•There is a terrific long profile of Kobe that the New Yorker published in 2014 as he entered the last couple seasons of his playing career. Excerpt:

The European childhood inspired in Bryant a sense that there is “a much bigger world out there,” as he put it to me, and, as an adult, he travels widely in the summers, both as an extension of his brand (doing promotional work for Lenovo in Manila, say) and in order to expose Natalia and Gianna to differ­ent cultures. “We’ll just kind of set up camp in one particular city,” he said. “Take ’em to the Louvre, expose ’em to art.” Last year, he visited Brazil, Dubai, and China—where his jerseys have outsold those of Yao Ming, the country’s first N.B.A. star. (A statue of Bryant stands in the city of Guanghzhou.)

“I love watching, reading, listening to people who have done great things,” Bryant said. Asked to name some examples, he warned me that the list was “a mile long,” and then proceeded down the road: “Walt Disney, to Oprah Winfrey, to Jay-Z, to a serial entrepreneur like Mike Repole, to Michael Rubin, to Evan Williams. It just goes and goes and goes and goes.” Repole—I had to look this up—created Vitaminwater, and Rubin is the C.E.O. of an e-commerce company called Kynetic. Williams co-founded Twitter. “President Clinton, you know, we spent some time together the other day, and had a chance to kind of talk in the back about business and how he goes through the process of delegation and structure,” Bryant continued. “And that’s without even getting into the Michael Jacksons of the world, the Michelangelos of the world, the Da Vincis of the world, the Warhols of the world. We’re surrounded by people who do incredible things, and the information is right there for us to learn from them.”

•This shorter but frank appreciation is posted at the Sports Illustrated site. Excerpt:

There are more memories, of course. But in the end, many of them are the same stories, just in different context. Kobe Bryant was a complex, flawed human being. He was also one of the purest competitors to ever pick up a basketball, or any ball. I met plenty of people who loved Kobe Bryant, and plenty who didn’t. But I don’t think I ever met someone who didn’t respect him as an athlete and competitor. And my guess is that’s what mattered most to Bryant. The game will miss him dearly.

•Words of appreciation from 24 grieving fans in the LAT. Excerpt:

Hugo Flores, 29

Flores recalls his friends talking about how Bryant reminds them of their immigrant parents.

“They had multiple jobs and worked like crazy, but they never made excuses,” the Anaheim resident said. “That was Kobe. He’d play with broken fingers and torn ligaments and would never say a thing. He set that example, and so we had to do the same.

“We see that mentality in our culture — eres el más chingón [you’re the biggest badass],” Flores added. “That was Kobe every night, every day.”

•Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan talk about Kobe on the Bill Simmons Podcast — both are longtime NBA observers and fans: