Lakers: TMZ Reporting Kobe died this morning in helicopter crash

[baseline bum]

It is awful, the inclusion of his daughter & the other child just makes it impossible.

Yeah man you could see how Kobe put so much of his best into his girl and how proud he was of her. Still feel kind of sick in my stomach over it.

[Laker_1995]

Still get teary eyed about it. I had so many ing fights arguing that Kobe was better than other friends players when I was in elementary through high school. Days I would en get so mad I’d start crying because they would make fun of Kobe lol ( I know how dumb). But damn my family and myself grew up cherishing this guy on the court. We seen every damn game we could, every playoff series, everything and man for him to go out like this is absolutely devastating. We all gotta go one way but man why like this though. Rest easy Kobe. love you king and I will always keep supporting you. People might think I’m exaggerating but I’ve been a fan since I was a damn 5 year old. This truly kills me.

[Thread]

Yeah man you could see how Kobe put so much of his best into his girl and how proud he was of her. Still feel kind of sick in my stomach over it.

Yes, and he never made an aside, or, a regret that there hadn't been a son. Not a peep. "We" did, "what if"...but, not Bryant. Kept his mouth shut.

He rehabbed himself from the rape, made amends to his victim & went about the business of rebuilding his life & marriage. She could have divorced him and returned the favor of humiliating him in public, but, She went to work with him. It was THEIR finest hour. They preserved the hearts of their children, kept them whole & undisturbed.

I love that about them.

[Thread]

Still get teary eyed about it. I had so many ing fights arguing that Kobe was better than other friends players when I was in elementary through high school. Days I would en get so mad I’d start crying because they would make fun of Kobe lol ( I know how dumb). But damn my family and myself grew up cherishing this guy on the court. We seen every damn game we could, every playoff series, everything and man for him to go out like this is absolutely devastating. We all gotta go one way but man why like this though. Rest easy Kobe. love you king and I will always keep supporting you. People might think I’m exaggerating but I’ve been a fan since I was a damn 5 year old. This truly kills me.

Still remember him in that game V. Boston...when Fish had to take him aside and lecture him to "quit ing, shut up & go to the work." & his listened, went down into the paint & worked.

I've told that story countless times here, so forgive me today for it. He'd learned not to bust thru Fish, but, to listen to his counsel. He'd learned! He'd progressed.

[Thread]

Good to be back, but, I was going to wait till Election Night in November (win or lose).

Just a shame to be back for this event, but, I'm glad I didn't run away from it. That would not have been right.

[TDfan2007]

For a person I didn’t know at all personally, this shook me pretty hard. I’ve long been a Kobe fan, lived in LA for the second and third Shaq-Kobe championships. I’m old, already in my 40s, and I haven’t had an emotional reaction to a celebrity death like this since Biggie. No joke, this one hurt me.

I don’t disparage anyone for jokes or for throwing shade or hate. Over the years, I’ve seen worse things said on these boards. I actually expected more and worse. And death is always tragic, especially to those personally affected. But sometimes celebrity, public figure deaths carry more weight in how many people it reaches. Doesn’t make it any more tragic, only how many people are affected.

But talking seriously for a minute, as much of a sociopath and megalomaniac as he was early on in his career, I do feel like he did grow up over the course of his playing career and post career. He may forever be viewed by some as a s bag for Colorado and the snitching aftermath. But I do believe he not only grew from that, but proactively tried to become a better person for it. Obviously, I don’t know for sure, as I have zero personal insight. But most personal reports indicate he developed into a pretty good dude later on and pretty much everything we read now about him being a good father, a generous mentor to young basketball players, and a determined and ambitious media (not social media, but film and print media) personality relate a different person than the young, arrogant Kobe.

I believe the 2008 Olympics began to paint a different portrait of Kobe, when young stars like LeBron and Wade who may have respected Kobe but viewed him as aloof and weird got to know him on a more personal level. And they started to understand him as a person. And after retirement, Dear Basketball, and his basketball relationship with his daughter, people started to see a different side. But hey, maybe he still was a s bag and sociopath when he went down in the helicopter. As a Kobe fan, I’m hoping he did grow up from young Kobe, Colorado Kobe, snitching Kobe, megalomaniac Kobe.

And I was still sad today.

This post just about perfectly sums up my feelings on the topic. Very well put. Good to hear from you again, Jam.

[Proxy]

being at the airport in vegas yesterday when the news was still new was really sad, everyone reacting in different ways, tvs all on it

hard seeing all of the players, seeing Duncan and Sean and Becky in tears was tough to see.

[spurraider21]

Good to be back, but, I was going to wait till Election Night in November (win or lose).

Just a shame to be back for this event, but, I'm glad I didn't run away from it. That would not have been right.

good to have you back. and yeah, wish it was under better cir stances.

we joke and we troll. but there's still a human element to all this.

