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LOS ANGELES — Basketball lost during a ll|one amongst|one in every of"> one among its greatest competitors and most accomplished players Sunday when l. a. Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in California. The five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist was 41.
Bryant was riding in an S-76 helicopter Sunday when it crashed just before 10 a.m. into a hillside near Calabasas, Calif., roughly 30 miles northwest of l. a. . The flight manifest listed nine people on board — one pilot and eight passengers — and there have been no survivors, consistent with local authorities. Gianna Bryant, the previous player’s 13-year-old daughter, was confirmed dead.
“For 20 seasons, Kobe showed us what's possible when remarkable talent blends with an absolute devotion to winning,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said during a statement. “He was one among the foremost extraordinary players within the history of our game with accomplishments that are legendary. … He are going to be remembered most for uplifting people round the world to select up a basketball and compete to the absolute best of their ability. He was generous with the wisdom he acquired and saw it as his mission to share it with future generations of players, taking special enjoyment of passing down his love of the sport to Gianna.”
Weather observations from the crash area indicated low clouds and restricted visibility, which can have obscured high terrain. The crash sparked a quarter-acre fire , consistent with the l. a. local department , which responded with “15 pieces of apparatus and 56 personnel” to extinguish the blaze. within the hours after the crash, white smoke from the helicopter was visible from nearby Highway 101. Bryant regularly traveled by helicopter during and after his NBA career, and an outsized crowd of fans quickly descended upon the crash scene to pay their respects.
The smooth shooting guard, who patterned his game after Michael Jordan, entered the NBA straight out of highschool in 1996. The Charlotte Hornets selected Bryant with the 13th pick, but immediately traded him to the Lakers, where he spent his entire 20-year career.
“I am in shock over the tragic news of Kobe’s and Gianna’s passing,” Jordan said during a statement. “I loved Kobe — he was sort of a brother to me. We wont to talk often, and that i will miss those conversations considerably . He was a fierce competitor, one among the best of the sport and an ingenious force. Kobe was also a tremendous dad who loved his family deeply — and took great pride in his daughter’s love for the sport of basketball.”
By Bryant’s second season, he had earned his first of 18 all-star selections. By his fourth season, he had teamed with Shaquille O’Neal to win the primary of three consecutive championships.
“There’s no words to precise the pain I’m browsing with this tragedy of [losing] my [niece] Gigi & my brother Kobe Bryant,” O’Neal wrote on Twitter. “I love u and u are going to be missed. My condolences [go] bent the Bryant family.”
Bryant, who retired because the NBA’s third-all-time leading scorer with 33,643 points, was expected to be inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on the primary ballot this summer. He was a headlining member of a star-studded class that also includes Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
Orange Coast College baseball manager John Altobelli; his wife, Keri; and his daughter Alyssa were also passengers on the helicopter, consistent with a spokesman for the junior college . Gianna Bryant and Alyssa Altobelli were basketball teammates.
As news of Bryant’s death spread, reaction came from every corner of the sports world and beyond. President Trump called Bryant’s death “terrible news” on Twitter, while President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, sent “love and prayers” to Bryant’s family “on an unthinkable day.”
“Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would are even as meaningful a second act,” Obama tweeted. “To lose Gianna is even more heartbreaking to us as parents."
Magic Johnson, a Hall of Fame Lakers player who also served the organization as a teacher and executive, said that “the game of basketball [and] our city will never be an equivalent without Kobe.”
Multiple NBA teams held tributes during games Sunday, intentionally holding the ball to incur a 24-second violation — a nod to at least one of Bryant’s jersey numbers. Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young, who figured out with Bryant last summer, took the court wearing No. 8, Bryant’s other jersey number. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said his organization would permanently retire Bryant’s No. 24 jersey.
Although his early career partnership with O’Neal didn’t last, Bryant went on to greater heights after their 2004 parting. He won two scoring titles within the years that followed, and he famously scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, the second-highest single-game total in NBA history. Bryant’s 2008 pairing with Pau Gasol produced two more championships in 2009 and 2010, with Bryant winning Finals MVP honors both times.
Gasol wrote on Twitter that he was “beyond devastated, adding, “My big brother . . . I can’t, I just can’t believe it.”
A famous competitor known for championing his ruthless “Mamba Mentality,” Bryant suffered a career-altering Achilles’ injury in 2013. He recovered to play three more seasons, retiring in 2016. A season-long retirement tour culminated with a 60-point explosion within the last game of his career, perhaps the foremost memorable finale in NBA history.
“We are stunned and devastated by the news of the sudden passing of Kobe Bryant,” the National Basketball Players Association said during a statement. “Words cannot express his impact on our players, the NBA and therefore the game of basketball. this is often a monumental loss for the whole basketball community and our hearts are quite simply broken. We send love and prayers bent his wife Vanessa and therefore the entire family.”
Bryant’s NBA career wasn't without controversy. In 2003, a 19-year-old woman in Colorado accused him of sexual abuse , although the fees were later dropped. the 2 parties later settled a lawsuit .
In retirement, Bryant wrote children’s books and produced animated stories, while also pursuing assorted media and business projects together with his Granity Studios. In 2018, he won an Academy Award for best animated short film for “Dear Basketball,” his billet doux to the game .
Bryant and Gianna shared a love for basketball, with Bryant serving as her coach and infrequently taking her to Lakers games. Just last month, they sat courtside for the Lakers’ victory over the Dallas Mavericks and took photographs with rising star Luka Doncic.
“[Bryant has] got one among the best female basketball players that’s close to come up sitting next to him,” Lakers superstar LeBron James said after a game in November. “I’m just trying to place on a show for them.”
Among his NBA peers, Bryant was revered for his tireless work ethic and his fearlessness in clutch moments.
“For most of the blokes during this league … Kobe is their Jordan,” Celtics Coach Brad Stevens said.
Fans at the scene were in similar disbelief. The still-smoking wreckage was visible from the road abreast of a hillside Sunday afternoon. Parking spots within the local shopping mall were filled, and cars were illegally parked on each side of the road near the crash site.
“I just came as a respect for Kobe, he was one among the best of all time, especially in L.A. He features a history that we’re never getting to forget,” said Mark Escalante, 48, who drove 45 minutes from Fillmore.
Cody Stenzel, 18, of Camarillo, remembered Bryant as a task model. Holding a bouquet of yellow and purple tulips, Stenzel spoke of his experience at the Mamba Sports Academy that Bryant had opened in nearby Thousand Oaks. The academy welcomed all local youth during the 2018 Woolsey wildfires that ripped through Calabasas and neighboring areas.
“I couldn’t really afford it so I just went there to possess fun and play some basketball when the fires were happening. it had been really cool,” he said, adding that Bryant had always been a crucial figure to him.
“I always searched to him and watch the Lakers,” he said. “It was how hard he worked. Everyone knew he had Mamba mentality. … It’s being tougher than anything and pushing through adversity and every one the tough times. … I saw that mentality and it had been cool to ascertain what he did.”
Bryan Miller, 53, from Calabasas, donned a Lakers jersey after riding his bike over to the scene.
“I spent my life watching the Lakers," he said. "I already know that life so short, that it are often over before you think that . So make the simplest of it.”
Golliver reported from New Orleans . Harrison Smith, Emily Langer and Cindy Boren in Washington contributed to the present report.
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