Kobe Bryant’s death updates: Clippers to honor Kobe Bryant in first game at Staples Center

Rob Pelinka, the Lakers vice president, basketball operations and general manager, released a statement on Thursday saying that his lost his best friend and his goddaughter on Sunday. They are the first words from Pelinka since the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others.

“On Sunday, I lost my best friend and sweet goddaughter. With that, there has been an amputation of part of my soul.”

Pelinka goes on describing the player, husband, “girl-dad” and best friend Bryant was.

“Kobe was a force of nature, deep, and obsessed with excellence. He was wise, determined, passionate. A visionary beyond measure. A dedicated and loving husband, and a ‘girl-dad’ like no other. When he walked into a room, the energy ignited. He was high voltage, with a motor that had no limits. His mind had an infinite capacity to learn. He was, simply put, the most inspirational athlete of our time. What the world may not know, is that he was also best friend anyone could ever imagine.”

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Intent on creating their own identity, the Clippers usually cover the Lakers’ banners and retired jersey numbers for their home games at Staples Center.

But for the Clippers’ game against Sacramento on Thursday — the first NBA contest to be played in the arena since the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday — the Clippers left Bryant’s retired jerseys uncovered and on display high above the floor.

The rest of the Lakers’ championship banners and retired jerseys were covered by the usual images of Clipper players and a city landscape but Bryant’s 8 and 24 stood out on a stark black background.

Kobe Bryant’s jerseys are uncovered ahead of a Clippers game against the Kings.

(Helene Elliott / Los Angeles Times)

A moment of silence is scheduled for just past 7:33 p.m.

The hockey Kings on Wednesday played the first sporting event at Staples Center after Bryant’s death. Players honored him by wearing his jersey to the arena and commemorative decals on their helmets, and the team remembered him in a pregame ceremony.

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Michael Jordan was professional basketball’s first signature shoe king, but Kobe Bryant was arguably his heir apparent, as crucial and challenging to the brand he represented — Nike — as he famously was with his Lakers teammates on the court.

Jordan made sneakers cool, but Bryant changed the shoes themselves, creating the market in minimalist, low-silhouette footwear in a league in which everyone was still lacing up their high tops to protect their ankles.

That led to a succession of NBA superstars adopting the same lighter, quicker shoe style, which helped liberate their moves on the hardwood. It happened soon after Bryant left Adidas to sign a four-year, $40-million deal with Nike in 2003, then pushed the company to build a basketball shoe as sleek and safe as those worn in professional soccer.

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As the world continues to mourn the death of Kobe Bryant and eight others, the tributes to the late basketball great keep getting more heart-wrenching.

Amid a massive crowd outside Staples Center this week, a mariachi troupe gathered to honor Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and the other seven lives lost with a poignant rendition of “Amor Eterno,” a goodbye ballad by the late Mexican singer Juan Gabriel.

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Hailey Van Lith lives basketball in her tiny town — Cashmere, Wash., population 3,152 — and as the nation’s No. 1 guard and No. 2 overall player on the women’s basketball ranking site Prospects Nation, the 18-year-old knows a bit about celebrity and fame.

But last summer, as she waited in a Thailand airport after a Team USA game, she wasn’t prepared for a message from basketball legend Kobe Bryant.

“The text was from one of Kobe’s main guys — I called him ‘T,’ and he just basically said that Kobe knew about me, loved my game and really wanted to get me to L.A. to work with him and talk about basketball,” Hailey said in a phone interview Monday as she drove to practice at Cashmere High School.

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Vanessa Bryant took to social media on Wednesday to thank the public for their support and express her grief over the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe, daughter Gianna and seven others Sunday.

“There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now. I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon,” she wrote on Instagram.

“I’m not sure what our lives hold beyond today, and it’s impossible to imagine life without them. But we wake up each day, trying to keep pushing because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, are shining on us to light the way. Our love for them is endless — and that’s to say, immeasurable. I just wish I could hug them, kiss them and bless them. Have them here with us, forever.”