[Mark Celibate]

The number of paranoid, bigoted, right wing conspiracy theorists here is fairly amazing. Trump ran on being a bigot and republicans voted for him. People left the Democratic Party and became Republicans because the Democratic Party passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and the opposition of the Democratic Party to bigotry. That's why the bigots left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party. Republicans try to suppress the vote of people of color and engage in extreme gerrymandering in order to hurt people of color. People of color know that and that's why people of color vote for Democratic candidates. Republicans oppose equality and want the country to return to the era where rich white men are in charge. African Americans were counted as 3/5 of a person and slavery was legal until the Emancipation Proclamation and it was still in practice along with Jim Crows laws and a poll tax and a literacy test and a grandfather clause until the 1960s. That's about 3/4 of this nation's history and the effects of this discrimination don't get overcome without action . When republicans have to assert everybody else is lying and unreliable in order to try to defend factually wrong propositions, they ought to realize that they are held captive by the priority of the paradigm. Using the N word or attacking people of a different faith or background doesn't make you edgy or cool; it reveals you as ignorant. Why right wing bigots would insist upon revealing their own ignorance and making all of these bigoted statements in a thread dedicated to Kobe Bryant's passing is almost beyond me. I remember when I was a member under a different name and while this ugliness existed , it wasn't as prominent. There used to be a focus on the game in depth and people didn't throw their ugliness into threads where it wasn't relevant. The ugliness that others introduced here was answered . This post was necessary because all of that ugliness was posted in this thread and it wouldn't have been necessary if everybody had stuck to the topic instead of throwing in the irrelevant bigotry and political stuff and conspiracy theories making clear their utter inability to engage in critical thinking and determine what are and what are not reliable sources . One news station and uneducated radio talk shows are not reliable sources of information when they contradict all other independent sources of information whether it would be all of the press or universities and peer reviewed journal articles.

I figured some a$$hole would find a way to take this event and use it to attack Trump somehow.

[LkrFan]

[benefactor]

Still get teary eyed about it. I had so many ing fights arguing that Kobe was better than other friends players when I was in elementary through high school. Days I would en get so mad I’d start crying because they would make fun of Kobe lol ( I know how dumb). But damn my family and myself grew up cherishing this guy on the court. We seen every damn game we could, every playoff series, everything and man for him to go out like this is absolutely devastating. We all gotta go one way but man why like this though. Rest easy Kobe. love you king and I will always keep supporting you. People might think I’m exaggerating but I’ve been a fan since I was a damn 5 year old. This truly kills me.

we all get it man. If it was Tim Duncan in that chopper I would probably lose a whole week of my life.

[apalisoc_9]

Embrace Islam before it is too late. Life is fragile and unexpected as it what was made to be.

I'm sure even the haters would admit that Kobe was a huge part of their life.

[Millennial_Messiah]

I agree I have felt like that for years if the Lakers weren't around the Spurs would have won 7 or 8. That's the biggest reason I would lose my cool when the spurs lost in '01 and '02 to the Lakers that there was nobody else that could beat them. It was so damn frustrating knowing the Spurs could ring those years but the Lakers were there to stop it.

Exactly. It's not like there was a 80s Celtics or 90s Bulls or early 10s Heatles type of team on the other side that would have been in the way. Those Pacers, Nets, 76ers teams of the early 00s were inferior to all the top 4-5 teams in the West, maybe more. , the 76ers made the Finals with literally one scoring option.

[Millennial_Messiah]

The other names have come out. It was Kobe, Gigi, two of Gigi's friends including the two parents of one and the mother of the other, and the pilot. So, 3 kids, 9 people in total.

Just ing tragic.

yes. Two girls same age as GiGi Bryant, one named Payton and the other Alyssa. 7th grade basketball players for Kobe's private "Mamba" team league.

[Medvedenko]

I'm going to need a minute.....

[Tyronn Lue]

Remember that time Culburn wished the Spurs plane would hit the side of a mountian?

[Tyronn Lue]

Embrace Islam before it is too late. Life is fragile and unexpected as it what was made to be.

I'm sure even the haters would admit that Kobe was a huge part of their life.

dont nobody give a fucc about yo islam you asian hobbit fucc

[lefty]

I'm going to need a minute.....

To nuuuuuuuuuut

[LkrFan]

Embrace Islam before it is too late. Life is fragile and unexpected as it what was made to be.

I'm sure even the haters would admit that Kobe was a huge part of their life.

And give up bacon?

[Millennial_Messiah]

Embrace Islam before it is too late. Life is fragile and unexpected as it what was made to be.

I'm sure even the haters would admit that Kobe was a huge part of their life.

Kobe is Catholic, dumbass.

[FkLA]

TMac on The Jump saying that Kobe used to tell him he wanted to die young. Wanted to be immortalized. Sounds about right for a guy that was always obsessed with his image.

Guessing that changed for him once he had daughters and a wife to live for though.

[Reck]

TMac on The Jump saying that Kobe used to tell him he wanted to die young. Wanted to be immortalized. Sounds about right for a guy that was always obsessed with his image.

Guessing that changed for him once he had daughters and a wife to live for though.

To be fair, that's something we all think about at some point in our lives. The thought of getting old and fragile, been put in a home, not being able to move or get up or do anything independently is something that you think of as a burden.

That outlook changes as you mature, get marry and have kids though.

[FrostKing]

Kobe is Catholic, dumbass.

Orthodox Roman Catholic

[Ball Buster]

Friggin’ pilot error man... dumb ass flew low into fog, misread his instruments, became disoriented and smashed into a mountainside. He should have never put those people in danger like that. He could have landed in Van Nuys. Extremely unprofessional. That idiot pilot destroyed 3 families.

Just outrageous.

[baseline bum]

And give up bacon?

cervezas too