George Ferguson Column: After one special day, Kobe tragedy hits Chris Mouat hard

Obviously, Jan. 26, 2020, will be a day that so many will never forget. It will be the day basketball fans, and so many more lost Kobe Bryant, as well as his young daughter Gianna, and seven others who were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in California.

Whether you were a Kobe Bryant fan or not, a Lakers fan or not, or, in some ways, a basketball fan or not, the loss of Kobe will be profound, simply because, Kobe transcended basketball. He transcended a lot of things.

So it’s no wonder, his death, and the tragic circumstances around it resonate with so many. It resonates with me, that’s for sure, and, because of a special experience he had just last year, Sunday’s news really hit home for Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball coach Chris Mouat.

Last April, Mouat, and Northern assistant coach Sierra Richards spent an afternoon not only getting the opportunity to meet Bryant, but also observe him coaching Gianna’s AAU basketball team.

“My good friend Russ Davis, the head coach at Vanguard University, runs one of the top AAU girls teams on the west coast, the Cal Swish team,” Mouat said. “And Kobe eventually got involved with that program. He wanted his daughter’s team to be a part of the program, so Russ and Kobe became good friends.

“Russ also started a clinic for mostly Division I coaches,” he continued. “And so last spring, Sierra and I went to the clinic, and we knew there was a possibility that Kobe might be there at some point.”

Indeed, Bryant, who Mouat said used Vanguard’s gym often for his AAU team, did attend the clinic, and then, his team practiced after it was over. And it was in that time that Mouat got to observe all sides of the Kobe Bryant that will be memorialized in the coming days, weeks and months. He saw Kobe the competitive coach, he saw Kobe the father, and, he saw Kobe as a gracious and caring human being.

“It was amazing,” Mouat said. “At the clinic, there was probably 50-70 people, and he took the time to take a photo with any of us who wanted one, and speak to us. He was just really so normal. He was really friendly and I was just amazed at the way he took the time to meet everybody there.

“Then, most of the coaches left, but some of us stayed and we watched him run his team’s practice,” Mouat continued. “He ran a really good practice with those girls. It was really amazing, as a coach, to watch Kobe Bryant, one of the all time greatest ever, now coaching basketball, and especially coaching girls basketball, because, obviously, that’s what we do. It was really an awesome experience.”

Had it ended right then, the day would have been great enough for Mouat, who admitted he wasn’t necessarily a Laker’s fan, or a Bryant fan, having grown up a Michael Jordan fan, but being a true fan and student of the game, it meant a lot to him just the same, and still, his experience with Bryant wasn’t over when the practice session ended.

“I was able to get about five minutes with him, just making small talk,” Mouat said. “And, I told him, if I asked him for an autograph, I would have to ask for about 70 of them for everybody back home, but I did ask him if he would do one special thing for a couple of my former players who were huge fans of his and he was gracious enough to do it."

The shoutout from Bryant was to Skylights Brandy Lambourne and Jacy Thompson for birthdays and well wishes, and while it was a special gesture by Bryant, Mouat also recalled a funny moment to it as well.

“I was so nervous,” he said. “And I basically hit the stop button on my phone before he finished the message. So it only ended up being about seven seconds even though he talked for about 15 seconds. I was like, wow, I messed this up, but I wasn’t going to ask Kobe Bryant to do a retake.”

Even if the video was incomplete, it still meant the world to both Lambourne and Thompson, and Mouat, who’s trip to a basketball coaches clinic, something he’s done a many, many times before, turned into something much, much more.

“He showed me a lot,” Mouat said of Bryant. “The way he made time for all these people, he signed a book for (Providence head coach) Bill Himmelberg. He was so generous with his time, and he was just such a good person. It was a really cool experience.”

And that’s why, like so many on Sunday, the tragic news really hit Mouat hard, and, going forward, it will make his experience last April that much more special.

“It really hurt to hear about it, I’ve just been really down all day,” Mouat said Sunday night. “To hear about his daughter, who I watched practice that day, it’s just so sad. It’s gut-wrenching. It really hurt, and knowing that Russ and Kobe had grown close, I was able to reach out to Russ and talk to him for a bit.

“So that day last year, that’s certainly going to stick with me forever,” Mouat added. “I’ll never forget the opportunity I got to meet him and observe him and just see what a great person he was. That was an amazing day, and I’m not ever going to forget it.”