Kobe Bryant, the NBA MVP who had a 20-year career with the Lakers, was killed Sunday when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed and burst into flames in the hills above Calabasas. His daughter Gianna, 13, was also on board and died along with seven others.
Lakers’ Rob Pelinka releases statement on Kobe Bryant and Gianna
Rob Pelinka, the Lakers vice president, basketball operations and general manager, released a statement on Thursday saying that his lost his best friend and his goddaughter on Sunday. They are the first words from Pelinka since the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others.
“On Sunday, I lost my best friend and sweet goddaughter. With that, there has been an amputation of part of my soul.”
Pelinka goes on describing the player, husband, “girl-dad” and best friend Bryant was.
“Kobe was a force of nature, deep, and obsessed with excellence. He was wise, determined, passionate. A visionary beyond measure. A dedicated and loving husband, and a ‘girl-dad’ like no other. When he walked into a room, the energy ignited. He was high voltage, with a motor that had no limits. His mind had an infinite capacity to learn. He was, simply put, the most inspirational athlete of our time. What the world may not know, is that he was also best friend anyone could ever imagine.”
Clippers, who usually cover Lakers logos at Staples Center, to display Kobe Bryant’s jerseys
Intent on creating their own identity, the Clippers usually cover the Lakers’ banners and retired jersey numbers for their home games at Staples Center.
But for the Clippers’ game against Sacramento on Thursday — the first NBA contest to be played in the arena since the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday — the Clippers left Bryant’s retired jerseys uncovered and on display high above the floor.
The rest of the Lakers’ championship banners and retired jerseys were covered by the usual images of Clipper players and a city landscape but Bryant’s 8 and 24 stood out on a stark black background.
A moment of silence is scheduled for just past 7:33 p.m.
The hockey Kings on Wednesday played the first sporting event at Staples Center after Bryant’s death. Players honored him by wearing his jersey to the arena and commemorative decals on their helmets, and the team remembered him in a pregame ceremony.
How Kobe Bryant changed the sneaker world
Michael Jordan was professional basketball’s first signature shoe king, but Kobe Bryant was arguably his heir apparent, as crucial and challenging to the brand he represented — Nike — as he famously was with his Lakers teammates on the court.
Jordan made sneakers cool, but Bryant changed the shoes themselves, creating the market in minimalist, low-silhouette footwear in a league in which everyone was still lacing up their high tops to protect their ankles.
That led to a succession of NBA superstars adopting the same lighter, quicker shoe style, which helped liberate their moves on the hardwood. It happened soon after Bryant left Adidas to sign a four-year, $40-million deal with Nike in 2003, then pushed the company to build a basketball shoe as sleek and safe as those worn in professional soccer.
Metta World Peace shares life lessons he learned from Kobe Bryant
Mariachi band says farewell to Kobe Bryant with ‘Amor Eterno’ tearjerker
As the world continues to mourn the death of Kobe Bryant and eight others, the tributes to the late basketball great keep getting more heart-wrenching.
Amid a massive crowd outside Staples Center this week, a mariachi troupe gathered to honor Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and the other seven lives lost with a poignant rendition of “Amor Eterno,” a goodbye ballad by the late Mexican singer Juan Gabriel.
Gigi and Kobe Bryant befriended a small-town basketball star and her trainer dad
Hailey Van Lith lives basketball in her tiny town — Cashmere, Wash., population 3,152 — and as the nation’s No. 1 guard and No. 2 overall player on the women’s basketball ranking site Prospects Nation, the 18-year-old knows a bit about celebrity and fame.
But last summer, as she waited in a Thailand airport after a Team USA game, she wasn’t prepared for a message from basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
“The text was from one of Kobe’s main guys — I called him ‘T,’ and he just basically said that Kobe knew about me, loved my game and really wanted to get me to L.A. to work with him and talk about basketball,” Hailey said in a phone interview Monday as she drove to practice at Cashmere High School.
Basketball star, Oscar winner and ... rapper? Remembering Kobe Bryant’s music career
Bryant’s solo single, “K.O.B.E.,” which debuted at the 2000 All-Star game, featured supermodel Tyra Banks and referenced his baller reputation in the lyrics.
“What I live for? Basketball, beats and broads,” he raps on the track, his flow not particularly smooth or lyrical. “From Italy to the U.S., yes, it’s raw.”
Writing for The Times in 2015, Dexter Thomas wasn’t exactly impressed by the song.
“It’s embarrassing. That cheap-sounding beat, the uninspired hook, the awkward chorus — this is more off-target than those three airballs he threw in 1997 against the Utah Jazz,” he wrote.
While shooting an accompanying video for the splashy release, directed by BET Award winner Hype Williams, Bryant met his wife, Vanessa. And though their personal relationship would continue to develop for the next 20 years, footage from their professional collaboration never saw the light of day.
Despite Bryant’s rising star power on the court, the song was not well-received, and “Visions,” the album it was slated to launch, was eventually shelved. Bryant officially got the ax from Sony soon enough, never to return to music again — except in a 2011 Taiwanese Sprite commercial and, of course, in other musicians’ lyrics, which often saluted the self-proclaimed Black Mamba and his larger-than-life legacy.
Kawhi Leonard flew with Ara Zobayan often: ‘He was one of the best pilots’
The pilot involved in the helicopter crash Sunday that killed former Lakers star Kobe Bryant and eight others also flew Kawhi Leonard often and was regarded highly by the Clippers superstar.
“Great guy, super nice,” Leonard said Wednesday of Ara Zobayan, a pilot from Huntington Beach who flew for the charter service Island Express. “He was one of the best pilots. That is a guy who you ask for to fly you from city to city. It’s just surreal still.”
Leonard was close with Bryant, saying their relationship began during his second or third season in the NBA. Last summer, Bryant hosted Leonard, Clippers teammate Paul George and a handful of other players at his Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks. One piece of advice Leonard sought from Bryant last summer, after signing with the Clippers as a free agent, was how Bryant used a helicopter often to cut down his commute to and from his home in Newport Beach.
Leonard, last season, purchased a house in Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego. (In December, Leonard also purchased a penthouse near Staples Center.)
“I talked to him about it before our transition to playing in L.A, just seeing how [he] got back and forth from Newport and he said he was doing it for about 17 years or so,” Leonard said. “Yeah, same pilot, everything, the whole situation, this whole program, the setup, how he was traveling back and forth was the same way I was getting here from San Diego.” Asked whether the crash gave him pause to continue to using helicopters, Leonard was unsure.
“The things that you hear, you don’t know what’s real yet,” he said. “I can’t really speak on it. I don’t know. I don’t know yet. It’s a lot of thoughts in my head.”
Zobayan, 50, had a commercial certificate and was a certified flight instructor with 8,200 hours of flight time as of July, said Jennifer Homendy, a National Transportation Safety Board member.
“[Zobayan] will drop me off and say he is about go pick up Kobe. ‘Kobe said hello.’ Or he’ll just be like, ‘I just dropped Kobe off and he said hello.’ Vice versa. So, it’s a crazy interaction. He’s a good dude and I’m sorry for everybody.”
Clippers’ Lou Williams on Kobe Bryant, being a #GirlDad
Kobe Bryant’s influence will be ‘felt forever,’ Lakers coach Frank Vogel says
Lakers coach Frank Vogel talks about Kobe Bryant.
After their practice in El Segundo on Wednesday morning, the Lakers gave their players the option of speaking to reporters about the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. They decided to continue to mourn in private.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel stepped forward to make the first public comments from a member of the organization since a helicopter carrying Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others crashed into a Calabasas hillside Sunday morning, killing all aboard.
Vogel said he told the players they could talk when they’re ready and not a moment before.
As Vogel addressed the media, LeBron James was nearby on the practice court, hoisting up jumpers.
“We want to represent what Kobe was about more than anything,” said Vogel, who acknowledged there were some questions he may not be ready to address at this time.
“He was the most feared man in the league for an entire generation.… His influence will be felt forever.”
The Lakers display retired numbers on two walls above their practice gym. On Wednesday, Bryant’s No. 8 and No. 24 were lit up.
The team was flying home from Philadelphia on Sunday morning when they learned about the crash. Players became emotional as they heard the news and Vogel addressed them once he heard. The team canceled practice on Monday, though a few players trickled into the facility.
The franchise waited until Monday afternoon to release any statement regarding Bryant’s death out of respect for his widow, Vanessa, and his three surviving daughters.
But the Lakers have also needed time to process and grieve the loss of a legend.
“We’ve become a family in a very short time,” Vogel said.
The organization has been reeling since Sunday morning. General manager Rob Pelinka was one of Bryant’s closest friends and Gianna’s godfather.
Lakers executives, including owner Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis, spent time at the team facility on Sunday and Monday. Buss lost her mother and a close friend, former NBA Commissioner David Stern, in the last six weeks. Monday would have been her father’s 87th birthday.
The Lakers were planning to honor Jerry Buss during Tuesday’s game against the Clippers, before Sunday’s crash changed everything, leading the NBA to postpone the game.
On Monday, the team brought in grief counselors, who were made available to employees, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bryant’s history with many of them was long. He joined the organization in 1996, as a 17-year-old ready to take over the basketball world.
No formal plans have been made on how to honor Bryant, but the Lakers created a space Sunday for fans to gather and hold a vigil outside their facility. They provided a large white canvas with a watermarked image of Bryant leaned against the wall for fans to sign, using Sharpies distributed by the Lakers. It was nearly full by Monday afternoon, and enough fans have visited since to fill up two more.
On Wednesday morning, a fourth canvas was unfurled outside the facility, where one fan stood with a fresh bouquet of flowers.
Clippers’ Paul George on Kobe Bryant: ‘He was my Michael Jordan’
Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard says he talked to Kobe immediately after winning NBA title
Shaq will donate Super Bowl party proceeds to Kobe’s foundation, crash victims’ families
After days of deliberation following the death of his “brother” Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal has decided to proceed with “Shaq’s Fun House,” an carnival-style event scheduled for Friday night in Miami as one of the events leading up to Super Bowl LIV.
In a heartfelt social media post Wednesday, O’Neal said he will donate all his proceeds from the event to the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation and to the families of the nine people killed in the helicopter crash Sunday in Calabasas.
“Kobe would want us to push through and celebrate life,” O’Neal wrote. “So let’s do just that.”
Musical performers at the event include Diddy, Diplo, Pitbull and Diesel (the name Shaq uses as an electronic music DJ).
Lakers unfurl fourth Kobe Bryant banner for fans to sign
Late Wednesday morning, as a large media contingent waited outside the Lakers’ El Segundo practice facility for the team’s first meeting with the press since Saturday night’s game in Philadelphia, the franchise unfurled a fourth banner featuring Kobe Bryant for fans to leave their expressions of grief.
Three days after Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, fans were still coming by the facility to pay their respects. Three 10-foot-by-20-foot banners had no more room for new messages.
Inside, while the Lakers prepared to discuss Bryant’s death with reporters, one fan stood outside with a fresh bouquet of flowers.
The Lakers waited until Monday afternoon to release any statement out of respect for Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, and his three surviving daughters. But the franchise, feeling very much like a family this week, also needed time to process and mourn the loss of a legend.
