Where is raja bell now

And then, obviously, when I dug in a little bit more, we found out it was really true. Anytime someone gets snatched in their prime, so to speak, or before you would think it was their time to go, it hurts. Because he was a friend and a competitor, and he was bigger than basketball. He was the type of guy that when you put your mind to something, and you put your mind to do something, not only you do it but you do it well. And that's something that any father would want their child to kind of look up to.

It's a great life lesson, and I think he was a true champion, and he will be missed. Bryant's legacy is built on the success that he had on the court, but he will also be defined by the impact that he had on the generations of players that came after him and used his renown focus and determination to motivate themselves.

Here's what Bell had to say about how Bryant's patented "Mamba Mentality" changed the game:. This was pre-social media, pre we all play together on the AAU circuit and we're all friends.

This was pure competition and wanting to be the best. And I'm not saying it's changed for the worse, but it has changed. I think Kobe introducing some of those younger players to the mindset he approached the game with, and the greats before him approached the game with, was really important because it's a true competitor's mindset.

It is an alpha mindset. It is a I-want-to-be-the-best mindset. And, ultimately, when you're playing a sport, it's competition. That's what you're there for. You're there to win; you're there to try and conquer.

And I thought it was great for Kobe to do that because it's a rite of passage type of thing -- someone did it for him. Gallery 2w ago These are the highest-paid undrafted NBA players in history. We had a kid named Gordon Giricek on our Suns team, he had gotten there, and Gordon would go in the game, and Gordon was about his buckets. So Gordon would get in, and no matter what we were doing, no matter what the flow or the chemistry was, Gordon would be just, you know, shooting the ball.

Gordon was my guy, I played with him in Utah. Raja Bell: There were a lot on the court. We traded a lot of elbows and a lot of smack-talking and whatnot, but some of my favorite memories are when I go back and we were skewing through the media at that time.

Subscribe to azcentral. Moving to the most important role player, Murdock and Bell both chose Ayton. Bell was on the Suns that reached the Western Conference finals where they lost to Dallas, the Suns that made it to the conference semifinals before losing to San Antonio and the Suns the Spurs eliminated in the first round. Phoenix didn't make the playoffs that season, but returned to the conference finals the next season before losing to Kobe Bryant and the eventual back-to-back NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

With all that being said, Bell unleashed on why the Suns, who have the league's second-best record behind Utah , are fake contenders this year. Phoenix is also Top 10 in those categories, they are just not as high as the Jazz.

But, the argument I would make is that the Jazz have gone through this before as a unit, to your point. They went through this last year and had heartbreak.