The Australian tennis player, Nick Kyrgios, recently paid tribute to Kobe Bryant and American rapper Nipsey Hussle while interviewing Carlos Alcaraz at the 2024 US Open. This year, he will be a guest commentator at the tournament.
Kyrgios is on his third ESPN on-air assignment of 2024, the first two being the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Kyrgios’ recent conversation with Alcaraz after the latter’s match against Li Tu has turned heads, as the Australian donned a special hoodie, paying tribute to the legendary basketball player Kobe Bryant, who passed away in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, and rapper Nipsey Hussle, who died after getting shot outside his store on March 31, 2019.
Nick Kyrgios donned a black hoodie with the faces of both personalities printed on it. Crackedracquets shared a post on Instagram that highlighted the tribute and said:
“Nick Kyrgios interviewing Alcaraz in the Kobe/Nipsey Hussle sweatshirt is a next level move.”
Kyrgios re-shared the post on his Instagram story and said:
“Rest in Peace🙏❤️”
Nick Kyrgios’ Instagram story (@k1ngkyrg1os)
Nick Kyrgios’ Instagram story (@k1ngkyrg1os)
A few days ago, Kyrgios and Naomi Osaka paid tribute to Bryant together during the 2024 US Open’s ‘Mixed Madness’ event by wearing the iconic No. 8 LA Lakers jerseys. They competed against Taylor Fritz and Amanda Anisimova and lost with a score of 6-2.
Nick Kyrgios and Naomi Osaka opened up about the impact of Kobe Bryant’s death
Nick Kyrgios and Naomi Osaka had also opened up about how the passing away of Bryant affected both players in an episode of the podcast “Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios”. The Australian revealed that he stopped listening to music while walking out since the day the basketball player passed away.
“Usually at that point of my career, I was walking out with headphones, and that day, I had my headphones on but I didn’t play any music,” Nick Kyrgios said. “I was walking through the tunnel with Rafa behind me, I walked out and I had the Kobe jersey on and it was all bluff, my headphones were a bluff, I listened to the crowd going nuts.”
“That’s one thing that I remember about that day is that I never listened to music again before I walked out because I loved how much Kobe, obviously, had left behind but the crowd was so loud when I walked out and I always wanted to remember hearing how much athletes like us… we are appreciated when we walk out in the stadium.”
Osaka, who was closer to Bryant as the late legend mentored her in her initial days remembered receiving a pep talk from the NBA player.
“I remember when I first met him when we sat and had three hours of conversation,” Naomi Osaka said. “One of the things I always remember him telling me is that people around you are noise, like if there’s news in the media or whatever, like you’re the lion and all of that is flies buzzing around the lion’s eyes and you only have to focus on your prey.”
Kyrgios also has a tattoo dedicated to the memory of the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant on his forearm.