The organization has been reeling since the tragic event. Their general manager, Rob Pelinka, was one of Bryant’s closest friends and Gianna’s godfather.
Lakers executives, including Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis, spent time at the team facility on Sunday and Monday. Buss lost her mother and a close friend, former NBA commissioner David Stern, in the last six weeks. Monday would have been her father Jerry Buss’ 87th birthday. The Lakers were planning to honor Jerry Buss during Tuesday’s game against the Clippers, before Sunday’s crash changed everything, leading the NBA to postpone the game.
On Monday, the team brought in grief counselors to help comfort employees, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bryant’s history with many of them was long. He joined the organization in 1996, as a 17-year-old ready to take over the basketball world.
Formal plans have not been completed on how to honor Bryant. The first large white canvas banner with an image of Bryant leaned was erected at the facility on Sunday. Fans wrote messages on the banner using Sharpies distributed by the Lakers. It was nearly full by Monday afternoon, and enough fans have visited since to fill up two more.
ESPN anchor’s tribute to Kobe Bryant sparks #GirlDad trend
The final moments of Kobe Bryant’s fatal flight, turn by turn
A reconstruction of the flight by The Times tracks the helicopter’s path starting at a crucial moment near the end when the pilot left the San Fernando Valley above the 101 Freeway. Fog and cloudy weather had descended on the region, limiting visibility.
NTSB to FAA after helicopter crash: We warned you about terrain alert system
NTSB investigator Jennifer Homendy said at Tuesday’s news conference that her agency had recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration 16 years ago require that all choppers carrying six or more passengers be equipped with a terrain awareness and warning system, adding that the FAA has “failed to act” on the proposal. Because the FAA didn’t follow the recommendation, the chopper that crashed Sunday was not legally required to have the system.
Shortly after she spoke, an FAA spokesman disputed that assessment, noting that the FAA requires the terrain alarm system for helicopter air ambulance operations.
John Altobelli and family are paid tribute at Orange Coast College baseball opener
Sunday’s helicopter crash killed John Altobelli, 56, his wife, Keri, 46, and their daughter, Alyssa, 13, along with former Lakers star Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and four others.
Two days after the tragedy, the Pirates took the field for the first time in 28 years without Altobelli, who guided OCC to four state championships and 705 victories, sent hundreds of players to four-year colleges and helped countless teenagers mature into young men since 1993.
The crowd of about 2,000 that squeezed into Wendell Pickens Field on the school’s Costa Mesa campus included J.J. Altobelli, 29, a scout for the Boston Red Sox, and high school junior Alexis Altobelli, 16, the only surviving members of the Altobelli family.
Kobe Bryant’s helicopter was not equipped with terrain warning system that could have alerted pilot to hillside
The helicopter that crashed Sunday in Calabasas, killing nine people including Kobe Bryant, was not equipped with a terrain alarm system that could have warned the pilot he was approaching a hillside, National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday.
The findings come as investigators are trying to determine why the helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside Sunday morning amid foggy conditions.
NTSB investigator Jennifer Homendy said at Tuesday’s news conference that the helicopter was at 2,300 feet when it lost communication with air traffic controllers. The descent rate of the helicopter at the time of impact was more than 2,000 feet per minute.
Dramatic video of wreckage from Kobe Bryant helicopter crash is released
Federal investigators on Tuesday released a dramatic video showing the scene where Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside, killing the NBA great, his daughter and seven other people.
The National Transportation Safety Board video shows the charred wreckage of the helicopter, which broke apart on impact Sunday morning. Much of what remained of the chopper was burned beyond recognition. But a wheel and parts of the fuselage appear not to have been burned.
The video was released as the NTSB is trying to determine the cause of the crash, a task expected to take months.
Kobe Bryant had a legendary workout for Clippers, who did him a favor by not drafting him
In the spring of 1996, fewer than a dozen Clippers officials watched as coach Bill Fitch ran a 17-year-old guard from Philadelphia through a solo predraft workout in Los Angeles.
On the day’s agenda was the same drill Fitch had used in hundreds of workouts during his previous 26 years evaluating NBA prospects. Fitch called it “baskets per minute,” and it was a souped-up version of the classic Mikan drill. Players alternated shooting on the left and right sides of the basket, using both hands, making as many baskets as possible in 60 seconds.
Larry Bird was one of the best Fitch had ever tested. Nothing, however, topped what Fitch would witness that spring day inside the Sports Arena from Kobe Bryant.
Kobe Bryant’s devotion to family became paramount when his basketball career ended
It was December 2017, more than a year after Kobe Bryant had retired from basketball, and the Lakers great was expounding upon a fundamental truth of parenthood. Having spent much of his NBA career on the road, traveling from city to city, he talked about a new job, shuttling his daughters around Newport Coast.
“A lot of driving in a three-to-five mile radius,” he said. “Now, to have that, it’s absolutely wonderful. The time we spend in the car.”
Bryant’s life, which ended in a helicopter crash Sunday, might have seemed all big-time sports and celebrity from the outside, but there was something more basic at its core.
A tearful Shaquille O’Neal on Kobe Bryant’s death: ‘I’ve lost a little brother’
Shaquille O’Neal sat in a chair at center court inside Staples Center wearing a gray suit with tears streaming down his face as he talked about dealing with the death of his friend and former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant.
O’Neal and the acclaimed TNT crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith along with quests Jerry West, Dwyane Wade and Reggie Miller had come to Los Angeles on Tuesday to pay tribute to Bryant in an hourlong show called “Remembering Kobe.”
O’Neal struggled to come to grips with Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others perishing when their helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside Sunday.
Kobe Bryant became champion of women’s sports after career
Kobe Bryant sauntered through the locker room doors and eyes widened. After watching the Oregon women’s basketball team beat USC by 40 points at the Galen Center last January, the NBA legend, his daughter Gianna and other aspiring basketball players visited the Ducks.
Bryant greeted players with hugs. He signed their shoes — Kobes, naturally — while they were still on their feet. He complimented their playing style.
Bryant wasn’t in the courtside seat as a dad just chaperoning his daughter and her friends, Oregon coach Kelly Graves realized as he watched the interactions. This wasn’t a duty, this wasn’t an obligation and this wasn’t a publicity stunt.
Kobe Bryant’s winning skills captivated fans in the NBA’s huge China market
As a middle school student, Shen Yuqi started to follow the NBA largely because of Chinese superstar Yao Ming, a 7-foot, 6-inch phenom who caught her attention during the 2006-07 season.
Shen, like many basketball fans growing up China, soon found out the league was filled with dynamic players. She picked a new favorite star — No. 24 of the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the first NBA game she watched on television, the Rockets were playing the Lakers.
Fans pay tribute to late NBA star Kobe Bryant
More and more fans flood the Lakers training facility in El Segundo on Monday to pay respects to retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.
The time Kobe Bryant took part in a child’s goldfish funeral
In the 2½ days after Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash, billionaire investor Chris Sacca sifted through old emails and text messages with the Lakers star.
“Somehow yesterday was bad and today feels even worse,” Sacca said in an email to The Times on Tuesday.
Their relationship started several years ago when Bryant asked Sacca to serve as a mentor to help him grow as an investor and entrepreneur. They quickly became friends, bonding over business and fatherhood. Though Bryant built a reputation as a fearsome competitor on the basketball court and a businessman with wide-ranging pursuits off it, children brought out a different side.
One occasion lingers in Sacca’s mind.
AC Milan, Kobe Bryant’s favorite Italian soccer team, pays tribute during match
AC Milan and its fans paid tribute to Kobe Bryant with lights and applause before and during Tuesday’s Italian Cup game against Torino at the San Siro stadium.
Bryant, who grew up in Italy between the ages of 6 and 13, was a devout Milan fan. The 18-time NBA All-Star with the Lakers died Sunday with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash near Calabasas.
As Milan and Torino warmed up before the game, the words “Legends Never Die” and “SempreKobe” — a play on the “SempreMilan,” or “AlwaysMilan,” hashtag often used by the club — were displayed on the advertising boards around the San Siro while images of Bryant were shown on the giant screen.
WWE star Roman Reigns did what many dads had done after Kobe Bryant and Gianna died
WWE superstar Roman Reigns, who grew up a huge Lakers fan, was preparing for Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event when he learned of the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
Times reporter Arash Markazi caught up with Reigns and talked to him about Bryant.
“I watched religiously throughout his career,” Reigns said. “I never thought losing someone like that, essentially a stranger, though obviously a public figure ... I didn’t realize it would affect me so much. It broke my heart. My heart goes out to his wife and his three girls that were left behind. All the families that were involved.
HBO’s ‘Real Sports’ grapples with Kobe Bryant’s complex legacy
Kobe Bryant’s greatness as a basketball player is unquestioned. But he was also known for his prickly personality and his villainous on-court demeanor as the self-named Black Mamba.
Those aspects of Bryant’s complicated nature are recalled in Tuesday’s installment of HBO’s sports magazine “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”
The “Real Sports” segment focuses on two profiles the series conducted with Bryant, who died Sunday, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. The first piece, from 2000, finds the player discussing his early motivations to become great, including being inspired by the success of his father, pro basketball player Joseph Bryant.
Washington Post clears writer who tweeted about Kobe Bryant rape allegation
A Washington Post reporter who had been placed on administrative leave after she tweeted a link to a story about a 2003 rape allegation against Kobe Bryant has been cleared to return to work, the paper said Tuesday.
In a statement, the Post said that an internal review had determined that political reporter Felicia Sonmez was “not in clear and direct violation of our social media policy,” but that the tweets were “ill-timed.”
Sonmez’s tweet came in the hours after Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash Sunday.
Video Column: Kobe Bryant was much more than just an iconic basketball star
Kobe Bryant was much more than just an iconic basketball star. L.A. Times sports and culture columnist LZ Granderson has covered the NBA and Kobe Bryant for decades.
Investigators from the FAA and NTSB searched for clues in Kobe’s helicopter crash
Turning now to the investigation as federal authorities work to unravel the mystery of why Kobe’s helicopter crashed. Today, local officials had the grim task of removing the remains of the victims, while investigators from the FAA and NTSB searched for clues. L.A. Times reporter Richard Winton saw the immediate aftermath at the time of the crash and has been covering the investigation from Calabasas.
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NTSB Calabasas, CA Helicopter Crash B-Roll
NTSB Board Member Jennifer Homendy briefs media on the Jan. 26 helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif.
Film academy to acknowledge Kobe Bryant’s death at the Oscars
Joining other tributes that have poured in around the world, the motion picture academy plans to acknowledge the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant at next month’s Oscars ceremony.
The specific details are being kept under wraps at this time. The Oscars telecast has long included an In Memoriam segment to acknowledge notable members of the Hollywood community who passed away that year, but it is unclear whether Bryant will receive a separate tribute. Bryant won an Academy Award in 2018 for producing and writing the five-minute animated short “Dear Basketball.”
California lawmakers have a moment of silence on House floor for Kobe Bryant, other crash victims
Reps. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) led members of the California delegation in a moment of silence on the House floor Tuesday afternoon in honor of the nine victims who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash.
