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After a four-year career at Dayton, where he led the nation in three-pointers last season, Washington Heights native Kobe Bray is heading south to his dream school, the University of Kentucky.
It all started on those courts on Nagle Avenue. In the heart of Washington Heights, a neighborhood north of Harlem, hidden behind the hallowed main court of Dyckman Park, lies a smaller half court enclosed by a unique black fence. It was there that a young Kobe Brea instilled his love for the game. Just a few blocks from his parent’s apartment, Kobe would go to the court and meet up with his friends and other local kids to put together their teams and go around the area.
day.
By the time he was 6, he was hitting shots, grabbing the ball and walking down the street with his dad, Stefan, to meet his pop buddies. They traveled from park to park touching to their heart’s content. “They still play to this day. I don’t know how, but they do,” Kobe says. And there was Kobe, witnessing that love for the game in real time.
“Being around it, all you can do is really watch and enjoy the ride,” he says. “Every time they ran down one side, I was in the other half trying to kick, trying to get my ball and be quick before they went back down.”
A few years later, he was waking up at 5 a.m. to train on those same courts. Everyone fell asleep while he was working. That was the best motivation.
Diekman set the standard for who Kobe Brea wants to be. In 2024, it will be the best shooting guard in college basketball and the latest addition for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats.
Fifteen years after first appearing in the specific courts, Kobe is back at Dyckman. It’s hot in the middle of August and the sun is relentless. Never mind that Koby’s wearing an Eric Emanuel baby blue tracksuit with matching ‘Industrial Blue’ Air Jordan 4s on his feet. His father, mother and younger brother Tyler, having watched him learn to play and eventually compete in summer Dyckman tournaments, now stand by as we take pictures. It’s a family affair. For Brace and Washington Heights, that’s always been the case.
“Growing up in Washington Heights is like having a really big family around you,” Brea explains. “You just surround yourself with a whole group of people who are like you, who come from the same culture, the same background. We have a lot of Dominicans, a lot of Latino people, and when you walk down the street, you see someone who looks like you, looks like you, talks like you. It just feels like family.”
The endless hours spent around his community, on and off the court, laid the foundation for his devotion to those who poured into him. As she stands at center court with Tyler dribbling around her legs, she sees her childhood reflected back at her. It’s an eerily familiar feeling he experienced just a few weeks before our shoot when he first stepped inside the Joe Craft Center in Lexington. For years, Kobe envisioned himself in the Big Blue. Now it is a reality.
“You see all the blood, sweat and tears that went into that gym I just walked into,” he says of that visit.
When Kobe wasn’t scouting for Diekman, he was watching Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker and the Wildcats in the mid-2010s. He wanted to shoot up under the weight of the eight banners hanging above. That degree of prestige was attractive. So he aimed for it.
Kobe remembers the first time his high school coach at Monsignor Scanlan brought him to the Bronx campus. After they talked a little about the team and the school, the coach asked Kobe where he wanted to play at the next level.
“I remember being a kid with big dreams and I told him, I want to go to the University of KentuckyKobe says. “And he looked at my father and said, You got wild. I don’t know if I can get you to Kentucky, but I’ll make sure to get you somewhere. It just goes to show that when you have people around who believe in you, want to push you to your best, you also have the confidence in yourself that this is what I want to be and I’m going to do it. make it That sets it up for you.”
Heading into the 2024-25 season, Kobe Bray is not only suiting up at Kentucky, but he is expected to help the program regain national prominence.
But the Washington Heights native didn’t just land the blue blood of his dreams. He made his way to the opportunity. Coming off of Scanlan as a second-team All-New York selection, Kobe has set his sights on a career with the Dayton Flyers. He took home the A-10 Sixth Man of the Year in his redshirt freshman season, but suffered a pair of stress fractures in each leg the following year, preventing him from making the next jump he was ready for.
Instead, he spent the summer shooting in his wheelchair. It took the entire offseason and part of the preseason to fully recover. With just two weeks of practice and conditioning, Kobe began lighting nearly every net in the nation on fire, leading the Flyers into the second round of March Madness.
Kobe led the nation in three-pointers on 201 attempts, making 49.8 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Sorry, not sure if you caught that. Kobe Bray hit half of his shots from downtown. Throw in 11.1 points and nearly 4 boards a game and the accolades started to flow. A second A-10’s Sixth Man of the Year award was duly awarded, and just like that, Kobe was instantly on the radar of every major powerhouse in the country. At the end of the day, Kentucky always had the edge.
“This year I just wanted to take a chance and take a step back so I could take a few steps forward. I went back to college expecting that all I was going to do this summer was work,” says Brea. “Work as hard as I could, work the hardest I ever have, just to make sure I have a great year in a great new place.”
The wait, the work, it was all worth it. He made his mark at Dyckman. He ended up in Dayton and entered the college basketball record books. Now he’s playing in the same gym that Booker did nearly a decade ago as visions of the 2025 NBA draft move closer and closer to reality. But in the here and now, Kobe Brea is letting the lessons of those years guide him as he takes it day by day. He’s stronger, healthier and deadlier than ever with the ball in hand. And as he turns his head toward his collegiate finale, there’s a goal Kobe has longed for since he went to Dykeman with his dad.
“It is expected to just hang the ninth banner. Me, I’m a real competitor and I take pride in beating myself up. I definitely want to leave my mark wherever I go. Being in Kentucky, the bar is so high and everyone expects success,” Coby says. “I just want to have the opportunity every day to continue to grow and be the best version of myself.”
Portraits of Alexander Zhang and UK Athletics.
