Kobe In Manila

Another celebrity or personality also born on August is Kobe Bryant, who is currently making his presence felt to thousands of Filipino basketball fans with his visit here in Manila as part of The Kobe Supernatural Asia Tour.

I was supposed to fall in line at the Nike Store at The Fort last Saturday morning to get tickets for myself and Miguel to attend his meeting with the meeting kids from the Eliseo Belen Charity at the Nike Park.

According to a report by Pam Pastor of the Phil. Daily Inquirer, people started to fall in line as early as 6am that Saturday morning to get tickets and within 20 minutes, over 2,000 tickets had been claimed by fans.


Melissa Crucillo, Nike Philippines country marketing manager says, “Kobe Bryant serves as a basketball icon, inspiration and role-model to a lot of our young Filipino athletes and Nike Philippines is proud to bring him closer to his fans,”

But even if I did get tickets for Wednesday's event, my thesis class tied me up all day. Guess, I will just try to watch a Lakers basketball game at the Staples Stadium when Chief and I visit the States in December.

Kobe was born on August 23, 1978. He is a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant is the only son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.

In 1996, he was drafted straight out from high school. The first one ever. And together with Shaq, Derick Fisher, Robert Horry, Rick Fox and the rest of the Lakers, they won three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002.

Photos of Kobe in Manila by Rolex dela Pena and Jay Directo from the LA Times website.