Kyrie Irving recently took to his Stories to share a snippet of the music he's been working on in his downtime away from the game of basketball. The song includes a lyric where Irving pays homage to his close friend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
"We're rocking with the ancestors, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do," Irving raps. "I'm painting life's canvas, I'm moving like an artist. Similar to my progress, I'm on a team full of martyrs. Paradise is Mamba, throwing peace to Gianna."
Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson points out Irving included a mention of his friend and St. Patrick's High School teammate Jeremiah Green, who was the producer on the song.
Kobe and Gianna were among the nine people who tragically died in a helicopter crash in January. Irving took Bryant's death especially hard, given the mentorship relationship that they had developed over the years. In a SiriusXM interview last March, the Black Mamba specifically mentioned Kyrie when asked to name a player that embodied his on-court persona.
Bryant recalls the time when he received a FaceTime call from Irving after he knocked down the game-winning shot in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, completing the Cleveland Cavaliers' comeback from down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors. Gianna was also sitting near Kobe when Kyrie called.
Irving missed one game to mourn Kobe and Gianna's death. When he returned to the court, Kyrie struggled to get the words out while delivering his first remarks during a post-game interview, but mentioned how much Bryant meant not only to him, but many other players in the league.
