Monday Edition
OCTOBER 23, 2023
Emerald Media
“IDENTITY LOSS” Opinion: College athletic programs don’t prepare student-athletes for a future where they don’t go pro
NEWS: UO’s Ballmer Institute introduces new training programs PG 3 • OPINION: Nag: The Urgent Care is not enough PG 7• SPORTS: A legacy like no other in Eugene PG 10 M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 2 3
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NEWS
UO’S BALLMER INSTITUTE INTRODUCES NEW TRAINING PROGRAMS Daily Emerald VOL. 125, ISSUE NO. 12
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Executive Director Katie McLaughlin discussed the fall 2024 opening of the Ballmer Institute and opportunities for undergraduate mental health specialists BY JASMINE SABOORIAN • DESIGNED BY LIZ BLODGETT
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The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health of the Northeast Portland campus of UO will be opening its doors in the fall of 2024.
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ON THE COVER
Jaleel Kindell is the UO Coordinator of StudentAthlete Development for the University of Oregon athletic department. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
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The Ballmer Institute is a mental health support program primarily for children and adolescents. Undergraduate students, who have undergone many different intervention training methods, teach these students. According to Katie The Univeristy of Oregon Northeast Portland campus will open its doors of the Ballmer McLaughlin, the executive Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health in the fall of 2024. The institute is a mental health director of the Ballmer support program primarily for children and adolescents, taught by undergraduate students. Institute, the vision of the institute (Tristin Hoffman/Emerald) is to give access to high-quality based interventions to promote well-being mental health support as a fundamental right, to and prevent youth mental health problems expand the behavioral health workforce and to from developing or worsening over time, meet the growing need for mental health aid for according to McLaughlin. children specifically. “This specialized training gives the The Ballmer Institute has created new opportunity to work in the field, and opportunities for mental health specialists. local schools learn how to deliver these These opportunities are specifically designed for interventions as part of their undergraduate undergraduate students beginning in their third training,” McLaughlin said. “Our hope is year at the University of Oregon. that this novel approach to growing the “Our training program is going to help workforce will help to increase access as to expand the behavioral health workforce well as equity to high-quality behavioral by providing undergraduate students at the health supports in Oregon.” University of Oregon and our other partnered The Ballmer Institute is mostly funded by schools with types of training that have a $425 million donation by Steve and Connie historically been available only in graduate Ballmer, and also receives support from the state degree programs,” McLaughlin said. “Meaning of Oregon, its partnerships with Portland public that they’ll be ready to enter the workforce schools and donors. sooner right when they graduate.” “The funding for the faculty that we need According to McLaughlin, the Ballmer to hire the staff who are helping to build the Institute’s program prioritizes the needs of institute, scholarships for students and even youth who have been historically or persistently the physical location of the Palmer Institute in underserved by the behavioral health system. the new campus in Northeast Portland were all “Our training program is being shaped by made possible by the gift,” McLaughlin said. the input of parents, educators, children and According to McLaughlin, these students, community stakeholders,” McLaughlin said. either at UO, Lane Community College, Portland “This is to ensure that our training model is Community College or Mount Hood Community aligned with the needs of the youth in the College, are set up with transfer pathways to communities that our students will be serving.” make it easy for them to complete their first The Ballmer Institute differs from other mental two years and then transfer into the Ballmer health organizations by training mental health Institute’s program. specialists to identify early behavioral health “When students arrive next fall, we’ve got concerns through interventions in an effort to a great plan in place for what they’re going to prevent further mental health problems. be doing in the school, and how they’re going Portland public schools will be in partnership to be able to deliver those services to kids,” with the Ballmer Institute. The undergraduate McLaughlin said. students’ training includes delivering evidence-
(Johnny Media/Emerald)
The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation declared an impasse on its ongoing bargaining talks with UO on Oct. 19.
(Kai Kanzer/Emerald)
Fires in the McKenzie Valley and around Eugene are being contained, with the Bedrock Fire finally ending Oct. 1.
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COVER
COSSETTE: UO ATHLETES ARE STUDENTS TOO Opinion: Student-athletes deserve a more well-rounded college experience that prepares them for life after sports BY SOPHIA COSSETTE • DESIGNED BY RYAN EHRHART By the time they graduate, many ambitious college athletes have been defined by sports for up to half their lives. That leaves the vast majority — student-athletes who don’t go pro — to grapple with the unexpected crisis of early retirement from the very thing that gave them identity and security.