Rouda named each of the victims in alphabetical order: John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli, Kobe and Gianna Bryant, Payton and Sarah Chester, Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.The congressman acknowledged the group’s love of basketball and singled out the parents’ and coaches’ on board who were steadfastly dedicated to nurturing the passion and talents of the three 13-year-old girls who died on their way to play a game.“
Orange County is grieving, but we will find solace and purpose in the legacy they left behind,” he said. Waters addressed the loss of Kobe and Gianna Byrant specifically, before the House fell silent.“
I stand today on behalf of all Californians, and certainly the entire city of Los Angeles and millions of fans worldwide who are mourning the sudden loss of Kobe Bryant,” she said. “Our hearts go out to his wife, Vanessa, surviving daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri, relatives, teammates and friends.”
Fans pay tribute to late NBA star Kobe Bryant
More and more fans flood the Lakers training facility in El Segundo on Monday to pay respects to retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.
Why you can’t buy Kobe Bryant’s signature sneakers on Nike.com
When Kobe Bryant sneakers on Nike’s e-commerce site disappeared from the merchandise mix at some point in the 24 hours after Bryant’s death, some published reports claimed that it was part of Nike’s effort to limit secondary resellers’ ability to lay in a supply of sneakers that could later be sold at grief-inflated prices.
That’s not accurate, according to a Nike representative, who told The Times on Tuesday that the sneakers weren’t purposefully pulled from the company’s e-commerce site but that the existing stock had sold out. The Beaverton, Ore., athletic goods maker has been making Bryant’s signature shoe since 2003, and searches for the Black Mamba’s name on Nike.com redirect to a message of condolences dated Jan. 26.
Lakers fan pays tribute to Kobe Bryant with his ‘KNG KOBE’ truck
Drivers on Lake Avenue in Pasadena honked their horns late Sunday afternoon as Ron Bonilla drove his black-matte 2007 Toyota Tundra — with personal license plate KNG KOBE and a Lakers flag at half-mast — through traffic.
Bonilla, 48, has been a Lakers fan since 1979, when Magic Johnson joined the team.
“I’ve never felt so connected to any athlete or artist or entertainer as I felt with Kobe,” said Bonilla, proudly wearing Bryant’s No. 24 jersey and a Lakers cap.
H.B.’s Ara Zobayan, who flew doomed Bryant helicopter, was an experienced pilot and instructor
Ara Zobayan of Huntington Beach — the pilot of the helicopter that crashed in Calabasas on Sunday, killing nine people, including Zobayan and retired Lakers star Kobe Bryant — was an experienced flier and a certified flight instructor with more than 8,000 hours of flight time, sources said this week.
Bryant regularly used the helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76B owned by the charter service Island Express. Records show the aircraft had flown between John Wayne Airport, where it took off Sunday morning, and Camarillo Airport, where it was heading, about two dozen times in the past two years.
All bodies recovered from Kobe Bryant crash site as investigation continues
The bodies of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others who died in a helicopter crash have been recovered from a Calabasas hillside, coroner officials said Tuesday.
Authorities on Sunday recovered the bodies of at least three victims from the helicopter wreckage. The next day, the search continued for the six remaining victims. Their bodies were eventually located and taken to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s forensic science center, where officials will work to identify them.
Authorities investigating the devastating incident said the impact of the crash was intense, shattering the chopper and sending debris over a wide area.
Kobe Bryant’s studio removes Oscar-winning ‘Dear Basketball’ film from website
Don’t be surprised if you can’t find Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning animated short “Dear Basketball” streaming online anymore in the wake of the basketball star’s death. The film, which Granity Studios briefly made available for free Monday, has been taken down.
The decision Tuesday to take down the video means it’ll be hard to find online — again.
Petition to use Kobe Bryant image in NBA logo approaches 2 million signatures
In the days since the helicopter crash that took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others, NBA players and teams have been paying tribute to the Lakers legend, with gestures including handwritten messages on their sneakers and intentional clock violations of 8 and 24 seconds in honor Bryant’s jersey numbers and custom pregame jerseys.
One fan has suggested a way the league can permanently honor one of its all-time greats — and close to 2 million people agree with the idea.
Change the logo.
The questions at the heart of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash investigation
There is no black box recording.
The audio transmission released so far does not cover the actual moment of the crash.
And the impact of the crash sent debris scattered over a huge area.
These are some of the impediments the National Transportation Safety Board is facing as it investigates why a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight others crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, killing all on board.
The probe is still in its early stages, and a final determination is months away.
At its heart are some basic questions: Why was the pilot flying so low in the moments before the crash, and why could the chopper not clear the hillside?
Washington Post places reporter on leave after tweet about Kobe Bryant rape allegations
WASHINGTON —The Washington Post has placed a political reporter on administrative leave after she tweeted a link to a story about rape allegations against NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, who was killed Sunday. Dozens of journalists at the newspaper criticized the decision.
Reporter Felicia Sonmez’s tweet Sunday, amid widespread public mourning over Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash, drew considerable backlash on social media. The Post reported that Somnez received threats of death and rape and had to move to a hotel after her home address was published online.
The Post said Somnez deleted the original tweet at the request of a managing editor. She also received an email from executive editor Marty Baron saying: “A real lack of judgment to tweet this. Please stop. You’re hurting this institution by doing this.” Somnez shared the email with an Associated Press reporter.
The Post said Somnez had been placed on paid leave while newsroom managers looked into the episode. A spokeswoman for the newspaper did not respond to questions about Baron’s role.
Watch TV’s comics honor Kobe Bryant: ‘He always showed up to save the day’
Tears replaced laughs on the comedy scene Monday as TV hosts delivered touching tributes to Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen DeGeneres struggled to keep it together while lamenting life’s fragility and recounting some of their fondest memories with the Laker legend. James Corden and Conan O’Brien were also among those who honored Bryant with reflective words and, in some cases, highlight reels of his past guest appearances.
“Tonight’s show is going to be different from our usual show,” Kimmel began his “Jimmy Kimmel Live” monologue. “We don’t have a studio audience here tonight because going forward with a comedy show didn’t feel right, considering what happened yesterday.... That was a punch in the gut for many of us. Kobe was — and I know this might not make sense, but — he was just the last person you could ever imagine something like this happening to.”
Deputies on horseback patrol Kobe Bryant crash site as trespassers ignore warnings
Investigators and recovery teams were back at a Calabasas hillside Tuesday, continuing to remove remains from the site of a helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others as they tried to determine what caused the tragedy.
Authorities have recovered the bodies of at least three victims and say the process of removing others may take several days to complete. They said the impact of the crash was intense, shattering the chopper and sending debris over a wide area.
“This was a pretty devastating accident,” National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jennifer Homendy said. “There is an impact area on one of the hills, and a piece of the tail is down the hill on the left side of the hill. The fuselage is on the other side of that hill. Then the main rotor is about hundred yards beyond that. The debris field is about 500 to 600 feet.”
Bad Bunny releases ‘6 Rings,’ a tribute song to Kobe Bryant
Bad Bunny is paying his respects to the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant the way he knows best: through music.
The singer released the song “6 Rings” on Monday in honor of the late Lakers star, who died in a helicopter crash over the weekend along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
The two-minute track, sung in Spanish, includes commentary from Bryant’s 2006 game against the Toronto Raptors where the Lakers player scored a staggering 81 points.
Kobe Bryant HATED losing so much that it set him apart from his Lakers teammates
It took almost 200 pages in “Mamba Mentality,” Kobe Bryant’s 2018 book, for him to write explicitly about losing basketball games, and when he did, it was to the point.
“THE AGONY OF DEFEAT IS AS LOW AS THE JOY OF WINNING IS HIGH,” he wrote in capital letters — white text on a black page below a photo of a himself sitting dejected on the Lakers bench.
Bryant’s countenance let you know.
TNT to air live Kobe Bryant tribute ahead of Celtics-Heat game tonight
TNT will air a one-hour special tribute to Kobe Bryant tonight at 7 p.m.
The live special will be streamed from the Staples Center and will air ahead of the Celtics vs. Heat game in Miami. The tribute will be hosted by Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker and Steve Nash will be guests on the program.
TNT’s pregame, halftime and postgame coverage will all focus on Bryant from the Staples Center, which was slated to host the postponed Lakers/Clippers game.
Tourists and fans invade Calabasas hillside where Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed
As out-of-town visitors arrived in Calabasas looking to glimpse the hillside where Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people died in a helicopter crash, some ran into sheriff’s checkpoints, some became lost and others had no idea where to go.
Enter 70-year-old Linda Adams.
The 30-year Calabasas resident pointed to a shortcut between Las Virgenes Creek, where fans gathered to scan the hillside, and Las Virgenes Road, which saved several travelers at least a mile of walking.
A few onlookers even joined Adams to catch a better and closer view of the crash site.
Kobe Bryant’s death hits close to home for USC basketball players
The mural towered over Melrose Avenue, and for three years, since it was painted outside of the sneaker shop across from Fairfax High, Ethan Anderson would stare at it from a classroom window. Every day he walked or drove past, looking at it so often that the towering likeness, soaring across a purple wall of Shoe Palace, merely had become a part of the landscape.
To Anderson and so many others who’d grown up in the long shadow he cast, it seemed Kobe Bryant always would be there, his presence looming forever over Los Angeles. But on Sunday morning, Bryant died in a helicopter crash that killed eight others, including his daughter Gianna, and as Los Angeles mourned, turning the sidewalk outside Shoe Palace into a shrine, Anderson found himself thinking about that mural and the legacy of the man in it.
Kobe Bryant: Here are some of the Mamba’s most memorable quotes
Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died Sunday when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed and burst into flames in the hills above Calabasas. His daughter Gianna, 13, was also on board and died along with seven others.
Bryant was known to give some memorable quotes over the years — some inspirational, some funny and all pure Kobe. Here are some that might provide a little comfort during this tragic time.
Vanguard University, practice home of Kobe Bryant’s club team, mourns the basketball great and his daughter
When Gianna “Gigi” Bryant first told her basketball star father that she wanted to play the sport, Kobe Bryant took her seriously.
“He kind of sat down with Gigi and said, ‘If you want to play, we’re going to do this,’” said Jeff Melton, assistant athletic director at Vanguard University. “’We’ll do this if this is a passion for you.’”
When she said yes, her father — who became legendary for his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers — began tapping into his world of opportunities. He arranged for her to meet her basketball idol, Katie Lou Samuelson, a guard for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. He took her to Atlanta Hawks NBA games to watch Trae Young, another of her favorite players.
Orange Coast College baseball team to play two days after coach John Altobelli died
It’s OK to cry, to be overcome by grief. It’s OK to be mad, to scream out in frustration. Most of all, it’s OK to ask for help.
That was the message to the Orange Coast College baseball team as it prepared for Tuesday’s season opener against Chula Vista Southwestern, a game that will be played just two days after longtime Pirates coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their 13-year-old daughter, Alyssa, died in the fiery helicopter crash that also killed former Lakers star Kobe Bryant on Sunday.
“We athletes, we’re macho, and we want to be tough, and because of that, sometimes we pretend like we’re not hurting,” former Cal State Fullerton and Oregon coach George Horton, a close friend of the Altobelli family, told players before practice Monday.
