Kobe Bryantwas working on a children’s book prior to histragic deathin helicopter crash on Sunday, but that project will never see the light of day, according toThe Alchemistauthor Paulo Coehlo.
On Sunday, the Brazilian writer, 72, revealed that he had been working on a book with the athlete and tweeted his plans to delete the draft following news of Bryant’s passing.
In the screenshot, a message seemingly from Bryant’s Twitter account read: “Let’s [write] a book together.”
Coehlo told theAssociated Presson Monday that the two began writing a few months ago, but he destroyed the manuscript after learning that Bryant had passed away.
“I deleted the draft because it didn’t make any sense to publish without him,” Coelho said. “It wouldn’t add anything relevant to him or his family.
“That doesn’t stop me from writing someday about things I learned from Kobe and how much of a larger-than-life person he was,” the writer continued. “But the children’s book did not make sense anymore.”
According to Coehlo, the idea behind the book was toinspire underprivileged childrento overcome adversity through sports.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images; Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
“I saw him enough times to assure he had much more than sports on his mind, it wasn’t all about competition,” the author said. “His tragic death has shown already how he was important to the world, not only to the United States. We will discuss his legacy for many years, much beyond sport.”
Bryantventured into the book worldwhen his multimedia company, Granity Studios, published his autobiographyThe Mamba Mentality: How I Playin 2018. The former NBA star went on to co-create a young adult fiction book series with Wesley King titledThe Wizenard Series,which follows five young basketball players in aHarry Potter-esque story.
The Alchemistwas one of Bryant’s favorite books and the Lakers legend had even once recommended it to basketball player Kyrie Irving,according to The Athletic.
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Bryant and his daughter Gianna were two of nine victims who perished in a deadly helicopter crash on Sunday in Calabasas, California.
The basketball star and his 13-year-old daughter were on their way to ayouth basketball gamein Thousand Oaks with seven others when thehelicoptercrashed amid foggy conditions and burst into flames.
Sarah Chester and her daughter, eighth-grader Payton, the head basketball coach at Orange Coast College John Altobelli, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa, girls basketball coach Christina Mauser andpilot Ara Zobayanwere also on the aircraft during the incident.
source: people.com