“Once you left the football building, you were on your own. My track coaches in college, they only cared about if I was running fast. They did not care how I was doing personally. Mental health, careerwise, I was on my own.” Today, many universities have worked to improve academic resources for their athletes, providing tutoring services, internship and career Competitive young athletes have one goal advising and support centers such as UO’s John E. of making it big and playing college athletics. Jaqua Center for Student Athletes. Throughout their youth, they have spent Brison Cobbins, a current running back in thousands of hours training. They put most other the UO football program, feels academically aspects of their lives on the back burner in pursuit supported by UO but still acknowledges the of collegiate athlete status. possible difficulties of the transition he and his But, upon arrival to college, these athletes teammates may face if they don’t inevitably face play at the next level. a crushing new “You can get used to being on reality. Less than a daily schedule. Being told what 2% of NCAA to do and when to do certain college athletes things, and then after college if go on to play you’re not playing, you’re just professionally. not on that schedule anymore,” This leaves us Cobbins said. “So then, it’s kind questioning of like you have to tell your own the paths the self to do those things. You have remaining 98% to want to do it and I mean, must take as it kind of goes down to that they learn to individual at that point.” exist outside Cobbins explained that, while their previous he hopes to play professionally, “athlete” identity. JALEEL KINDELL UO Coordinator of Studenthe also has other dreams of “Identity Athlete Development working at Nike. While he loss is what I currently feels optimistic call it,” Jaleel about his future, he sees how a Kindell, a former change in routine may impede D1 multisport immediate success for athletes athlete and the when they leave their sport. University of Oregon’s current coordinator of “It could be an issue because you get used to like student-athlete development, said. “It’s the most going, going, going every day with whatever sport devastating thing for an athlete and it’s inevitable.” it is that you play and the different stuff it requires,” Kindell works with all the 493 student-athletes at Cobbins said. “But when you get into the afterlife of Oregon out of the university’s total undergraduate the sport, I see how it could be hard. That feeling of enrollment of 19,568 students. Kindell leads a being used to, you know, doing stuff all the time and mentorship program and acts as a career coach now it’s kind of like I have nothing to do.” who meets with athletes to present internships and For student-athletes, the demanding routine career opportunities outside their sport. gives them mental stability throughout college, “In sports, when I was around, there was no one from mandatory workouts to the belonging they to develop us off the field. My coaches literally feel just from being a part of a team culture and only talked about football. That’s it,” Kindell said.
“IDENTITY LOSS IS WHAT I CALL IT. IT’S THE MOST DEVASTATING THING FOR AN ATHLETE AND IT’S INEVITABLE.”
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having coaches. So, despite the newer academic and career resources universities are providing, Kindell still believes collegiate athletes will continue to face difficulties similar to his as they graduate from their sport. Specifically, the mental instability that comes with moving on from a college career. While he always aims to check on his students’ mental wellbeing, Kindell fears that the lack of attention on this issue leaves many in the dark. While athletic accolades are the ultimate goal for many of these students, you cannot discount the benefits of camaraderie. College athletes’ love for their sport is deeply intertwined with the people surrounding them. Kindell explains that when there is no longer the accountability from someone telling you to work out, and the built-in friendships have vanished, the former athletes often struggle. Sean Brown, a former college football player, was a starter at tight end for the University of Colorado, Boulder’s 1990 National Championship team. From a young age, Brown was on what seemed to be a direct path toward playing professionally. He dominated every sport he played, and his family and coaches also believed he was destined for the pros. However, with long odds for even the most elite college athletes, Brown ultimately was not drafted by the NFL. Now, 30 years removed from his college career, Brown reflects on the difficulties of his life after reaching the pinnacle of college athletics success. “I was definitely thinking in the now and the reason why I was thinking in the now so much was because I was always a good player and pretty much had been here since I was a kid,” Brown said. “So really, there was nobody who could have told me that I wasn’t gonna be playing professionally in either baseball or football.” Brown ultimately still graduated from CU Boulder with a degree in communications. He feels that, despite the rigor of his athletic schedule, there was no excuse for him not getting his degree because of the academic resources his school’s athletic department provided him with. However, Brown struggled the most with the mental aspect of the shock that he would not go on to play professionally. The true hardships came after his graduation.
