ESPN achors celebrates the life and legacy of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, sharing their favourite memories of Kobe.
On Jan. 26, 2020, a helicopter crash on a foggy Sunday morning in Southern California claimed the lives of nine people. Among them, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. The crash occurred in the hills above Calabasas, California, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The details surrounding Bryant’s death were murky for most of that morning and early afternoon. Some couldn’t believe he was gone and most didn’t want to. When confirmation finally came it marked one of the most shocking deaths of a public figure in recent memory.
The others killed were the pilot Ara Zobayan: Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa; Christina Mauser, who helped Bryant coach his daughter’s basketball team; and Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton. Alyssa and Payton were Gianna’s teammates. The group were on their to watch the girls play in a basketball tournament and many of the details of how exactly the helicopter ended up slamming into the side of a hill at high speeds remain a mystery. What followed in the hours, days, and weeks after the news of Bryant’s passing was an endless stream of stunned reactions, praise, tribute, adulation and love for Bryant’s family and the families of the other seven people that died that day.