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Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant takes the stage at the House of Blues in 2000.

(Clarence Williams / Los Angeles Times)

Bryant’s solo single, “K.O.B.E.,” which debuted at the 2000 All-Star game, featured supermodel Tyra Banks and referenced his baller reputation in the lyrics.

“What I live for? Basketball, beats and broads,” he raps on the track, his flow not particularly smooth or lyrical. “From Italy to the U.S., yes, it’s raw.”

Writing for The Times in 2015, Dexter Thomas wasn’t exactly impressed by the song.

“It’s embarrassing. That cheap-sounding beat, the uninspired hook, the awkward chorus — this is more off-target than those three airballs he threw in 1997 against the Utah Jazz,” he wrote.

While shooting an accompanying video for the splashy release, directed by BET Award winner Hype Williams, Bryant met his wife, Vanessa. And though their personal relationship would continue to develop for the next 20 years, footage from their professional collaboration never saw the light of day.

Despite Bryant’s rising star power on the court, the song was not well-received, and “Visions,” the album it was slated to launch, was eventually shelved. Bryant officially got the ax from Sony soon enough, never to return to music again — except in a 2011 Taiwanese Sprite commercial and, of course, in other musicians’ lyrics, which often saluted the self-proclaimed Black Mamba and his larger-than-life legacy.

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The pilot involved in the helicopter crash Sunday that killed former Lakers star Kobe Bryant and eight others also flew Kawhi Leonard often and was regarded highly by the Clippers superstar.

“Great guy, super nice,” Leonard said Wednesday of Ara Zobayan, a pilot from Huntington Beach who flew for the charter service Island Express. “He was one of the best pilots. That is a guy who you ask for to fly you from city to city. It’s just surreal still.”

Leonard was close with Bryant, saying their relationship began during his second or third season in the NBA. Last summer, Bryant hosted Leonard, Clippers teammate Paul George and a handful of other players at his Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks. One piece of advice Leonard sought from Bryant last summer, after signing with the Clippers as a free agent, was how Bryant used a helicopter often to cut down his commute to and from his home in Newport Beach.

Leonard, last season, purchased a house in Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego. (In December, Leonard also purchased a penthouse near Staples Center.)

“I talked to him about it before our transition to playing in L.A, just seeing how [he] got back and forth from Newport and he said he was doing it for about 17 years or so,” Leonard said. “Yeah, same pilot, everything, the whole situation, this whole program, the setup, how he was traveling back and forth was the same way I was getting here from San Diego.” Asked whether the crash gave him pause to continue to using helicopters, Leonard was unsure.

“The things that you hear, you don’t know what’s real yet,” he said. “I can’t really speak on it. I don’t know. I don’t know yet. It’s a lot of thoughts in my head.”

Zobayan, 50, had a commercial certificate and was a certified flight instructor with 8,200 hours of flight time as of July, said Jennifer Homendy, a National Transportation Safety Board member.

“[Zobayan] will drop me off and say he is about go pick up Kobe. ‘Kobe said hello.’ Or he’ll just be like, ‘I just dropped Kobe off and he said hello.’ Vice versa. So, it’s a crazy interaction. He’s a good dude and I’m sorry for everybody.”

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Lakers coach Frank Vogel talks about Kobe Bryant.

After their practice in El Segundo on Wednesday morning, the Lakers gave their players the option of speaking to reporters about the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. They decided to continue to mourn in private.

Lakers coach Frank Vogel stepped forward to make the first public comments from a member of the organization since a helicopter carrying Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others crashed into a Calabasas hillside Sunday morning, killing all aboard.

Vogel said he told the players they could talk when they’re ready and not a moment before.

As Vogel addressed the media, LeBron James was nearby on the practice court, hoisting up jumpers.

“We want to represent what Kobe was about more than anything,” said Vogel, who acknowledged there were some questions he may not be ready to address at this time.

“He was the most feared man in the league for an entire generation.… His influence will be felt forever.”

The Lakers display retired numbers on two walls above their practice gym. On Wednesday, Bryant’s No. 8 and No. 24 were lit up.