COVER Brison Cobbins (25) and Kilohana Haasenritter (29) hype up the crowd. The University of Oregon Ducks football team defeated the Portland State University Vikings in a home match at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore., on Sept. 2, 2023. (Eric Becker/Emerald)
“Well, [I] actually was kind of in shock. I was in shock because I wasn’t playing anymore, and to be honest with you, I kind of went through depression for about maybe a good two years or so,” Brown said. While Brown had set himself up with his degree, nothing had prepared him for the mental fallout from losing his sport. When Brown was experiencing depression, mental health was also not a commonly discussed subject, so the isolation and confusion about his emotions were suffocating at the time. “You know, I definitely worked, but I wasn’t doing a career job at that time. I was just working odd jobs here and there, and it took me a while to actually get things together and find myself again,” Brown said. “But for those first two years, it was pretty rough. I couldn’t watch football and I was mad. I was mad at the game.” No coaches or athletic advisors had warned Brown about the comedown of a college athletic career. But then again, as Brown said, “coaches are trying to stay on your good side and tell you what you want to hear. Not what you need to hear.” Similar to Kindell’s sentiments, Brown blames a bulk of the mental fallout on the absence of structure and accountability in his life when sports were over. From the second he stepped foot on campus, Brown was told when to work out, what classes to take and even what to eat by the athletic staff. “Once I graduated, I suddenly didn’t know how to do so many things on my own. Nothing had prepared me for how to physically and mentally take care of myself once football was gone,” Brown said. “I was so depressed, and I was gaining weight because I didn’t even know how to exercise without the motivation of my coaches.” The root of many problems these former athletes face when they leave behind their sport is the lack of preparation for the real world given to them by their athletic department and collegiate institutions. This is an ironic problem for institutions explicitly dedicated to preparing students for life. While many see the plush benefits given to student athletes, from the ultramodern facilities to scholarships, they ignore the disservice many institutions do to them. These benefits give them temporary elevation and comfort. However, they aren’t afforded the same time for career and academic readiness, or independent development, that the majority of the student body is given. The rigorous schedule of college athletics does provide structure, but it also limits other forms of growth like academic exploration and pursuit of interests outside of sports. College coaches and families are highly invested in their student’s athletic success, but few garner the same enthusiasm for outside pursuits. While everybody may think they are going pro, many student-athletes are in desperate need of a reality check. However, the problem lies in the fact that it’s not in the best interest of the institution of collegiate athletics to prepare the student-athletes for the harsher realities of post-grad, and in turn, they will continue to benefit off the dreams of these students with little regard for the individual. M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 2 3
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Every Saturday X Rain or Shine X 10am-4pm X 8th & Oak eugenesaturdaymarket.org 541-686-8885
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OPINION
NAG: THE URGENT CARE IS NOT ENOUGH Lucy Vinis, the mayor of Eugene, speaks on why the hospital has to stay open. A rally was held outside the University District Hospital on Monday, Sept., 11, 2023. The rally supported a press conference regarding PeaceHealth’s recent decision to begin shutting down the hospital. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
Rally attendees clap and shout in agreement. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
Opinion: The proposed plan of opening an urgent care in the University District is not enough to serve the needs of our community – and may lead to catastrophic consequences BY AISHIKI NAG • DESIGNED BY RYAN EHRHART PeaceHealth had initially made the decision to close down its University District hospital in late August. It cited seismic code violations and the empty beds within the hospital due to bleeding costs. Due to massive community pushback, the Eugene City Council pressured Gov. Tina Kotek to sign an executive order requesting the hospital to stay open for nine more months. PeaceHealth has denied that request and will continue to close in December. Although PeaceHealth has decided to open an urgent care in the University District to replace the hospital, community members, nurses and emergency workers are worried that it won’t match the community’s needs. With the current plan of the hospital closing this December, it is also notable that the proposed urgent care construction hasn’t begun. The Oregon Nurses Association organized a “die-in” protest to demonstrate to PeaceHealth the number of lives that would be lost from this decision. 150 community members had joined the ONA nurses in solidarity, hoping to keep PeaceHealth open. During this protest, many nurses and other community organizations had a chance to talk to community members directly about the number of lives lost from this decision. Chris Rompala, RN, was one of the nurses who had talked about the direct impact this would have on Eugene’s worsening mental health crisis. He explained how there were many problems with replacing different complex wings of a hospital with generalized urgent care, one of them
