Created by Kobe Bryant, Written by Annie Matthew, 2019
Children’s book about a magical world where Legacy, a 12 year-old girl, saves her father’s orphanage by traveling to the city for the tennis championships. She runs away from the orphanage to compete in the tennis match because her father was going to make Van, her best friend, go to work in the mines. She knows if she wins, she will make enough money to save the orphanage. In the city, everyone but her is dressed in finery, with their hair in braids, and paint on their face. She is dressed in burlap. Her racket is an old wooden racket. She is all alone but manages to befriend Pippa, a tiny, jabber-mouthed, heart of gold young stringer; Javi, a teenage “builder;” and Gus, a Pyrus, like a winged horse. Between the 4 of them, they win the nationals and save the kingdom from the evil Queen Silla, who was ruling entirely through fear, with no love.
Kobe died, along with his 13 year-old daughter Gianna and 7 others (all aboard died; passengers and the pilot) on a helicopter flight enroute to a youth basketball game at his Mamba Sports Academy. The pilot was spatially disoriented due to heavy fog and clouds and flew into a hillside in Calabasas, California, (northwest of Los Angeles) on January 26, 2020.
Kobe won an academy award for Best Animated Short Film for his 5 minute film, Dear Basketball, his moving tribute to basketball, in 2018.
There is a 2nd book in the series, Legacy and the Double, published in 2021, written by Annie Matthew.
Here is a bit of the story when Legacy was almost killed by her “stringbind” which Pippa had strung using a recipe she found on her father’s desk, Page 138-139:
“I’m so sorry, Leg,” she said.
“It’s Legacy,” Legacy murmured.
“It was my fault,” Pippa said. “It wasn’t your fault at all. That stringbind-the one we found on my father’s desk: it could have killed you.”
She pulled out her copy of Capulan’s Encyclopedia.
“Look,” she said gesturing at a page with illustrations of an array of porcelain pots full of various metal powders. “It’s all here. A player with light grana – that’s you – is corasite-intense. That means you resonate with corasite, the metal associated with love. Even your anger – it resonates with corasite. And to play with a stringbind that doesn’t have any corasite is extraordinarily dangerous.”
Legacy shook her head. She was remembering that flash of light and the branch falling on Van. “But anger,” she said. “How’s that associated with love?”
“I don’t know exactly,” Pippa said.
Legacy thought for a moment. She remembered how Van had called her mother a witch. And in that moment, Legacy had felt love for her mother welling up in her heart. And that love had turned into anger.
“Maybe the source of anger is love?” Legacy said.
“Maybe without any love,” Javi said, “your anger has nowhere productive to go.”
Legacy and Pippa shot each other a glance. It was a pretty insightful comment, especially coming from Javi. Noticing their surprise, he scowled and crossed his muscled arms over his chest, trying to look as though he hadn’t wasted any time contemplating emotions.
“The heat was shooting back up my arm,” Legacy said, “into my shoulder.”
“Directing inward,” Pippa said. “Not outward.”
“I was directing my anger at myself?” Legacy said.
Pippa pointed to an illustration of a porcelain pot full of vermilion corasite dust. “Look here,” she said, reading from the page. “Corasite resonates not only with love for others, but also with self-love. Both must be permitted to express for anger grana to move in the proper direction. Without expression of self-love, anger grana will redirect inward.”
“So without any corasite in her racket,” Javie said, “She can’t channel any self-love?”
“And without self-love,” Pippa said, “her anger moves inward?”
“That’s why that stringbind’s so dangerous,” Javi said. “It redirects all your grana back into our body.”
“It could have been fatal,” Pippa said. She looked at Legacy. “I could have killed you, just by weaving that stringbind.”
Here’s on page 182 when Legacy is playing Gia for the National Championships, and she walks to the back of the court and touches the wall – reminds me of the CSU player who did that often, turned around and walked to the back of the court and touched her fingers to the back fence wind screen:
“Before the next serve, Legacy moved back to the wall. She touched her fingertips to the stone. Then she blew on them to get them to cool. Stop, she said to herself. You can’t feel all this anger.“
“But then Legacy remembered what Javi had said: That’s only human.
“Pippa had said it as well. All the emotions should be represented…”
Legacy goes on to win the match, her racket shining brighter and brighter, and save the provinces from the evil Queen Silla.