During Monday night’s edition “The Jump” on ESPN, Tracy McGrady recalled one the chilling things that Kobe Bryant had told him years ago. McGrady, who made the leap from high school to the NBA just one year after Kobe did, explained that Bryant always used to say that he wanted to die young and be immortalized.

“He used to say all the time, ‘I want to die young,’” McGrady said Bryant. “He used to say ‘I want to die young. I want to be immortalized. I want to have my career be better than ’s, and I want to die young.’ 

“I just thought he was so crazy for saying that.”

When asked by ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, McGrady clarified that Kobe’s comments came during his younger days, well before he was a father four daughters. Says McGrady, “Clearly that statement was way before kid. I’m sure that when he had kids, he didn’t have the mindset.”

Check out the full clip in the video embedded below.

In addition to all his on-court achievements, Bryant also experienced a tremendous amount success in his post-NBA life, including an Oscar for his short animated film, “Dear Basketball.” Most all, Kobe’s closest friends remember him as a loving father and husband who .