being the lack of secure rooms for mental health emergencies. The University District hospital was one of the only facilities within the greater Eugene metropolitan area that had secure rooms, and with two of the most at-risk communities located in the surrounding area – houseless people and university students – closing this facility would directly impact these communities. “I was talking to a chaplain about the detriments of closing the ED [emergency department] here actually, and their response was that they were going to have to start looking at trees because the death rate is going to go through the roof because people aren’t going to be able to get the services they need,” Rompala said. When I asked about the significance of the trees, he mentioned hangings Eugene is the second largest city in Oregon and, without a centralized hospital system, essential services will be lost. Urgent care also tends to be more generalized and oftentimes generalized care facilities don’t have all the equipment that emergency rooms have. Rompala also said people may have to go to three different urgent cares just to find access to an x-ray, which all emergency rooms require. Chelsea Hanno-Torres, BSN and RN, said closing different essential services, such as hospice care, will not be reinstated within the area. Often the nearest places for these specialized fields are in Portland, which averages a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Eugene. “It’s a community with a need and the needs are not being met,” Hanno-Torres said. Another nurse, Allison Hyder, BSN and RN, said
that without traffic there would be a 15-minute drive from the university district to the nearest emergency room. Each minute can exacerbate damage for critical health problems such as strokes and heart conditions. A minute can determine whether or not someone will lose the ability to talk again. “Here to Springfield is life and death,” Hyder said. Eugene also has one of the highest homeless members per capita in the nation, and many of those people can’t afford to get to urgent care that isn’t accessible within the community. Unanimously, nurses and trained medical professionals believe that closing this hospital would lead to lives being lost in the Eugene community and that PeaceHealth is choosing profit over patient-centered care. Hyder says that this decision was “all about the money, not about the community,” and will lead to a devastating impact. One of the closing speakers of the protest, Sen. James Manning, recalled a billboard that PeaceHealth had put up that said “we see you,” to which Sen. Manning retorted, “PeaceHealth, do you see us?” Sen. Manning urged his colleagues in Salem to stand with him to urge PeaceHealth to continue operations in the University District. From the nurses to the community members, PeaceHealth does not see the needs of this community if they choose to close the hospital down in December. We will lose lives to the lack of essential care provided and this community will be hurt.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS This week’s editor’s picks...
THURSDAY, OCT. 26 Bollywood Horror Costume Dance Party
Don your best costume and dance the night away! In an effort to support WOW Hall Community Center for the Performing Arts’ “Raise the Roof” campaign, Anjali and The Incredible Kid will be hosting a Halloween costume dance party at 8 p.m. All ages are welcome to join this event for $10 when tickets are bought in advance or $15 when tickets are bought the night of. The event will feature “Only the wickedest beats from the subcontinent: cower at the thundering dhols, shiver at the piercing wails of Bollywood divas.” The “Raise the Roof” campaign hopes to raise $50,000 to replace the WOW Hall’s damaged roof and protect its historic floating dance floor.
FRIDAY, OCT. 27 Boo Barn Is it “boo” or “moo”?
Are you ready to be scared? The Petersen Barn Community Center is hosting a “Boo Barn” event, featuring a haunted barn and some spooky, interactive ambiance. As the event is for all ages, the Boo Barn offers two time slots: a “less scary” option and a “more scary” option. The “less scary” time slot is reserved for a “younger audience as the lights will be on, the animatronics will be turned off and our actors will not have masks on” from 5 to 5:50 p.m. The “more scary” time slot will last from 6 to 7:20 p.m. Be sure to register everybody in your party online now to reserve your time slot!
SATURDAY, OCT. 28 “Thriller” Global Performance Let’s “Thrill the World” together!
