On his farewell tour this season, Kobe Bryant will receive countless tokens of appreciation and respect from the 29 cities that make up the NBA solar system. But the gift that Bryant has been perhaps the most moved by thus far was one from an unlikely source -- former Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach, whose decades-old, beyond-the-grave praise deeply touched Bryant in recent weeks.
According to an ESPN feature published Wednesday, Auerbach was highly impressed with Bryant when the 17-year-old soon-to-be-superstar came to Boston for a pre-draft workout in the spring of 1996. "I think this kid is going to be a hell of a player," Auerbach said of Bryant at the time, a burst of praise all the more meaningful as it came from the famously brusque, punctilious coach.