Column: Kobe Bryant’s reaction when I cursed him on TV showed the real Kobe, as he always did
It was in the first round of the 2012 playoffs, the Lakers were in Denver, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
I couldn’t bear one more moment of listening to that smug Kobe Bryant.
Asked about the defense being played on him by the Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari during a postgame news conference, Bryant filled the small media room with dripping sarcasm.
He smiled, shook his head, and said something like, oh yeah, he was real worried, truly bothered, so stressed ...
And I lost it.
“Kobe, you’re such an asshole!” I yelled at him.
Mothers, fathers, daughters, coaches: Here are the 9 killed in the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash
Sunday should have been a day filled with adrenaline-pumping competition set to a soundtrack of cheers and the scuffle of sneakers on a basketball court.
It wasn’t supposed to be a day marred by a tragedy that took the lives of nine people and left a city heartbroken.
Many of the victims of the Calabasas helicopter crash were united in their love of basketball, headed to a tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks. They included Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, a budding basketball player who was ready to follow in her father’s footsteps; baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and their basketball-playing daughter Alyssa; mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester; Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.
As Los Angeles collectively mourned their Lakers hero, multiple families and friends reeled while reality hit.
The last flight of Kobe Bryant
A light fog had settled on the runway of John Wayne Airport Sunday morning when Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and six other passengers boarded a chartered helicopter to fly to a basketball tournament in Thousand Oaks.
A half-hour later, they were flying over thickening clouds in the San Fernando Valley. The pilot was worried enough to ask flight controllers to keep track of them. As he approached the hills of Calabasas at 150 miles per hour, they radioed him, telling him he was too low for them to see on radar.
The pilot commenced a climb, rising 765 feet in 36 seconds, enough to clear adjacent hills.
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What causes the deep marine layer that played a role in the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash?
On Sunday morning, when Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, there was a thick marine layer and patchy dense fog that obscured some of the terrain.
The conditions were the result of a deteriorating cold front passing through the area with moist northwest flow, which caused low clouds to pile up against the northern slopes of Ventura and L.A. County mountains. There were showers to the north, and clouds pushing into coastal valleys were thick enough to cause drizzle along the coast and in nearby foothills, according to the National Weather Service. A webcam at Oat Mountain, northwest of Porter Ranch, suggested that the marine layer was 3,000 feet thick.
Huge Kobe Bryant fans Justin Turner and Clayton Kershaw mourn his death
Justin Turner received the news of Kobe Bryant’s death Sunday from his wife, Kourtney, as he packed a van for his charity golf event Monday. The Dodgers third baseman’s initial reaction was like that of many others — he assumed it wasn’t true. He didn’t believe it until he heard radio reports confirming the unfathomable as he drove to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks near the site of the helicopter crash that killed the 41-year-old Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
“I was just shaking,” Turner said.
In Orange County, Kobe Bryant grew from basketball’s enfant terrible into a ‘typical dad’
The last Saturday of Kobe Bryant’s life came and went like any typical weekend at home for the retired Lakers superstar.
He took one daughter to the mall. Accompanied another to a basketball game. Planned a Sunday morning trip with friends.
And slept with his family at their house in Orange County.
For nearly 20 years, one of the most famous names in sports lived a surprisingly public life in this unlikeliest of places.
Kobe’s helicopter didn’t have a black box because one wasn’t required, NTSB says
Just before crashing into a Calabasas hillside, the pilot of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter rapidly ascended to avoid a cloud layer, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.
Jennifer Homendy, an NTSB member, said the pilot flying from Orange County to Ventura County requested special visual flight rules, which allow pilots to fly under 1,000 feet. A marine layer had settled over the region Sunday morning and some areas were shrouded in fog.
Homendy said it remained unclear why the helicopter slammed into the hillside. Debris from the crash was scattered across 600 feet, she said.
“It was a pretty devastating accident scene,” she added. “There is an impact area on one of the hills and a piece of the tail is down the hill on the left side of the hill. The fuselage is on the other side of that hill. Then the main rotor is about hundred yards beyond that. The debris field is about 500 to 600 feet.”
She said there was no black box and it isn’t required.
The day after his death, the talk at barbershops in L.A. was about Kobe and his legacy
Alexander Toney had just walked into the grocery store with his family on Sunday when he first heard rumors that Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant may have died.
At first, the South L.A. barber didn’t believe it, saying he thought TMZ’s reports weren’t credible. But after more outlets confirmed that not only Bryant, but his 13-year old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died in the fiery helicopter crash, the grim reality sunk in.
As they walked down the aisles getting their food, he said he wrapped his arms around his four kids more tightly than usual.
Jimmy Fallon pays tribute to Kobe Bryant
Jimmy Fallon pays tribute to Lakers legend Kobe Bryant
LeBron James breaks silence on Kobe Bryant’s death
LeBron James broke his silence on Monday evening, posting a wrenching message on Instagram in the form of a note to the late Kobe Bryant.
“I’m not ready but here I go,” the post began. “Man I sitting here trying to write something for this post but every time I try I begin crying again just thinking about you, niece Gigi and the friendship/bond/brotherhood we had! I literally just heard your voice Sunday morning before I left Philly to head back to LA. Didn’t think for one bit in a million years that would be the last conversation we’d have.”
Bryant called James after the Lakers played in Philadelphia on Saturday night to congratulate James for moving up to third on the league’s all-time scoring list. In doing so, James had passed Bryant who scored 33,643 points in his NBA career.
Kobe Bryant’s final flight, minute by minute
Kobe Bryant called LeBron James on Saturday night after he was passed on scoring list
‘You made us dream’: Kobe Bryant is mourned in Italy, where he first learned to play
ROME — As the world mourns the death of Kobe Bryant, his first coach recalled how the basketball legend cried when taken out during a game at the age of 7 because he was too good.
Gioacchino Fusacchia, 60, coached Bryant in Rieti, a small town in central Italy, when the late athlete’s father, Joe, played professional basketball following a career in the NBA.
“Kobe followed Joe everywhere, to matches, to training, and was already passionate about basketball,” said Fusacchia, who was in his mid-20s during the period the Bryants were in Rieti, from 1984 to 1986.
Rieti was Joe’s first stop in a seven-year spell in Italy during which he played seasons with other Italian teams in the southern region of Calabria and the northern regions of Tuscany and Emilio-Romagna before returning to the United States.
Kobe Bryant’s studio removes Oscar-winning ‘Dear Basketball’ film from website
After Kobe Bryant’s death Sunday, finding his animated short “Dear Basketball” to watch online was a difficult task — until now.
Granity Studios, the NBA star’s multimedia production company, made the Academy Award-winning film available for free Monday afternoon on the dearbasketball.com website and on Vimeo.
“Dear Basketball” is based on a poem he wrote in November 2015 to announce his retirement. The poem was published by the Players’ Tribune, a website that features first-person accounts written by pro athletes.
Fatal crash hit Newport Beach hard: 5 other residents, not just Bryants, were victims
Kobe Bryant was a Los Angeles superstar.
But he called Newport Beach his home. It was here he raised his daughters, was involved in its schools and youth sports and made friends at the neighborhood grocery store and Starbucks.
And it was this community that saw so much loss Sunday, as the helicopter carrying Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others slammed into a hillside above Calabasas, killing all on board.
Also on the copter were Newport Beach residents John Altobelli; his wife, Keri; and their daughter, Alyssa, who played on the same club team as Gianna Bryant. Newport Beach mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester were identified by friends and family as also being on board.
NBA postpones Lakers-Clippers game that was set for Tuesday
The NBA has postponed the Lakers-Clippers game that was scheduled for Tuesday.
“The decision was made out of respect for the Lakers organization, which is deeply grieving the tragic loss of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash on Sunday.”
No makeup date has been released.
The legacy of ‘Kobe!’ jump shots lives on through fans
It usually happens during a pickup basketball game. A player plants his feet, jumps and shoots with a yell of “Kobe!” -- partly a joke, but also a plea to guide the ball into the hoop with the skill of the late Lakers great Kobe Bryant.
It’s just a moment, but it’s a legacy that Bryant has left countless amateur basketball players -- and those folks just trying to throw a wad of paper into a faraway trash can -- around the world.
As the news of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash on Sunday spread, Twitter users and Times readers from all over shared memories of their “Kobe!” shots: jump shots, trick shots and three-point attempts. Here’s what they had to say (some responses have been lightly edited for clarity).
Coverage of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash included missteps, insights and tears
Jim Hill rushed into the KCBS-Channel 2 studio in suit and tie and had Magic Johnson on the phone while other local TV crews were scrambling to do fan-on-the-street reactions. That was impressive but not unexpected.
Liz Habib’s voice cracked before she had to stop and wipe away tears, abandoning a KTTV-Channel 11 live standup. That felt appropriate.
ESPN and ABC continued to televise the NFL’s Pro Bowl in a simulcast, a meaningless exercise, while pushing its live coverage of events to ESPN2. That was beyond awkward, bordering on disrespectful.
Media outlets trying to disseminate what TMZ first reported Sunday morning as a helicopter crash in Calabasas that took five lives, including that of retired Lakers star Kobe Bryant, ignited the comprehension, disbelief and misinformation anxiety that often permeate the first 24 hours of a news cycle.
Kobe Bryant short film ‘Dear Basketball’ plays like a eulogy from the man who made it
The mood of Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning animated short film, “Dear Basketball,” always seemed a little curious. Part love letter to his sport, it was also part eulogy.
“My heart can take the pounding,” Bryant said in his narration, over a quiet moment in John Williams’ poignant score. “My mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye. And that’s OK. I’m ready to let you go.”
The 2017 film serves as a bit of tragic poetry following the death of Bryant, daughter Gianna and seven other people in a Calabasas helicopter crash Sunday.
The project began as a letter he penned in 2015 for the Players’ Tribune announcing his retirement from the NBA. Bryant created the production company Granity Studios — originally Kobe Studios — with ambitions to create books, TV series and even feature films. “Dear Basketball” was its first effort.
Kobe Bryant fans honor him through poetry
In a request for Kobe Bryant memories, some fans expressed themselves through poetry. It’s a fitting tribute to the legendary Lakers great who wrote a poem called “Dear Basketball” to announce his retirement from the NBA. That poem was made into a film that earned him an Academy Award, a Sports Emmy and an Annie Award.
Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday morning, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others. His career with the Lakers spanned 20 years before his retirement in 2016, and included five NBA championship titles, two Finals MVPs and one regular season MVP.
The Times asked readers to write in with their favorite memories of Bryant. If you have a poem to add, please submit it through the form below.
Clippers respond to Kobe Bryant’s death on social media
The Clippers felt as though they’d been put through an emotional wringer when playing Sunday in Orlando, where they tipped off against the Magic less than four hours after receiving news of Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash.
Once their 112-97 victory was over, however, an understanding began to take hold that an even more emotional scene awaits them Tuesday at Staples Center, when the Lakers host the Clippers.
The teams’ previous meetings this season, both Clippers victories, were already played amid a charged atmosphere, given each organization’s expectation to contend for this season’s NBA championship. Yet Tuesday, in what will be the Lakers’ first game since the death of the player Magic Johnson called the “greatest Laker of all time,” figures to be a far more emotional backdrop.