Every year, thousands of people across the globe don their zombie costumes, countdown and perform “Thriller” at the same time on the Saturday before Halloween. Prior to COVID, Eugene contributed nearly 300 of those zombies. Thrill the World, an international group that has “grown beyond a mere group of well-rehearsed, zombie-costumed volunteer dancers” will be hosting the event in an effort to fundraise for ShelterCare, a housing and behavioral health service in Lane County. The flashmob begins at 3 p.m., so arrive at the Amazon Community Center by 2 p.m. to participate. More information can be found on Thrill the World Eugene’s Facebook page. PA G E 8
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(Eric Becker/Emerald)
A&C
ZINE CULTURE ON CAMPUS UO students are utilizing zines and DIY publications to engage with their communities, share art and counter mainstream culture
BY HARPER MAHOOD • DESIGNED BY LIZ BLODGETT
As digital media becomes increasingly prolific, students are rebelling against the mainstream and taking matters into their own hands through self-published work. On the UO campus, fliers for DIY publications and zines dangle from bulletin boards. The school’s library boasts an archive of zines in the “Special Collections” section and professors have integrated zine making and analysis into their curriculums. So, what is a zine? Short for magazines, zines first came into popularity in the 20th century as a form of counterculture. A zine is typically cheap to make, photocopied, stapled together and characterized by a smattering of mixed media and unconventional page design. Often free or sold at a low price, zines are meant to be accessible. Virtually anyone can make a zine. Students at UO produce zines highlighting art, political discourse, identity and self-expression. Celeste Griffiths, a women’s, gender and sexuality studies student, launched her own zine last spring. Titled “Raunchy Zine,” Griffiths describes it as a collective project for LGBTQIA2S+ students at UO. “It’s basically just a collaborative zine for everyone to share their thoughts and experiences about their sexuality, pleasure, desire and the erotic,” Griffiths said. “I feel like those are things that students, but also queer students, don’t talk about all the time.” Griffiths hopes Raunchy Zine can help to destigmatize and reject cultural taboos, as well as engage and uplift queer students. “I think they’re really cool for the queer community kind of functioning as a communal knowledge source,” Griffiths said. “Especially with sex education. If you can’t find yourself represented in that, I would hope that you could with zines or that type of thing.” Zines have historically played an important role in representing counterculture and marginalized communities. During the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, zines served as informational spaces where people were safe to share their stories and offer advice. “People seem to be a lot more honest and comfortable sharing about stuff like that in that context or format,” Griffiths said. Evan Susswood is another UO student involved in DIY publication. Susswood studies journalism and recently self-released a photo book titled “Seen and Not Heard.” “It’s nice for young, up and coming artists who work in visual mediums to feel like they have an outlet to show their work outside of someone else’s agenda,” Susswood said of why he chose to self-publish. “For there to be this lo-fi, DIY and low budget way for people to get their art and vision out to their peers is such an important thing.” Susswood’s advice to anyone looking to start their own zine or selfpublished work is to first break down the fear of showing it to other people, or to “be afraid to show your work and show it anyways.” In the art department, zines are a way for students to release their work without the pressure of submitting to an established publication. “It’s really amazing to say that I had my work printed,” Mia Owen, cocreative director for the College of Design magazine “Kitchen Sink,” said. “It just kind of legitimizes all of the work that we do as designers.” Owen added that publishing your work, even on a small scale, is a great portfolio builder for students looking to highlight their creativity. “Zines aren’t meant to be perfect,” Miles “Momo” Kelley, the second half of “Kitchen Sink”’s creative director role, said. “They’re meant to be glimpses of a process. They are a moment in time and no moment in time will encompass the breadth of everything that you want to say or accomplish. There’s an ephemeral quality that’s beautiful about that.” Looking to learn more about zines? Check out the archive in the Paulson Reading Room at the Knight Library or visit Lawrence Hall to pick up a copy
of student publications such as “Kitchen Sink,” “Oregon Voice” and “Avenue.” Better yet, grab some printer paper and experiment with making your own. [Editor’s Note: Celeste Griffiths worked on the Daily Emerald’s Arts and Culture desk last year until fall 2022. Griffiths had no role in the writing or editing of this story.]
