Getty Kobe Bryant, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James
Kyrie Irving shouted out Kobe Bryant and daughter, Gianna Bryant in an unreleased rap song.
Irving posted the quick clip via his Instagram stories.
For those keeping score at home, here are the lyrics:
“We’re rocking with the ancestors, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I’m painting lifes canvas, I’m moving like an artist. Similar to my to my progress, I’m on a team full of martyrs. Paradise is Mamba, throwing peace to Gianna.”
Irving tagged his friend and St. Patrick’s High School teammate Jeremiah Green, a music producer to the video.
A rising star, Green doubles as a music producer and artist. He’s worked with notables like Grammy Award winning producer Jahlil Beats.
Green released his EP Transitions 3 last year.
Worth noting: When Irving signed his contract extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2014, Irving blasted GQ Jerry’s Say Yeah from his firt Transitions EP while doing a ‘happy dance.’
Kobe Bryant and Kyrie Irving were very close. Bryant, his daughter Gigi and seven other passengers died in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California on January 26.
In fact, in an interview with Green back in the spring, Irving said he cant wait to play Bryant one-on-one in Heaven.
“At this point, I’m gonna see him,” he said.
“I’m going to play him one on one in Heaven. We good! I’m gonna get him back.
“Kobe was the essence of seeing somebody there who you couldn’t believe was so smooth and so sharp and sound and fundamental,” said Irving.
“My dad used to pause the games and he used to have me sit there and rewatch Kobe’s footwork and I used to sit back time after time in my computer room and watch Youtube highlights of Kobe and just highlights of him for hours.”
He later recounted the first time he played against Bryant in an NBA game and that moment that Bryant blocked his shot. “So that game when we playing against Kobe, I was begging our medical staff to play in that game,” recounts Irving.
“Kobe had 42 points that game and he guaranteed that he was gonna give us 40. So I get it at the top of the key, I hear the crowd and the crowd was like; they’re all erupting silently. They’re like: ‘Oh!’ And everybody starts clapping like: ‘Oh yeah!’ and it’s at the top of the key. Now what does that remind you of?
Back in the city, back in Jersey, when you get in that moment, this is your time. So I get at the top of the key and I make a move, he stutters for a minute and I spin. When I spun, this dude was waiting for that and he punched that sh**. He punched it, he punched it bro.”
“I sized Kobe up. But it was the crowd, it was the crowd. The crowd got me.”
In 20 games last season, Kyrie Irving averaged 27.4 points, 6.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game. Irving had season-ending surgery on a nagging shoulder impingement.