Column: Kobe Bryant’s death is a setback for women’s basketball, Sierra Canyon coach laments
Sierra Canyon High girls’ basketball coach Alicia Komaki said she spent 12 hours Sunday sitting in her Chatsworth office watching nonstop news coverage about Kobe Bryant’s death. It made her reflect on what his absence might mean to women’s basketball, one of the most important recipients of his support since his retirement from the NBA.
From taking his daughters to WNBA games to coaching his daughter in youth basketball, Bryant was setting the stage to become an invaluable contributor in an arena that needed support. He was headed to Thousand Oaks to coach daughter Gianna, 13, in a youth tournament Sunday when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed, killing him, Gianna and seven others.
Komaki said the word around the club circuit was Bryant might become the girls’ basketball coach at Newport Coast Sage Hill, where Gianna was possibly going to enroll. A Sage Hill representative denied that Bryant was a coaching candidate. Bryant’s eldest daughter, Natalia, attends Sage Hill and is on the volleyball team.
Column: For my 13-year-old basketball player, Gianna Bryant’s death was a bigger blow than Kobe’s
My youngest daughter and I were at a friend’s baby shower when we learned of Kobe Bryant’s death. I was glancing at my phone when a breaking news alert flashed across my screen, and I gasped.
“What?” Darby said, reaching for her own phone. So she learned as I did that Kobe’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, had been with him when the helicopter crashed. I squeezed my own 13-year-old daughter’s hand under the table and said, “We’ll talk about it after,” and we returned, as best we could, to the shower’s excitement and joy.
We did talk about it later, on the drive home, but I was just as shocked and numb as she. “I feel so sad,” she said as we walked into the house. “That is how everyone is going to feel,” I said unhelpfully, mechanically. “It is just a terrible, terrible thing.”
‘We all know him as just Kobe, a person.’ Newport Coast neighbors salute Kobe Bryant at vigil
People who knew Kobe Bryant as the father of four who lived up the street, ordered a certain pink drink at the corner Starbucks and trick-or-treated with their children gathered Sunday night in a park not far from his home to share their memories.
Newport Ridge Community Park is near Bryant’s Newport Coast home and near their homes too. These were neighbors of the retired Lakers basketball legend and youth basketball coach whom some of the younger people knew around their school gym as Mr. Bryant.
Kobe Bryant didn’t mentor many young players; Anthony Davis was an exception
During his playing career, there weren’t many young players whom Kobe Bryant mentored. He made an exception for Anthony Davis.
“Anthony was different just because of his curiosity about the game itself,” Bryant said in an interview last fall. “His obvious potential. His ability. But he had a curious nature about him and how he wanted to learn more and more about that game. So I’d gravitate toward that.”
Bryant was one of nine people killed in a helicopter crash Sunday morning along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; Alyssa Altobelli, Gianna’s teammate on the Mamba basketball team; and her parents John and Keri Altobelli; Christina Mauser, who helped coach the Mamba girls basketball team; and the pilot, Ara Zobayan. Two other passengers haven’t been publicly identified yet.
Longtime Lakers fan Jack Nicholson mourns Kobe Bryant: ‘It kills you’
Hollywood veteran Jack Nicholson is a three-time Oscar winner and 12-time nominee, with more than 70 credits to his name. But on Sunday, he was simply a heartbroken Lakers fan.
Following the sudden death of local hero Kobe Bryant, Nicholson reflected on his relationship with the basketball icon and his home team yesterday in a rare phone interview with CBS Los Angeles. Bryant died early Sunday in a Calabasas helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
“My reaction is the same as almost all of L.A.,” the actor said. “Suddenly, where everything was solid, there’s a big hole in the wall. I was so used to seeing and talking to Kobe that — it kills you. It’s just a terrible event.”
NBA greats talk about the impact Kobe Bryant had on them
This story originally published on latimes.com on April 11th, 2016.
As Kobe Bryant plays out his 20th and final season with the Lakers, The Times has reached out to players, coaches and broadcasters for recollections about his career.
Chaplain of Senate impeachment trial mourns Kobe’s passing
Senate Chaplain Barry Black in an opening prayer ahead of the impeachment trial mourned the loss of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and “those who died with them.”
“We all have a limited time on Earth to leave the world better than we found it,” Black said. “As this impeachment process unfolds, give our senators the desire to make the most of their time on Earth. Teach them how to live, o God, and lead them along the path of honesty.”
Justin Turner talks about the impact of Kobe Bryant’s death
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A look back at Kobe Bryant, gold medalist, as he looked forward to L.A. Olympics
It was the summer of 2008 and Kobe Bryant was playing on the U.S team at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. He mentioned to Times columnist Bill Plaschke that winning gold might be his greatest accomplishment, better than an NBA championship, a sentiment he knew might irritate some Laker fans.
“So what?” he said. “If they don’t understand this, they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s simple. You’re playing for your country.”
On Monday, the International Olympic Committee issued its reaction to the sudden death of a basketball icon who won that gold in China and another one, four years later, in London.
“Kobe was an outstanding and true Olympic champion,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “He embraced the power of sport to change people’s lives.”
Southern California radio stations will go silent at noon in honor of Kobe Bryant
The Southern California Broadcasters Association is asking its members to observe a synchronized moment of silence in honor of late local hero Kobe Bryant.
The radio silence, set to occur at noon Pacific on Monday, will last for one minute and eight seconds — a nod to the Laker star’s original jersey number, 8. The organization also provided additional instructions on how stations should approach coverage of Bryant’s death throughout the day.
24 grieving fans talk about losing their hero: ‘This is a Kobe town’
Los Angeles is a city in mourning.
Makeshift memorials continue to pop up, from Thousand Oaks to Newport Beach.
Fans converged on Staples Center, the Lakers training center in El Segundo, on Melrose Avenue and in Calabasas, where Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others will killed in a helicopter crash Sunday.
Bryant’s jersey number — 24 — already had special meaning, commemorating his 20 seasons with the Lakers. Many teams now say no one else will ever wear that number.
Here is what 24 Angelenos had to say about No. 24:
Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle weren’t perfect angels. That’s why L.A. loved them.
There’s this thing that happens when a person dies, especially when that person is famous and the death is unexpected.
Those who are left behind to mourn tend to gloss over the bad decisions and focus on the good deeds, the heroic traits and the uncommonly charitable gestures.
This was very much the case Sunday. Hours after a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others slammed into the hills above Calabasas, killing all on board, celebrities clamored to pay tribute to him during the Grammy Awards at Staples Center.
The grim, delicate task of removing remains from the Kobe Byrant helicopter crash site
On the remote Calabasas hillside where Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and other emergency personnel spent Monday morning with the delicate task of removing the remains of victims.
The rough terrain around the crash site off Las Virgenes Canyon Road has been a challenge for first responders from the beginning. On Monday, deputies could be seen on the hillside in off-road vehicles. Some remains were removed Sunday night, and officials said that the process could continue for several days.
Los Angeles County Coroner Jonathan Lucas said the remains will be removed as quickly as possible, noting the location of the crash had made access an issue.
Kobe Bryant had a special kinship with Latino fans and culture
The mood at El Camino Real in Fullerton was somber during the Sunday lunch rush, despite the steaming bowls of menudo in front of nearly everyone in the packed Mexican restaurant.
Its most famous regular, Kobe Bryant, had died earlier that morning in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others.
Families shook their heads in disbelief as they scrolled through their smartphones for the latest updates between sips of the tripe soup. Freddy Castañeda, son of El Camino Real’s owners, showed customers a photo that Bryant had taken in the kitchen alongside his sister Marissa nearly 20 years ago.
Kobe Bryant flew in thick fog that had grounded law enforcement helicopters
Did foggy weather Sunday morning play a role in the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others?
That is a key question as federal investigators on Monday begin an intense investigation into the cause of the crash.
The helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76 built in 1991, departed John Wayne Airport at 9:06 a.m. Sunday, according to publicly available flight records. The chopper passed over Boyle Heights, near Dodger Stadium, and circled over Glendale during the flight. The crash occurred shortly before 10 a.m. near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street in Calabasas.
Kobe Bryant helicopter crash at center of intense federal investigation
Federal investigators on Monday began to try to unravel the mystery of why a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people slammed into the side of a hill in Calabasas.
Firefighters responding to a 911 call at 9:47 a.m. found a debris field in steep terrain with a quarter-acre brush fire. Paramedics arriving by helicopter searched the area but found no survivors.
Bryant, who lived in Newport Beach and Los Angeles, was known to keep a chartered helicopter at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport.
David Beckham: ‘... my words won’t ever be enough ...’
Rep. Maxine Waters’ statement on Bryant’s death
“I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken by the sudden and tragic loss of Kobe Bryant and his beloved daughter Gianna. Kobe Bryant was a king in Los Angeles and one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known. He thrilled Los Angelenos for 20 seasons at the Staples Center, was an 18-time NBA All Star, earned five NBA championships, was twice named the MVP of the NBA Finals, and earned the NBA’s MVP award. Fans around the world marveled at his skills on the court season after season. He was truly spectacular to watch. He was our champion, a living legend, and an inspiration to countless fans and aspiring athletes around the world. His loss is felt by millions of grieving fans who are in shock and disbelief by the tragic passing of such a prolific athlete, devoted husband, and loving father. My heart goes out to his wife, Vanessa, surviving children, relatives, teammates, and friends who are in mourning. I also extend my sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims who were onboard the helicopter.
“Los Angeles is mourning the loss of one of our most beloved legends and icons. Though Kobe Bryant is no longer with us, our city will never forget what he meant to us, and we will keep his legacy alive forever.”
Probe of Kobe Bryant crash will probably focus on fog, possible mechanical problems
The investigation into the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others aboard a Sikorsky S-76B will probably focus on foggy weather conditions and potential mechanical problems, aviation experts and pilots said.
Visibility in the region was so poor at the time of the crash, which occurred shortly before 10 a.m. in Calabasas, that the Los Angeles police and county sheriff’s departments had grounded their helicopters.
Kobe Bryant fans and Grammy attendees mourn together
They arrived in glitzy gold gowns and tailored tuxedos, silk suits and cheetah-patterned stilettos that would pop on the red carpet.
But they were outnumbered by fans dressed in purple and yellow and white jerseys with the numbers 8 and 24 across their chests and his name — BRYANT — emblazoned across their backs.
As the sun set Sunday, a surreal scene unfolded outside Staples Center, where celebrities who had gathered for the 62nd Grammy Awards mourned alongside devastated fans who flocked to the arena where Lakers legend Kobe Bryant — who died in a helicopter crash Sunday morning — has two jerseys hanging from the rafters.
Lakers part owner was a mentor to Kobe Bryant and a friend
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the Los Angeles Times and is a part owner of the Lakers, was also Bryant’s friend, mentor and basketball “assistant” when the two played hoops at Soon-Shiong’s home court during Bryant’s recovery.
He choked up as he spoke about the loss of a legend, about how he will miss the long conversations the two shared about all aspects of life and about Bryant’s aspirations as he underwent recovery.
