Like so many others, I am in shock over the news of Kobe Bryant’s death. It just doesn’t feel right, like he wasn’t supposed to go out like that. It’s difficult to process. Kobe was one of the most famous people in the world. He was one of the first American athletes to become popular in China, so literally billions of people knew who he was. Because he was so famous, it felt like we knew him.

I actually walked by Kobe in a deserted corridor once, at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas in 2008, when the USA Men’s National Team was playing Canada in an exhibition game in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He was talking on a cell phone in the middle of the corridor, dressed in an all-black suit, and we exchanged a look as I passed him on my way to a conference in the convention center. I think he was glad I didn’t try to speak with him. I remember thinking how skinny he was. But that’s it, that’s the totality of my interaction with him as a person. I didn’t know him. We think we know famous people, but we don’t, not really. They’re as much a stranger to us as the next passerby on the street. That’s what makes processing celebrity deaths so difficult.

For me, the lesson to take away here is you really don’t know when you’re going to go. It can happen at any moment. All we can do is live our lives with joy, to love those we are close to, and to pursue our dreams with reckless abandon. If there’s one thing you can say about Kobe, it’s that.

Thank you Kobe, for demonstrating what it is to be a full human. Your passion and vitality transcended cultures and continents. Your legend will live on.