The team was flying home from Philadelphia on Sunday morning when they learned about the crash. Players became emotional as they heard the news and Vogel addressed them once he heard. The team canceled practice on Monday, though a few players trickled into the facility.

The franchise waited until Monday afternoon to release any statement regarding Bryant’s death out of respect for his widow, Vanessa, and his three surviving daughters.

But the Lakers have also needed time to process and grieve the loss of a legend.

“We’ve become a family in a very short time,” Vogel said.

The organization has been reeling since Sunday morning. General manager Rob Pelinka was one of Bryant’s closest friends and Gianna’s godfather.

Lakers executives, including owner Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis, spent time at the team facility on Sunday and Monday. Buss lost her mother and a close friend, former NBA Commissioner David Stern, in the last six weeks. Monday would have been her father’s 87th birthday.

The Lakers were planning to honor Jerry Buss during Tuesday’s game against the Clippers, before Sunday’s crash changed everything, leading the NBA to postpone the game.

On Monday, the team brought in grief counselors, who were made available to employees, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bryant’s history with many of them was long. He joined the organization in 1996, as a 17-year-old ready to take over the basketball world.

No formal plans have been made on how to honor Bryant, but the Lakers created a space Sunday for fans to gather and hold a vigil outside their facility. They provided a large white canvas with a watermarked image of Bryant leaned against the wall for fans to sign, using Sharpies distributed by the Lakers. It was nearly full by Monday afternoon, and enough fans have visited since to fill up two more.

On Wednesday morning, a fourth canvas was unfurled outside the facility, where one fan stood with a fresh bouquet of flowers.

After days of deliberation following the death of his “brother” Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal has decided to proceed with “Shaq’s Fun House,” an carnival-style event scheduled for Friday night in Miami as one of the events leading up to Super Bowl LIV.

In a heartfelt social media post Wednesday, O’Neal said he will donate all his proceeds from the event to the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation and to the families of the nine people killed in the helicopter crash Sunday in Calabasas.

“Kobe would want us to push through and celebrate life,” O’Neal wrote. “So let’s do just that.”

Musical performers at the event include Diddy, Diplo, Pitbull and Diesel (the name Shaq uses as an electronic music DJ).

People gather around a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26 outside Staples Center.

(Apu Gomes / AFP via Getty Images)

Late Wednesday morning, as a large media contingent waited outside the Lakers’ El Segundo practice facility for the team’s first meeting with the press since Saturday night’s game in Philadelphia, the franchise unfurled a fourth banner featuring Kobe Bryant for fans to leave their expressions of grief.

Three days after Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, fans were still coming by the facility to pay their respects. Three 10-foot-by-20-foot banners had no more room for new messages.

Inside, while the Lakers prepared to discuss Bryant’s death with reporters, one fan stood outside with a fresh bouquet of flowers.

The Lakers waited until Monday afternoon to release any statement out of respect for Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, and his three surviving daughters. But the franchise, feeling very much like a family this week, also needed time to process and mourn the loss of a legend.

The organization has been reeling since the tragic event. Their general manager, Rob Pelinka, was one of Bryant’s closest friends and Gianna’s godfather.

Lakers executives, including Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis, spent time at the team facility on Sunday and Monday. Buss lost her mother and a close friend, former NBA commissioner David Stern, in the last six weeks. Monday would have been her father Jerry Buss’ 87th birthday. The Lakers were planning to honor Jerry Buss during Tuesday’s game against the Clippers, before Sunday’s crash changed everything, leading the NBA to postpone the game.

On Monday, the team brought in grief counselors to help comfort employees, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bryant’s history with many of them was long. He joined the organization in 1996, as a 17-year-old ready to take over the basketball world.

Formal plans have not been completed on how to honor Bryant. The first large white canvas banner with an image of Bryant leaned was erected at the facility on Sunday. Fans wrote messages on the banner using Sharpies distributed by the Lakers. It was nearly full by Monday afternoon, and enough fans have visited since to fill up two more.