L.A. Times front page after the death of Kobe Bryant
The front page of the L.A. Times special section on Kobe Bryant’s passing
Kobe Bryant, from the start, was an athlete like no other
From the very start, when Kobe Bryant played his first game for the Los Angeles Lakers as an 18-year-old basketball phenom, his path to greatness seemed assured. But it would not be easy.
The NBA wasn’t convinced that any player, no matter how sensational or talented, could jump directly from high school to the big leagues.
But Bryant was a different sort of athlete, the son of a well-to-do Philadelphia family who spent his formative years in Europe. His unusual upbringing and steely determination — holding himself and those around him to the highest standards — sometimes led to friction with coaches and teammates.
Michael Jordan: ‘Words can’t describe the pain I’m feeling’
Eighty-one points in his prime and 60 on his way into retirement. Five championships with the Lakers, 18 All-Star appearances representing them, 15 All-NBA honors, two jerseys hanging in the Staples Center rafters — No. 8 and No. 24.
And the number that will haunt Los Angeles and the world — only 41 years old.
Newport Beach residents remember their neighbor Kobe Bryant
Gathered around a steadily growing cluster of candles, flowers, balloons and other memorabilia Sunday night, some of Kobe Bryant’s fellow Newport Beach residents shared their memories of the man called Mamba.
They spoke of Kobe the father — whose dedication and love were apparent to any who came across him.
They spoke of Kobe the idol — whose accomplishments were legion.
They spoke of Kobe the standard — whose legendary pursuit of greatness was an example for all.
But they also spoke of Kobe the man — whose fame never got in the way of him sharing a warm greeting at the local grocery store.
More than anything, though, they spoke of Kobe the connection — a figure so beloved and so ingrained in the community that his death could bring more than 100 people out to Newport Ridge Community Park on a chilly winter’s night for a candlelight vigil.
By the end of the vigil, those in attendance had joined together in both a rendition of “Amazing Grace” and a familiar refrain of “Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!”
Steve Alford, 57, was among those who recalled running into Bryant at a local Starbucks.
“He wasn’t anybody special in his mind when he was walking in the store, and it was just really, really refreshing,” Alford said. “And I think he felt very comfortable here in Newport Coast and everybody treated him with respect.”
After hearing the news in the morning, Newport Beach resident Josh Leith said he walked over to a poster hanging in his house — one of Bryant emblazoned with the word “Invincible.”
“I thought about it for a second and I thought, well, he is invincible because of what he did for us by his drive and his motivation and his inspiration and who he was as a person,” said Leith, 28.
So many Kobe Bryant fans flooded helicopter crash area that authorities have closed roads
So many Kobe Bryant fans have converged on the Calabasas area where he and eight others were killed Sunday morning in a helicopter crash that authorities have restricted the area to residents only.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said people have flooded into the area of the crash, some going into residential neighborhoods and trying to get to the remote hillside where the helicopter went down. He said the traffic was making it harder for investigators and emergency personnel to do their jobs.
With Kobe Bryant’s death, the 2020 Grammys go from celebratory to reflective
While typically a celebratory night for the music industry, tragedy still seeped into the 62nd Grammy Awards ceremony Sunday in Los Angeles, prompting a community to shift gears toward reflection, sympathy and consolation.
Hours before the event began, former Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died along with seven others in a helicopter crash about 30 miles from Staples Center, the sports arena in which the Grammy Awards show played out and which for two decades had been the home court for Bryant’s stellar career.
Thousands mourn Kobe Bryant across Southern California
L.A. mourns the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
UCLA men’s basketball team mourns Kobe Bryant’s death: ‘Every day is not promised’
EUGENE, Ore. — UCLA forward Jalen Hill could see it in the body language on display outside Matthew Knight Arena. It was everywhere he looked, in the downed heads, slumped shoulders, grim faces.
It was one thing for players who modeled their games after Kobe Bryant to be shattered by news of the Laker legend’s sudden death Sunday morning, but observing the devastation in fans outside the building made Hill realize just how deeply Bryant had affected the basketball world.
Lopez: Kobe Bryant was L.A. — our dreams, our sweat and the drive that unites a far-flung city
In Los Angeles, we live in far-flung neighborhoods, with thousands of intersections but little overlap. Except where sports is concerned.
The richest fans sit courtside at Staples Center, but they are no more a part of the sports community than legions of anonymous black, white, Latino and Asian fans who work and sweat and yearn and watch games on television, wearing the jerseys of Magic, Kareem, LeBron and Kobe, and believe, always, that winning is not just a possibility but a local birthright.
Kobe Bryant on the cover of the L.A. Times through the years
Dense fog impaired visibility at time of crash that killed Kobe Bryant
Federal investigators are just beginning their inquiry into the cause of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people Sunday morning in Calabasas.
The chopper appeared to slam into the hillside and burst into flames.
Several experts have said the weather will probably be a key part of the initial investigation.
Las Vegas cancels launch of new slogan after Kobe Bryant’s death
Fans in China flock to get Kobe Bryant memorabilia
BEIJING — At the NBA store in Beijing, Kobe Bryant fans came looking to buy his gear.
A 23-year-old surnamed Li said he had hoped to get some Bryant shoes, but the store was sold out. He had watched Bryant play since he was about 6 years old and especially admired the superstar’s work ethic.
Bryant was incomparable, said Li, who would not give his first name. “There’s no No. 2,” he said. “There’s just Kobe.”
Huang Zhongze emerged from the store empty-handed. He and his father had been to several other stores and all were sold out of Bryant memorabilia.
At 14, Huang is too young to have followed Bryant playing live except for one season, but the Lakers legend remains his favorite player. Bryant’s attitude and the excellence of his playing, as well as his can’t-lose attitude, were admirable, Huang said. And Bryant was also someone to look up to — a true leader, a Da Ge, or “big brother” in Chinese, he said.
Liu Chao, 21, was wearing a Lakers jacket as he entered the NBA store to see whether there was any Bryant memorabilia to purchase.
He followed the NBA mostly because of Bryant and hasn’t watched many games since the star retired, he said. He was shocked and saddened by the death. Bryant was one of a kind, he said, and had an independent attitude both on the court and in life.
‘How about an autograph for the kids?’ 11 Kobe Bryant memories from L.A. Times readers
Fans in Southern California and around the world — from South Pasadena and Hawthorne to Guam and Bosnia and Herzegovina — are mourning the loss of Kobe Bryant.
Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday morning, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others. His career with the Lakers spanned 20 years before his retirement in 2016 and included five NBA championships, two Finals MVPs and one regular season MVP.
Fans gather and cheer for Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant’s helicopter was like his limousine and had a strong safety record, NBA star’s former pilot says
The helicopter that crashed Sunday morning in Calabasas, killing Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others on board, had the feel of a limousine and a strong safety record, said the basketball star’s former pilot.
Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for Island Express Helicopters, told The Times he flew Bryant from 2014 to 2016. Nine times out of 10, he said, Bryant flew in “Two Echo X-ray” — the Sikorsky S-76B, tail No. N72EX, that went down Sunday morning. When Bryant retired from the NBA in 2016, he flew out of downtown Los Angeles in the same helicopter, wrapped in a gray-and-black paint scheme with his Mamba emblem on the side, Deetz said.
LAPD confirms it had grounded its helicopters Sunday morning
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Josh Rubenstein said that the department’s Air Support Division grounded its helicopters Sunday morning because of foggy conditions and didn’t fly until later in the afternoon.
“The weather situation did not meet our minimum standards for flying,” Rubenstein said.
The fog “was enough that we were not flying,” he said. LAPD’s flight minimums are 2 miles of visibility and an 800-foot cloud ceiling, he said. The department typically flies two helicopters when conditions allow — one in the San Fernando Valley and one in the L.A. Basin, he said.
The LAPD Air Support Division is the largest municipal airborne law enforcement organization in the United States, according to the department.
Markazi: Kobe Bryant shared a special bond with daughter Gianna over the game they loved
The last time I sat down with Kobe Bryant was at his office in Costa Mesa before the regular-season opener between the Lakers and Clippers in October. He laughed when I asked him if he would be at the game.
I knew he wouldn’t be there. He had a more important game to attend that night.
He was going to be at a high school gym 40 miles away to watch his 16-year-old daughter, Natalia, play volleyball.
Dallas Mavericks to retire No. 24 in honor of Kobe Bryant
A month ago, Kobe Bryant stopped to direct traffic after a car crash in Newport Beach
Kobe Bryant was proud of daughter Gianna, a basketball star in the making. They died together
Gianna Bryant always wanted to follow in father Kobe Bryant’s footsteps.
And Bryant and others in the NBA saw much of the father’s spark and determination in his daughter.
Gianna, 13, and Bryant were among the victims of a helicopter crash that took the lives of all passengers and the pilot Sunday morning in Calabasas.
Watch Alicia Keys and Boys II Men honor Kobe Bryant at Grammys
College baseball coach John Altobelli and daughter also among the victims of helicopter crash
NBA fans shocked at news of the death of Kobe Bryant
ATLANTA — Jay Mitchell, a 28-year-old audio engineer, sat in silence as he and his date, Sherri, rode downtown Sunday afternoon to watch the Atlanta Hawks play the Washington Wizards at State Farm Arena.
The death of his hero, Kobe Bryant, had taken the wind out of him.
“Kobe was my idol growing up,” he said. “I’m sick right now.”
Mitchell nearly didn’t go to the Hawks game. But he imagined Bryant calling him soft, remembering the superstar’s famous interactions with his Lakers teammate Dwight Howard.
“He would have been, ‘Dude, go to the game!’”
So Mitchell, a Knicks fan from New York, put on his gold and purple jersey.
“I had to represent somehow,” he said, putting a hand to the Lakers logo on his chest as a stream of basketball fans in red filed past him.
“To see Kobe coming in, he was fearless,” he said. “He just stole my heart for real. I still can’t believe it.”
There were no vigils in Atlanta as the crowd quietly filtered into the arena, but a few people wore Lakers jerseys and beanies. Many scanned the news on their phones as word spread that Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was among those killed in the helicopter crash.
Both Kobe and Gianna had forged connections with the Hawks. A month ago, the father and daughter watched the team and later met up with star point guard Trae Young. According to Young, Gianna said he was her favorite player.
Young took to Twitter on Sunday afternoon to thank Bryant for his guidance:
All the Lessons
All the Advice
Every word you ever told me...
Will stick with me forever
Thank You Kobe
Half an hour before the players entered the court, Jermaine Sledge, a 41-year-old Atlanta electrician, poured a can of Yuengling into a plastic cup at the CNN Center as a giant screen broadcast updates.
“I’m just mourning right now,” he said as he slumped against a table. “I feel like I lost a family member.”
Playing basketball growing up, Sledge was always a Lakers fan. But when Bryant came along, he immediately became Sledge’s all-time favorite.
“He was just die-hard,” he said. “Kobe Bryant came along and changed the game for me. He had that Black Mamba mentality — that dangerous, bold attitude.”
He hoped the Hawks-Wizards game would start with a tribute.
As the players entered the court, Trae Young wore a No. 8 jersey in honor of his mentor.
A screen above the stadium lighted up with pictures of the NBA MVP and thousands got to their feet to observe a moment of silence.
