Columbia High’s Head Basketball Coach, Phil McCrary, did something for students Monday afternoon that they won’t soon forget; he landed the school a visit from Los Angeles Lakers Guard and NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant.

Yesterday afternoon, Kobe Bryant sat down with the Columbia High School basketball teams and many other athletes and students for a question and answer session about life, education, basketball and his preparation for a post-basketball career.

For Coach McCrary, getting Kobe Bryant to come to Columbia was a matter of asking the right question, asking the right person and crossing his fingers—hoping for an accommodating schedule. McCrary, leader of the #13 boys high school basketball team in the nation, kept in contact with a Nike representative that sponsored the school years ago and asked her to keep her ear out for any availability Kobe Bryant, a Nike endorser, would have should he come to town.

Monday was the lucky day. During the 45-minute visit Bryant paid Columbia before an evening game against the Atlanta Hawks, students asked Bryant about his childhood dreams, his classroom behavior when he was in school and his work ethic that carried him to the NBA.

“Everything was special about yesterday,” Coach McCrary said. “It was good for the kids, our school and the community and says a lot about [Kobe] too—that he doesn’t put himself so high up on a pedestal that he can’t reach out to young people.”

Bryant shared that while he has been a basketball junkie since the age of three, he realizes that basketball will probably be over by the age of 33 or 34. Bryant has taken marketing classes at UCLA and has already started a marketing company and has other entertainment business plans in the works following his retirement from the NBA.

“You can get by without an education while playing professional basketball, but what do you do after it is over?” asked Bryant. “You need to know how to handle your money, what you want to do once basketball is over and how to get there… I am working hard for my life after basketball”

School administrators appreciated the fact that Bryant emphasized the importance of education regardless of what advantages life may afford you.

“I love that he told the kids to set their sights on a goal, any goal and stay focused until it is accomplished,” shared Charlie Henderson, DeKalb’s Director of Athletics and Administrative Support. “He said he loved the smell of tennis shoes, he loved the smell of basketball—he focused and achieved his dream and he wants the students to do the same.”

Now Columbia students are asking Coach McCrary who’s next. ‘Is it LeBron? Or Tracy McGrady?’ To that, Coach McCrary says after landing Kobe Bryant, the possibilities are endless.

Source: DeKalb County Public Schools