The news of Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash on Sunday, is shocking to many who knew him. He was 41 and had been retired since the 2015-16 season.
The US basketball legend was killed in a helicopter crash in the city of Calabasas, California.
He was travelling in a private helicopter when it burst into flames, according to media reports.
The LA County Sheriff’s department said five people died in the helicopter crash on Sunday, with no survivors.
Confirming the death, the City of Calabasas confirmed the news with “great sadness”. It said “nobody on the ground was hurt”.
Eyewitnesses told news site TMZ they heard the helicopter’s engine spluttering before it went down.
Kobe Bryant, a prodigy at Lower Merion High who leaped into the NBA at 17 and became a basketball legend during two spotlit decades in Los Angeles, was among five persons killed Sunday when his private helicopter crashed in Calabasas, Calif.
He died with his 13 years old daughter Gianna Maria Onore, who was on the plane with him.
Kobe Bryant, a prodigy at Lower Merion High who leaped into the NBA at 17 and became a basketball legend during two spotlit decades in Los Angeles, was among five persons killed on Sunday when his private helicopter crashed in Calabasas, Calif.
Mr. Bryant was 41 and had been retired since the 2015-16 season.
Ironically, on Saturday, during a Lakers-76ers game at the Wells Fargo Center, LeBron James surpassed Mr. Bryant’s career point total of 33,467 to move into third place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Long before his retirement, Mr. Bryant was one of those rare superstars whose first name was sufficient identity.
Even those unfamiliar with basketball knew Kobe, and his No. 24 jersey was one of the league’s all-time best sellers.
One of the NBA’s leading attractions, he also was immensely popular in Europe, where he’d grown up, and in Asia, where crowds at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing chanted his name.
The cause of the crash is being investigated.