Then they cheered, some pumping their fists in the air: “Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!”
The Hawks opened with an eight-second backcourt violation and then the Wizards took a 24-second shot clock violation — the two jersey numbers Bryant wore in his NBA career.
And then the game carried on.
Kobe Bryant fans gather at crash site to honor Laker legend
About 400 fans have gathered near the crash site and are chanting “MVP” and “Kobe, Kobe.”
The fans, many of them wearing Bryant’s Lakers jersey, are looking up at the dry hillside where the NBA legend died along with his daughter and seven others.
One man was wearing a yellow Bryant dressing gown, Bryant socks and Nike Lakers shoes.
Notable athletes who have died in vehicle and aviation accidents
Kobe Bryant joins a list of athletes who have died young in vehicle and aviation accidents.
Click below to see the list.
Lakers players shocked and speechless after learning of Kobe Bryant’s death
Many Lakers were sleeping as they flew home from Philadelphia on Sunday, as devastating news began to spread through the plane.
Kobe Bryant had been killed in a helicopter crash.
One of the players who was awake was the only one who had been a Lakers teammate of Bryant’s. Dwight Howard began circulating the news as soon as he found out. Kurt Rambis and the Lakers director of media relations, Alison Bogli, addressed the coaches. Then Lakers coach Frank Vogel went to the area of the plane where players sit to address his team.
LAX’s pylons will be in purple and gold in honor of Kobe Bryant
Grammy Awards will honor Kobe Bryant with a tribute tonight
Hours after the sudden death of Kobe Bryant, the Recording Academy is planning a last-minute tribute for the Lakers star to air during the Grammys ceremony this evening.
Bryant died early Sunday in a Calabasas helicopter crash that also killed his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others. With Staples Center closed to the public for the Grammys, Angelenos gathered outside to build a memorial for the Lakers legend.
Elizabeth Warren reacts to the death of Kobe Bryant
Hernández: No athlete represented Los Angeles quite like Kobe Bryant
He was named after premium Japanese beef. He spent most of his childhood in Italy. He was a high school basketball legend in Philadelphia.
And he was all Los Angeles.
Kobe Bryant came here a 17-year-old boy, still not a legal adult when he was acquired by the Lakers on draft day in 1996. In a two-decade career played entirely in this city, he scaled the greatest of athletic heights and was tarnished by the worst of personal scandals. He was beloved, reviled and, in the end, revered. He became a father here, retired here, continued to live here and started businesses here.
Kobe Bryant mural becomes a shrine to fans mourning his death
Dozens of people stopped to stare at a mural of Kobe Bryant on the side of the Shoe Palace on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
On the side of the mural were the words “on 4.13 Kobe played his final game ... this tribute has 413 triangles.”
Since the news broke, visitors papered the purple wall with yellow sticky notes that read, “Kobe you were king of LA and legend of basketball R.I.P. bro,” “thx Kobe for everything you are LA,” and “thank you mamba for showing us what it means to be a champion.”
Iowa voters react to news of Kobe Bryant’s death while waiting for Joe Biden’s speech
DES MOINES — More than 100 voters were waiting to hear from former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday afternoon at a social service organization in northern Des Moines when an organizer announced that Kobe Bryant had passed away.
The stunned crowd gasped before holding a moment of silence.
When Biden entered the crammed space a few minutes later, he said he had just heard about Bryant’s death.
“It makes you realize that you’ve got to make every day county, every single day count,” Biden said, before turning to his first election to Senate. His wife and daughter were killed and his two sons badly injured in a car crash shortly after he won his race.
“The point is, none of us are exempt,” he said. “But what we can do is change things to make it better for our children, our grandchildren and grandparents as well.”
With that, he returned to his campaign argument: that the country, after seeing President Trump’s behavior since taking office — whether disparaging minorities and women or separating babies from their mothers at the border — would not reelect him.
“The American public now goes, ‘Whoa, I didn’t sign on for this. That’s not who we are,’” Biden said, adding that the president’s behavior would affect voters the same way that images of law enforcement turning water hoses and snarling dogs on civil rights protesters changed hearts and minds in that era. “If we stay together — I mean this from the bottom of my heart — if we stay together, if we speak out, if we don’t back down, we’re at the point now where the American public is ready to do what they did in the late ‘50s and ‘60s.”
Team of 18 responds to crash site, launches search for ‘black box’
National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference Sunday evening that the agency is investigating the crash that killed nine people, including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
The “go team” will consist of 18 people, including investigators, who will look to see if there’s a so-called black box that can reveal more about why the helicopter crashed.
Officials will look into the history of the pilot and crew, as well as maintenance records from the owner and operator.
Where the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and 8 others crashed
Read what Magic Johnson told Jim Hill on the death of Kobe Bryant
“It’s just amazing that we were blessed to have a chance to know him, but also to see him play. But to me, his greatest joy was really after basketball, was being a husband and a father and being a coach of his daughter’s basketball team.
I used to love, when we won the championships, just going into the locker room and talking to him. We would be in the trainers room, just him and I, one time him and Shaq, and just reflecting on the journey of becoming a champion. I tell you the greatest conversation we had, though, was both of us saying how much we loved being a Laker. Kobe relished being a Laker and playing his whole career just for the Lakers. And he loved Jeanie Buss and Dr. Buss, but he loved Jeanie. They were like sister and brother. We always laughed. He would tell me I was 1A and he was 1B.
People are going to miss his smile and just miss him. Kobe had an aura about him. I thought he was going to live forever. I thought he was invincible. He played like that. He walked like that. He was just a confident young man.
I’m going to miss him.
I got the honor of blessing him when they put both of his numbers up, No. 8, No. 24. Kobe is unique in so many different ways. When you put on that uniform, that Laker uniform, there was nobody who took more pride in being a Laker. Nobody. It was just amazing. The city needs heroes, Jim. We need our heroes to be here. And this is not a good day for the city of Los Angeles because we needed Kobe to still be around our kids who idolized him, the fanbase who idolized him. And there was more for him to do. He died way too early. He’s left quite a legacy, but he was still building on it.
There was just something special. God created this special basketball player but also this special man.
Today to have to say goodbye to a hero, a legend, a icon a guy we’ll always love and remember…
This guy, he wanted to win. And he would do anything it took to win. Anything.
He shared his talents with other young players. He would work out five or 10 NBA players every summer. He would work out WNBA players, young ladies. Anybody that called him, he’d work them out and given them advice. That says something about Kobe Bryant.
I’m not supposed to be doing this. He’s supposed to be talking about me. He’s way too young. I was supposed to pass away. He was supposed to be talking about me, not me talking about him. It’s a sad day, man.”
NTSB to hold press conference on helicopter crash
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would hold a news conference on the crash Sunday night at Reagan National Airport outside Washington at 6 p.m. Eastern time.
Under federal law, the NTSB is charged with investigating and identifying the probable cause of “every civil aviation accident in the United States,” as well as train, road, and marine accidents.
Typically in aviation accidents, the voice and data recorder known as “black boxes” are transported to the agency’s Washington headquarters. The agency cautions it may not determine the cause of a crash for more than a year afterward.
The Italian town Kobe Bryant grew up in mourns his loss
ROME — Kobe Bryant was mourned on Sunday in the small town of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, where he spent part of his childhood when his father, Joe Bryant, played basketball there.
“Kobe Bryant grew up here and was, for all of us, a ‘Reggiano,’” wrote the town’s mayor, Luca Vecchi, on Facebook. “Today he left us — a basketball legend that the whole town will remember forever with affection and respect. Ciao Kobe.”
When Bryant was 6, his father, Joe, retired after a career in the NBA and moved his family to Italy, where he played for five seasons in the central region of Lazio, the southern region of Calabria, in Tuscany and finally for two seasons at Reggio Emilia, a small town in the northern region of Emilia Romagna.
There, his son Kobe played in the youth team of Pallcanestro Reggiana — where his father played on the senior side — and where Kobe took his first steps in the game before returning to the U.S.
On Sunday, the team published photos of Bryant with the simple message, “Always one of us.”
During a return visit to Reggio Emilia in 2016, where he gave interviews in the fluent Italian he learned as a child, Bryant told local newspaper Il Resto del Carlino, “My story started in this city,” adding, “Would you believe that one of the best players in the NBA could grow up here? There is nowhere further from Los Angeles. It means every dream is possible.”
Stefano Bonaccini, the governor of the Emilia Romagna region, wrote on Facebook: “I have so many special memories. Here I could go around on a bicycle, go and eat an icecream with my friends. Kobe Bryant has gone and we spare a thought for a great champion and a great person, who had a connection with our region just as our region had a connection to him.”
Clippers coach Doc Rivers says team is devastated by Kobe Bryant’s death
ORLANDO, Fla. — Tears clinging to his cheeks, Clippers coach Doc Rivers on Sunday called the death of Kobe Bryant “devastating” and mourned that the former Lakers great “had so much more left to do.”
Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine people who died in a helicopter crash Sunday morning in the hills above Calabasas.
Across the country, the Clippers received the news less than four hours before they were scheduled to play Orlando. Players warmed up before tipoff, but the mood inside Amway Center was solemn. The locker rooms for both the Magic and Clippers remained closed before tipoff, at the direction of the NBA.
Video: Fans stop by Staples Center to drop off flowers in honor of Kobe Bryant
Celebrities mourn the late Kobe Bryant
The tragic news of basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s death Sunday sent shock waves over social media.
Staples Center, the home court of the Lakers, is already awash with fans hoping to pay their respects to the 18-time NBA All-Star who won five NBA championships, two Finals MVPs and one-regular season MVP over the course of 20 seasons with the Lakers.
Reaction from outside Lakers practice facility in El Segundo
Richard Bettencourt, 41, and his daughter, Jazmyn Bettencourt, 15, arrived outside the Lakers practice facility in El Segundo after hearing the news of the death of Kobe Bryant:
Richard: “The rock just dropped on everybody. Then when you thought that was bad, as a father hearing that his daughter was on the helicopter as well, it brings it closer to home than you think.”
Jazmyn: “He was a good guy who did what he could for the people. Knowing that there was someone like him who did a lot of stuff for others, when there’s other people who have enough but won’t do anything, it’s nice to see that.”
Fans rush to get a piece of Kobe Bryant memorabilia
There was a rush on memorabilia, collectables and just about anything bearing Kobe Bryant’s image at Frank & Son Collectible Show in Rowland Heights.
Narbeh Wer, owner of the Star Framing & Sports Memorabilia booth inside the large warehouse, said he easily sold over 100 8-by-10-inch unsigned photos of the Lakers legend for $5 each today.
“It’s been photos all day, the non-autographed ones because that’s, you know, within everyone’s budget,” Wer, 43, said. “I couldn’t raise the price, honestly, because it’s Kobe.”
Wer said he’s rooted for Bryant since he saw the then-rookie during summer league action at the Long Beach Pyramid in 1996.
“It’s just shocking,” Wer said. “Nobody can believe it.”
East Los Angeles residents Ocean Miranda, 22, and Otani Vigil, 18, raced to see if they could still find a Funko Pop Kobe Bryant figurine — one they had bypassed only two weeks earlier.