A four-sided bulletin board stands at the corner of University Street and E 13th Ave. Students have covered the board with posters and zines. (Lulu Devoulin/Emerald) M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 2 3
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SPORTS
A LEGACY LIKE NO OTHER IN EUGENE
An Oregon athlete generously awards a young girl for her hard work throughout the clinic with a basketball, igniting her passion for the game. (Sebastian Flores/Emerald)
When the campers first arrived, they sat within the trees that wrap around the basketball court, waiting for the day to start. Kelly Graves, the head coach of the women’s team, walked onto the court with players and staff from both basketball teams to greet the kids. Behind him, players wore different Kobe colorways, a materialistic staple to the programs. “We’re grateful to be here with you today and we hope you learn a lot,” Graves said to the 150 kids participating in Oregon’s Mamba and Mambacita camp. “We hope you’re thinking of that great example of Kobe working hard, who he passed on to Gigi.” On Oct. 8, Oregon basketball and the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, a non-profit founded on the visions of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, hosted a free skills camp with kids from Kidsports and the Hope Project. They spent two hours working on various drills with student-athletes and coaches while highlighting the legacies and impact they had on basketball. In early September, Vanessa Bryant, the wife and mother of Kobe and Gigi, announced that Oregon is one of the six colleges that will partner with the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation to further the legacies of the Bryants. Kobe’s connection to the University of Oregon started with Sabrina Ionescu. He surprised her during her game against USC in Los Angeles, where he watched the game with Gigi. “They sat courtside, where my jaw sat dropped,” Ionescu told the Los Angeles Times. “They watched the entire game and that was the first time I met Kobe.” She started to work out with both Kobe and Gigi in the offseason and that eventually turned PA G E 1 0
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Oregon’s basketball programs hosted a Mamba and Mambacita youth camp in honor of Kobe and Gigi Bryant BY NINA-GRACE MONTES • DESIGNED BY RYAN EHRHART
A leader takes a moment to teach a young boy the iconic ‘O’ hand gesture of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore., on Sunday, Oct. 8. (Sebastian Flores/Emerald)
into him watching Oregon’s games and keeping in communication with Ionescu. “We kept in touch, always texting, calls, game visits. I’d drop a triple-double and have a text from
There’s a poster that says ‘You have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light’ and that’s something we carry with us everyday.” KENNEDI WILLIAMS senior guard for the women’s team
him, ‘another triple-double, I see you’ with a flex emoji,” Ionescu said in the Times. “Another game, another text. ‘Yo, Beast Mode,’ or ‘Easy money.’” In Ionescu’s eulogy at Kobe and Gigi’s celebration of life, she talked about how Gigi impacted her style of play and vice versa. She talked about Kobe’s mentality towards life and basketball, and how that shaped her experience at Oregon as a female athlete while giving her and her teammates the blueprint to success; the same one he gave to Gigi. “If I represented the present of the women’s game, Gigi was the future and Kobe knew it” Ionescu said in her eulogy.
A group of awe-struck kids can’t believe their eyes as their leaders sink one three-pointer after another, filling them with pure joy and inspiration in Eugene, Ore., on Sunday, Oct. 8. (Sebastian Flores/Emerald)
After Ionescu graduated, both of the men’s and women’s programs made sure that their presence was still felt in the locker room. “Everyone will say his mindset, his approach and everything in life is built into our locker room,” Kennedi Williams, a senior guard for the women’s team, said. “Upstairs [the concourse], there’s a poster that says ‘You have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light’ and that’s something we carry with us everyday.” Outside his approach to basketball and life, Kobe was an avid supporter of youth sports. With the creation of Granity Studios, a media company that created fictional sport stories targeted at middle school and young adults, Mamba Sports Academy, a youth training facility, and other various youth sports initiatives that he was either the founder of or an ambassador for, he made sure that kids were always in the conversation when it came to development. “The best part was seeing the smiles and all of their faces,” Jadrian “Bam” Tracey, a redshirt junior guard for the men’s team, said. “Growing up when I was in their shoes, I looked up to them like they were celebrities and role models so being on the other side of it, face-to-face was inspiring.” As the campers and the coaches circled huddled around each other at the ‘O’ in the middle of the court with their hands in the middle, they screamed “Mamba.” A full circle moment as the women’s team did a similar thing on the day of his passing with Oregon State ahead of its in-state rivalry game. It’s a reminder of the mark that Kobe left, especially in Eugene. His impact and legacy continues for Oregon basketball athletes and young players across town, as a reminder that basketball is so much bigger than a game.
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