The tragic passing of basketball legend Kobe Bryant has a lot of people looking back on this amazing life, and various videos are popping up all over the place on the internet. One such video, in particular, showed that Bryant was actually a highly patriotic man.

During an interview for the 2008 Olympics, Chris Collinsworth asked Bryant to talk about the first time he ever saw his team USA jersey. Bryant told him that he just stared at it for a while because this was a massive height for any professional basketball player.

“Where does the patriotism come from inside of you?” asked Collinsworth.

“Our country — we believe — is the greatest country in the world. It’s given us so many great opportunities,” said Bryant. “It’s just a sense of pride that you have.”

“Makes you say “you know what? Our country’s the best,”” added Kobe.

Collinsworth asked Bryant if this kind of patriotism is a “cool thing to say in this day and age,” that you “love your country and you’re fighting for the red, white, and blue.”

“Seems like sort of a day gone by,” said Collinsworth.

Kobe simply shook his head.

“No, it’s a cool thing for me to say,” said Kobe. “I feel great about it. I’m not ashamed to say it.”

Watch for yourself below.

A moment from NBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympics that I will always remember. Kobe Bryant telling Cris Collinsworth about the first time he received his USA uniform. pic.twitter.com/0gNctphYcI

— Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) January 26, 2020

We currently live in a time where sports stars outwardly show protest against America by kneeling during its anthems and spitting on its values, but Bryant was not in line with them. As you can see, he recognizes the great opportunities and gifts America afforded him and seemed grateful for these things.

We lost a great role model.