Legendary Basketball Player Kobe Bryant Killed in Helicopter Crash, His 13-Year-Old Daughter Also on Board
He was 41. He was reportedly piloting the helicopter himself.
Legendary American basketball player Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday morning, January 26. Reports Daily Mail.
A private helicopter carrying 9 people caught fire during a flight over Calabasas, crashing as a result. No one survived. According to reports from TMZ, the helicopter was heading to the Mamba Academy for a basketball training session. Bryant's daughter Gianna also died along with him.
The causes of the air crash are being investigated. The athlete is survived by his wife Vanessa and three daughters, the youngest of whom was born in June 2019.
US President Donald Trump called the incident “terrible news”:
Ukrainian NBA basketball player Stanislav Medvedenko, Bryant's teammate at the Lakers, expressed his condolences:
Kobe Bryant played as a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers over 20 NBA seasons from 1996 to 2016. He won five championship titles, took gold at the Olympic Games twice (2008 and 2012) as part of the US national team, participated in the All-Star Game 18 times, was named to the All-Defensive Team 12 times and the All-NBA Team 15 times. In the 2006 Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors game, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points. He retired in 2016.
In 2018, Kobe Bryant received the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball, for which he served as producer and screenwriter.
The film is based on a poem in which Kobe Bryant announced the end of his basketball career. The voiceover in the short film is read by the athlete himself. He describes his childhood love of basketball and how he and basketball gave each other everything they had.
Watch “Dear Basketball” (4 min):
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