Aces Nation packs Kobe Bryant Gymnasium for Kobe tribute

Lower Merion >> The Kobe Bryant Gymnasium, packed to the rafters Saturday for the special tribute to Kobe, included a large legion of Lower Merion basketball alumni, including about half of the 1996 PIAA state championship boys’ basketball team.
Jeremy Treatman, who was an assistant coach on that 1996 squad, said, “We’re all here for each other in this time of loss – this is like a Lower Merion basketball Shiva (in Judaism, Shiva is the week-long mourning period for family). I’m so glad we’re here for [LM head coach] Gregg Downer – he’s devastated, I don’t know where he gets the strength to go on.”
Downer said, “It’s been a long week – a lot of really raw emotions, but I’m feeling stronger. Today was kind of therapeutic, I think [the tribute] was part of the healing process, and I was looking forward to it and seeing my former players.
“I knew my guys, our alums, would come out in full force today. Several of those guys took plane rides to be here, they really wanted very badly to be here. Aces Nation is very, very strong. It’s not hundreds of people, it’s probably thousands.”
The LM coach, who has coached the Aces since the fall of 1990, reflected for a moment on where it all began with Kobe.
“When I got here [in 1990], we were not winning, we had really old uniforms [smile], and Kobe showed us the way,” said Downer. “In 1992, he was the start of a lot of this [Aces Nation], and we’ve been able to have a lot of success since he has left. We’ve built a family here, and it was great to see 40-50 basketball alumni at our pre-game speech and halftime strategy [meeting].
“And it was great to see all those black T-shirts today.”
The black T-shirts, emblazoned with the words “Heartbeat of Aces Nation – 33” in the front, and a silhouette of a Lower Merion No. 33-clad Kobe in the back along with the words, “Walk Together Forever – Aces Basketball” were given to game ticket purchasers, and also worn by the Lower Merion boys’ basketball alumni at the event.
The tickets to Saturday’s tribute event were purchased so quickly by Lower Merion students that by Friday morning only 50 tickets were remaining for sale to the public.
“The student response to this tribute has been overwhelming,” said LM assistant coach Doug Young on Friday. “I think this response says something about the way the school community has come together and how they’ve supported Gregg and those who were close to Kobe.”
Saturday’s tribute to Kobe, held between the Lower Merion girls’ basketball game against Southern Lehigh and the LM boys’ contest against Souderton, began with the unveiling of Bryant’s Lower Merion jersey. Downer, Young and Bryant’s cousin John Cox helped unveil the framed No. 33 jersey on the wall of the Kobe Bryant Gymnasium.
Bryant’s retired No. 33 jersey was stolen in 2017 from Lower Merion’s campus and eventually bought by a collector in China and returned.
“Getting his jersey back was good timing,” said Downer with a smile. “That was kind of an iconic moment when the spotlight went onto that jersey. It was a major irony how we’ve been waiting for that jersey for a long time; for a long time we didn’t know where it was. To have it back is a fitting ending to a tough week.”
At 1:11 p.m., a six-minute video was shown, highlighting Kobe’s Lower Merion basketball days, and later, his returns to the LM campus.
“Perhaps one of the best basketball plays I’ve seen in my life was on that video, where he just dribbled through five Chester players by himself at the Palestra and went in for the dunk,” said Downer. “It’s been a long road, but there’s always a lot of great memories when it comes to Kobe Bryant.”
The video was produced by Dan Capkin, a key member of the scrappy 2005 Aces’ squad that advanced to the PIAA state finals.
“We had a lot of stuff in the video archives, thanks to Doug Young,” said Capkin after the video was shown. “You can feel the emotion in the gym today, you can feel the impact Kobe had on the team and the [Lower Merion] community, and how that community is rallying together.”
The final part of the tribute involved the 40-50 members of the Lower Merion boys’ basketball alumni present, as they came onto the gym floor bearing nine LM basketball chairs [for Kobe, his daughter Gianna and the seven other helicopter crash victims Jan. 26], then formed a circle around the nine empty chairs, and Lower Merion principal Sean Hughes said, “We will observe 33 seconds of silence for the nine victims.”
After the 33 seconds of silence, Hughes said, “Aces Nation forever.”
At 1:46 p.m., Lower Merion grad Danielle Muse sung the National Anthem, and the LM boys’ game began.
Greg Robbins, a key member of the Aces’ 2006 PIAA state title team, said, “This tribute is incredible; it’s great to see the support here in the Lower Merion [program]. They really did a good job putting this together.”
Hughes said, “This tribute was a great event – it’s been a rough week for us.”
Tom McGovern, who was Lower Merion’s athletic director from 1986-2002, said, “I was very impressed with this tribute – it was classy, quiet, meaningful. I think Kobe would have liked it.”
Treatman said, “This tribute was wonderfully done – it had Doug Young’s fingerprints all over it, so you knew it was going to be great.”
Once the game against Souderton started, it was back to business, and the Lower Merion boys’ squad used its trademark tough defense to gain a hard-earned 42-37 overtime win.
“[Lower Merion assistant coach] Kevin Grugan gave an awesome pre-game speech to the players,” said Treatman. “He told them to play with passion, and to play for Kobe and for Gregg Downer.”
Downer said, “The kids really wanted to play well for the alums here today. I told the players [before the game] that [the tragedy] really wasn’t their burden. I thought they played with a lot of grit, a lot of determination today. It certainly wasn’t one of our prettiest victories, but the heavens are happy because we came up with a victory and the kids played really hard.”