NBA Legend Kobe Bryant, Daughter Gianna Dead In Helicopter Crash In California

Basketball legend Kobe Bryant has died aged 41 in a helicopter crash in California.

The NBA legend enjoyed a glittering 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers during his prime.

Bryant was traveling in his private helicopter when it crashed in Calabasas on Sunday morning.

Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was also onboard the private helicopter when it went down, reps for the former basketball player told TMZ Sports.

Sources told ESPN that the helicopter was headed to a travel basketball game for Gianna and that the other passengers were another player and their parent.

The chopper is said to have caught fire after going down, as emergency services battled in vain to save those on board.

Nine people have been confirmed dead as a result of the crash, which is now under investigation. 

Bryant regularly used his Sikorsky S-76 helicopter to travel to and from matches at the Staples Center for years. 

Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant — with whom he shares all four children — was not onboard.

Bryant is survived by Vanessa, 37, and their daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months.

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Earlier this month, the former NBA star — who retired in 2016 — revealed that he had recently started watching basketball all the time because of his 13-year-old daughter.

“Before Gigi got into basketball I hardly watched it, but now that’s she’s into basketball, we watch every night,” Kobe told former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the Showtime Basketball podcast All the Smoke.

Kobe and his daughter also attended several Lakers games before the start of the new year, marking the first time he had been to a game since his jersey was retired in 2017.

Kobe is the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, he started his career for the Lakers in 1996 after becoming the first guard to be drafted straight out of high school by the Hornets, who immediately traded him.

He grew up in Philadelphia and had attended Lower Merion High School in the state of Pennsylvania.

There he developed a reputation as a leading star of the future and was soon making headlines as a rookie in the NBA.

At 34 he became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points, and his four All-Star MVP awards are the joint-most tied with Bob Pettit.

The shooting guard wore numbers eight and 24 during his career, which were both retired by the Lakers in December 2017, shortly after he had quit the sport following the 2015-16 season.

Bryant was also a two-time Olympic gold medalist in basketball, having won the tournament with the United States at the Beijing games in 2008, and again in London in 2012.

Away from the court Bryant also holds an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 2018 awards, for ‘Dear Basketball’, a film he wrote and narrated.

READ: NBA Franchise Retires No. 24 To Honor Basketball Legend Kobe Bryant

Source: Mirror