though, because the young man has a name that inherently does this. Senior cornerback Coby Bryant picked off a pass by Georgia quarterback JT Daniels in the Peach Bowl, and after making his way back to the sideline, he went full Eastbay Funk Dunk in celebration.
Cincinnati DB Coby Bryant got the INT and celebrated with the through-the-legs dunk.
Fitting with a name like that ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fgaUAF1v1g
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 1, 2021
As you can guess, Coby is a big fan of Kobe — his parents, he explained, named him after the Lakers star, but wanted him to “carve out his own legacy,” so they made a little tweak to the spelling.
“I always have to carry that every week in me,” Bryant told Keith Jenkins of Cincinnati.com about the weight that his name carries. The dunk, obviously, was a nice way to pay homage to that name, but the ultimate way for Bryant to do that on Friday would be to pick up a big win.
