Kobe Bryant's death sent shock waves through the National Basketball Association, which he helped propel to international prominence, and stunned fans around the world, one of the NBA’s all-time greatest players and an athlete of global renown, was killed at age 41 on Sunday in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven on board, officials said.
“There were no survivors,” county sheriff Alex Villanueva told a news conference, saying the flight manifest showed nine people on board. He declined to identify them. Others on board besides the pilot were a teammate from Bryant’s daughter’s basketball squad and a parent of the teammate, NBC News reported.
“I am in shock over the tragic news of Kobe’s and Gianna’s passing. Words can’t describe the pain I’m feeling,” said Michael Jordan, who won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. “Kobe was an amazing dad who loved his family deeply and took great pride in his daughter’s love for the game of basketball.”
He also won an Oscar in 2018 as writer-producer of that year’s best animated short film, “Dear Basketball,” which Bryant also narrated, and he sometimes mingled with show-business stars in Los Angeles.“Most people will remember Kobe as the magnificent athlete who inspired a whole generation of basketball players. But I will always remember him as a man who was much more than an athlete,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time NBA scoring leader and former Laker, said on Twitter.