LA Times writer Bill Plaschke joined Dan Patrick, and he talked about the Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony and had a really honest take on the event.
Bill Plaschke has worked in LA for a long time and witnessed just about everything that occurred during Kobe Bryant's tenure with the Lakers and beyond. With Kobe's passing, his wife Vanessa Bryant took on the very difficult responsibility of speaking on behalf of her late husband. Plaschke didn't hold back on what he thought about the event. He flat out said that it 'sucked' that Kobe wasn't there.
Bill Plaschke:
"It sucked because Kobe wasn't there. We wrote a million stories before this ceremony and talked about Kobe and the whole history of his life, and he wasn't there. It really stunk to me. Tim Duncan's speech was incredible. Rudy T's speech was off the hook but I miss Kobe. Kobe should've been there to exchange jabs with the guys. Vanessa didn't thank any Laker. She didn't mention any Lakers in her speech because she doesn't know what Kobe would've said. She wasn't going to speak for her late husband so a lot of Lakers went unrecognized. I think a lot of emotion was drained out of the thing. I'm sorry, I know I'm supposed to be emotional and it's so cool Kobe's in and I'm glad he's in but it really sucked that he wasn't there. It was really painful. Were supposed to be celebrating his greatness and I thought we just remembered the absence of his greatness. It was really hard."