Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles on Sunday aged 41, moved to Italy in 1984 at the age of six and would remain there until he was 13.
His father, professional basketballer Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, moved the family from the US to play in the Italian league, starting in the central Lazio city of Rieti.
His former team, NPC Rieti, posted a childhood photo of the young Kobe along with the tribute: “You made us dream, feel and above all fall in love. It was in Rieti that you first started to make your little opponents cry. We’re proud to have been the first to see you tread the courts. We’ll never forget you, Kobe.”
Over the next seven years, the Bryants moved to the southern city of Reggio Calabria, Pistoia in Tuscany, and finally Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna, a city that he would describe years later as “a special place” where “I became what I am”.
“Kobe Bryant is gone,” Stefano Bonaccini, governor of Emilia-Romagna, wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“[He was] a great champion and a great person, attached to our land, just like our land was attached to him.”
Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Luca Vecchi, also paid tribute to the athlete.
“Kobe Bryant grew up here and he was, for all of us, a ‘Reggiano,’” he wrote on Facebook.
“Today, he left us.
“A basketball legend that all of our town will forever fondly and gratefully remember.”
“Forever one of us,” local basketball team Pallacanestro Reggiana posted after his death, alongside pictures of him as part of its youth team.
Though he returned to the US for high school and made his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant learned Italian during his childhood in Italy and would continue to speak it fluently for the rest of his life, giving interviews in Italian on the frequent occasions when he returned.
In a 2016 interview with il Resto del Carlino, speaking fluent Italian, Bryant said: “My story began in this town.”
“Why am I so attached to Reggio? Because I have so many special memories,” he said during a visit.
Bryant returned to Italy numerous times after his career took off, whether for a family holiday or to surprise youth basketball teams with a visit in his adopted hometown.
He used to call Italy “my home”, and it was always his dream to return there to play.
Bryant was one of nine people, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who died in the helicopter crash on Sunday while travelling from Orange County to a youth basketball tournament northwest of Los Angeles.
Every professional team in all levels of Italian basketball will pay homage to Bryant with a moment of silence in every game for seven days, the Italian basketball federation said following his death.