“We were driving here already when we heard the news about Kobe,” Miranda said. “I was going to get it last time, and I said I had to get it this time.”
To Miranda and Vigil’s chagrin, the collectible had already been sold and replaced with a Lonzo Ball figurine.
“I can’t believe we missed it,” Vigil said. “We have some others, like LeBron [James] and Anthony Davis in our collections, but now we might not get Kobe.”
L.A. County sheriff says 9 people were on board helicopter
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said nine people were on the aircraft — a pilot and eight passengers. He would not confirm who died until all the next of kin are notified, he said.
Plaschke: How can Kobe Bryant be gone? His legend wasn’t supposed to end this way
I’m screaming right now, cursing into the sky, crying into my keyboard, and I don’t care who knows it.
Kobe Bryant is gone, and those are the hardest words I’ve ever had to write for this newspaper, and I still don’t believe them as I’m writing them. I’m still crying, and go ahead, let it out. Don’t be embarrassed, cry with me, weep and wail and shout into the streets, fill a suddenly empty Los Angeles with your pain.
Damn it. Damn it! Damn it!!
‘Did you hear?’ The public grieves for Kobe Bryant, from Trader Joe’s to Staples Center
“Did you hear?” one cashier at the Trader Joe’s on La Brea Avenue and 3rd Street said quietly to another staffer as he passed by.
“Yeah, but is it for real?” the other man replied.
“Yeah, just confirmed. Unbelievable.”
Mamba Academy becomes site to honor Kobe Bryant’s legacy
A makeshift memorial outside the locked front doors of the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks was forming Sunday afternoon. There were flowers, a Lakers banner, a photo of Bryant on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Isaac Grudsky, an 11-year-old resident of Agoura Hills, carried a lighted candle with an American flag and placed it gently on the ground. His father, Mauricio, works out at the facility in which Bryant became an investor in 2018.
“We’re part of this community,” Mauricio said. “We’ve seen him come in and out.”
Bryant was scheduled to coach in a tournament game Sunday as part of the Mamba Cup, a tournament featuring travel teams from fourth grade to eighth grade, both boys and girls.
Anthony Nolen, a boys coach from Victorville, said he saw Bryant coaching in a girls’ game on Saturday. It will be his final memory.
“They were down by 10 at the time,” Nolen said. “Kobe being Kobe, he wasn’t screaming at the refs, he wasn’t screaming at the players. He was poised. Him being down by 10, he was upset but as usual, he gave the other coach a Kobe stare to ensure him, you could beat me now as a team but not one on one.”
The Mamba Academy closed its parking lots with red cones and a Thousand Oaks police vehicle was parked inside. A long line of parked cars was forming along Rancho Conejo Boulevard. Fans wearing Bryant jerseys stood over the memorial with cameras. The parking lot will remain closed, according to a police officer, but access to the memorial outside the double doors will be allowed. All tournament games scheduled for Sunday were canceled once news was confirmed that Bryant died in the helicopter crash in Calabasas.
A family drove up from Santa Barbara and received a text at 1:45 p.m. confirming the tournament had been canceled.
Nolen was returning from his hotel when he arrived and saw the doors locked.
“There were no players that wanted to continue,” he said.
Officials ask Kobe Bryant fans not to gather at Staples because of Grammy Awards
Photos: Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash in Calabasas
Video: The scene outside Staples Center
What are your memories of Kobe Bryant?
Fans around the world were left reeling by the news of Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday morning. Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was also killed in the crash.
The Times wants to hear about your memories of Kobe Bryant, whether it’s an unforgettable Lakers game or a chance encounter in Southern California or elsewhere.
Barack Obama reacts to news of Kobe Bryant’s death
Shaquille O’Neal: ‘There’s no words to express the pain Im going through’
Photos: A look back on the life of Kobe Bryant
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar remembers Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant’s daughter also killed in helicopter crash
Kobe Bryant’s daughter Gianna, 13, was also on board and died in the helicopter crash.
Bryant’s death stunned Los Angeles and the sports world, which mourned one of basketball’s greatest players. Sources said the helicopter took off from Orange County, where Bryant lived.
Fans outside Staples Center react to death of Kobe Bryant
“It made me sick, absolutely sick.” “I knew there would be a nice crowd down here, and it’d be a place to come talk about it and hang with other fans that are hurting too.”“Initially, you’re like, ‘It’s not true.’ Now that it’s real, it sucks. He was a legend in this city. He taught us that with hard work, you can be the best at anything. All those videos showing him in the gym, late nights, it was empowering, it was inspiring.”
-- Kyle Robinson, 28, lifelong Laker fan
“I was at my apartment by myself and I broke down crying. I looked for my Kobe jersey and said, ‘I have to go down there. I’m too restless. I have to pay my respects.’”
“Growing up in L.A., it’s such a big diverse spread out city. One of the things that I realized growing up here that brought us together was the Lakers and Kobe. I think part of that was because of the way he approached the game. I think a lot of people grew up with Kobe as their mentor from afar. It’s not just about basketball. It’s been about how you approach life in general. A lot of people from L.A. take that to heart. Even after he retired, this is a Kobe town.”
-- Ryan Apfel, USC student from Redondo Beach
“He’s Los Angeles, he’s everything. With the Lakers, he was a great champion, and he continued to take it to another level. This is trying to repay him.”
“I needed to come show something, even though it was the worst time to do it. Just needed to pay my respect to Kobe.”
“Like everyone else, we’re in shock. Everybody is in shock. These are things nobody is expecting. I’m shaking. I don’t know what to think anymore. For everyone, it’s a sad day. Not just for sports, but in general life.”
-- Gabriel Paredes, who set up the main flower bouquet
Eyewitness describes seeing the crash of helicopter
Eyewitness Scott Daehlin, 61, was setting up sound at Church of the Canyon below the crash site when he heard the helicopter overhead during a smoke break.
“Because of proximity to the ground I knew something was wrong. It was hovering real low like they were searching to land. It was making a slow left turn. It was about 9:44 a.m. and then the impact happened. I heard a crunch. I don’t think it pancaked. I think it hit rotors first,” Daehlin said.
“I immediately called 911. It was 9:45 a.m.,” Daehlin said. In the thick fog, the deputies and fire trucks initially drove past the crash site on the hillsides west of Stokes Canyon. The church sits on the west side of Las Virgenes Road across from the hillside.
Surreal moments inside Staples Center as word of Kobe Bryant’s death spread
It was a sad and surreal scene inside Staples Center, where Grammy Awards dress rehearsal was taking place as word of Bryant’s death swept through the arena around noon.
Crews worked quickly to move Kobe’s rafter jerseys side by side, and masked the other retired jerseys with curtains.
By 1 p.m. the switch had been made. No. 8 and No. 24 were side by side, illuminated by floodlights.
News of the crash dominated the rehearsal. Ariana Grande had just finished a lavish performance, and Billie Eilish was about to perform an acoustic song with her brother.
But all eyes were on the jerseys at the other end of the floor, as staff and observers watched in disbelief.
Gov. Newsom issues statement on Kobe Bryant’s death
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom today issued the following statement regarding the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant:
“We mourn the tragic and untimely death of a California icon and basketball legend, Kobe Bryant. In his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, he made history with raw talent and unparalleled dedication that raised the bar and paved the way for a newer generation of players.
“Despite winning five NBA championships and two gold Olympic medals, and achieving countless accolades in the athletics world, he also helped improve the lives of youth and families through the Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Bryant Foundation, and was an outspoken advocate for combating homelessness through partnerships with organizations such as My Friend’s Place and Step Up on Second.
“Our deepest condolences go to his wife, family, colleagues, friends and fans. He was taken too soon and he will be missed.”
Jerry West reacts to news of Kobe Bryant’s death
“To have been such, particularly when he was young, to be a part of his life and to watch his career grow, watch him grow, this is one of the most tragic days of my life. I know somewhere along the way I guess I’ll come to grips with it. But now I have all these different emotions regarding him. The things I watched him do on the basketball court, but more importantly he was going to make a difference off the court, and he was making a difference off the court. It’s so unexplainable. This is going to take a long time for me.”
— Jerry West as told to L.A. Times reporter Brad Turner
Manufacturer of helicopter involved in crash issues statement
Store sells out of Kobe photo books within minutes of his death
About half an hour after news broke of Kobe Bryant’s death, a Barnes & Noble in Orange had sold out of all photo books featuring the star.
Only a few books about Bryant remained. Staff moved some of them up to the front of the store, near the checkout counter.
Only one copy was left of “Legacy & the Queen,” a children’s book co-written by Bryant.
“It’s kind of morose, but people just came in 10 or 15 minutes after we found out about it,” said Armando Romero, a bookseller at the cash register.
He said his general manager announced Bryant’s death to the employees over their wireless head sets.
“We knew right away people would be coming,” he said. Minutes later, Romero said, he received phone calls from customers, asking to put Bryant-related books on hold. Romero said he expected to sell out of most Bryant-related books by the end of the day.
Clippers react to the death of Kobe Bryant
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President Trump responds to the death of Kobe Bryant
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti issues statement on Kobe Bryant’s death
“Kobe Bryant was a giant who inspired, amazed, and thrilled people everywhere with his incomparable skill on the court — and awed us with his intellect and humility as a father, husband, creative genius, and ambassador for the game he loved. He will live forever in the heart of Los Angeles, and will be remembered through the ages as one of our greatest heroes. This is a moment that leaves us struggling to find words that express the magnitude of shock and sorrow we are all feeling right now, and I am keeping Kobe’s entire family in my prayers at this time of unimaginable grief.”
NBA players recall Kobe Bryant’s career in one word
Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took. All 30,699 of them
Kobe Bryant’s 30,699th and final field goal came from 19 feet with 31 seconds left against the Utah Jazz. During his 20 years with the Lakers, he fired up more than 30,000 shots, including the regular season and playoffs.
Take a tour of key shots over his 20-year career, or explore the makes and misses over his long career on your own.
From the Archives: Kobe Bryant reveals favorite moment in his career and what’s next
The realization came while Kobe Bryant was meditating.
“I don’t want to get too Zen-like on you guys, but honestly, sitting in meditation for me, my mind starts drifting,” Bryant said Sunday. “It always drifted toward basketball, always, always. It doesn’t do that anymore. ... That was one of the first indicators that this game isn’t something I can obsess over for much longer.”
Remembering Kobe Bryant’s 20-year career with the Lakers
He was a high school phenomenon. An NBA MVP. He was a two-time scoring champion, once scoring 81 points in a game, and is third in career scoring. He was an 18-time All-Star, four times named MVP of the game. He won two Olympic gold medals. He was twice NBA Finals MVP. He played in the Finals seven times, and won five championship rings.
Sports world mourns the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant in Calabasas helicopter crash
Kobe Bryant was one of five people who died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday morning. He was 41.
Athletes and celebrities from around the sports world mourned the loss of the Lakers legend on social media:
Kobe Bryant killed in helicopter crash in Calabasas
Kobe Bryant, the NBA icon and MVP who spanned a 20-year career with the Lakers, was killed Sunday when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed and burst into flames Sunday morning amid foggy conditions in the hills above Calabasas, sources told The Times.