I journeyed through Philadelphia to track Kobe Bryant’s Catholicism | Perspective

All week, I’ve searched Philly for Kobe Bryant’s baptism record, a missing piece in his biography.

When I first learned of his tragic death, alongside his 13-year-old daughter and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles last Sunday, I was, like so many others, very sad. I woke up Monday morning in a my-thoughts-are-making-my-feet-heavy kind of sadness and I gathered with my fellow priests for morning psalms. We sang: “My soul is longing and yearning for the courts of the Lord.”

Reports have emerged about how the Philly-born, Lower Merion-raised Kobe practiced his faith, his Catholic wedding in 2001, then his turning to a priest for support during the 2003 assault accusations, or how he went to church on a Thursday morning after his last game. He was even seen early last Sunday praying in his Newport Beach church before boarding the helicopter.

When, I wondered, was Kobe’s baptism, the tipoff in his faith life?

I’m not a journalist. I’m not even a Philly native. But I am a Catholic priest and a basketball fan. My Mamba mentality told me I might be the only person asking this question, and the answer might be right down the street. So began my tour of Kobe’s religious roots in this place.

Enter Dane Connelly. It helps to have an old college friend living down the street from Lower Merion. We had just sat together in the Wells Fargo Center and watched as LeBron James passed Kobe’s career scoring mark. Once news of Kobe’s tragic death broke, we set out together on a mission to find out if he’d been baptized in Philadelphia.

» READ MORE: Kobe and Brandy's high school prom: An oral history of the Philadelphia dance that became legend

Dane was the Shaq to my Kobe, staying in the paint when I was out on the perimeter.

He sent obscure articles, researched school district boundaries, and wrote to biographers. I went out driving. First to the Cox family parish of West Philadelphia’s St. Ignatius, where Kobe’s mother’s side of the family attended Mass. Then onto the nearby New Bethlehem Baptist Church where Kobe’s dad, Joe Bryant, attended and played hoops next door, also a sacred site. I followed the Bryants’ move south near Kingsessing, then the Cox move up the Main Line (into Muhammad Ali’s former residence), as their large family grew and spread out between Overbrook’s Our Lady of Lourdes and Wynnewood’s Presentation BVM parishes.

Every parish secretary along the way had stories for me — seeing a newlywed Joe jogging in the morning or much later seeing Kobe at ACME with his mom and a basketball always under his arm — but none had Kobe’s baptism record. He was only there for a year before moving to the Main Line. The record gap begins with his 1978 birth at Lankenau Hospital, then launches like a three-point shot some nine years ahead to his First Communion in rural Cireglio, Italy.

Dane and I took a drive on Remington Road where Kobe biked home from high school. It was another place of connection with him, but not the one we still seek: the place of Kobe’s baptism. That church could be as near as West Philadelphia or as far as Italy.

The search will go on, until this informational give-and-go of ours finds the basket — the church — where we’ll say a prayer.

Rest in peace, Kobe, as you play on the courts of the Lord.

Father Timothy Danaher, O.P. is a parish priest at St. Patrick Church in Rittenhouse Square.