A reconstruction of the flight by The Times tracks the helicopter’s path starting at a crucial moment near the end when the pilot left the San Fernando Valley above the 101 Freeway. Fog and cloudy weather had descended on the region, limiting visibility.

NTSB investigator Jennifer Homendy said at Tuesday’s news conference that her agency had recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration 16 years ago require that all choppers carrying six or more passengers be equipped with a terrain awareness and warning system, adding that the FAA has “failed to act” on the proposal. Because the FAA didn’t follow the recommendation, the chopper that crashed Sunday was not legally required to have the system.

Shortly after she spoke, an FAA spokesman disputed that assessment, noting that the FAA requires the terrain alarm system for helicopter air ambulance operations.

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Sunday’s helicopter crash killed John Altobelli, 56, his wife, Keri, 46, and their daughter, Alyssa, 13, along with former Lakers star Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and four others.

Two days after the tragedy, the Pirates took the field for the first time in 28 years without Altobelli, who guided OCC to four state championships and 705 victories, sent hundreds of players to four-year colleges and helped countless teenagers mature into young men since 1993.

The crowd of about 2,000 that squeezed into Wendell Pickens Field on the school’s Costa Mesa campus included J.J. Altobelli, 29, a scout for the Boston Red Sox, and high school junior Alexis Altobelli, 16, the only surviving members of the Altobelli family.

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The helicopter that crashed Sunday in Calabasas, killing nine people including Kobe Bryant, was not equipped with a terrain alarm system that could have warned the pilot he was approaching a hillside, National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday.

The findings come as investigators are trying to determine why the helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside Sunday morning amid foggy conditions.

NTSB investigator Jennifer Homendy said at Tuesday’s news conference that the helicopter was at 2,300 feet when it lost communication with air traffic controllers. The descent rate of the helicopter at the time of impact was more than 2,000 feet per minute.

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Federal investigators on Tuesday released a dramatic video showing the scene where Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside, killing the NBA great, his daughter and seven other people.

The National Transportation Safety Board video shows the charred wreckage of the helicopter, which broke apart on impact Sunday morning. Much of what remained of the chopper was burned beyond recognition. But a wheel and parts of the fuselage appear not to have been burned.

The video was released as the NTSB is trying to determine the cause of the crash, a task expected to take months.

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In the spring of 1996, fewer than a dozen Clippers officials watched as coach Bill Fitch ran a 17-year-old guard from Philadelphia through a solo predraft workout in Los Angeles.

On the day’s agenda was the same drill Fitch had used in hundreds of workouts during his previous 26 years evaluating NBA prospects. Fitch called it “baskets per minute,” and it was a souped-up version of the classic Mikan drill. Players alternated shooting on the left and right sides of the basket, using both hands, making as many baskets as possible in 60 seconds.

Larry Bird was one of the best Fitch had ever tested. Nothing, however, topped what Fitch would witness that spring day inside the Sports Arena from Kobe Bryant.

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It was December 2017, more than a year after Kobe Bryant had retired from basketball, and the Lakers great was expounding upon a fundamental truth of parenthood. Having spent much of his NBA career on the road, traveling from city to city, he talked about a new job, shuttling his daughters around Newport Coast.

“A lot of driving in a three-to-five mile radius,” he said. “Now, to have that, it’s absolutely wonderful. The time we spend in the car.”

Bryant’s life, which ended in a helicopter crash Sunday, might have seemed all big-time sports and celebrity from the outside, but there was something more basic at its core.

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Shaquille O’Neal sat in a chair at center court inside Staples Center wearing a gray suit with tears streaming down his face as he talked about dealing with the death of his friend and former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant.

O’Neal and the acclaimed TNT crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith along with quests Jerry West, Dwyane Wade and Reggie Miller had come to Los Angeles on Tuesday to pay tribute to Bryant in an hourlong show called “Remembering Kobe.”

O’Neal struggled to come to grips with Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others perishing when their helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside Sunday.

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Kobe Bryant sauntered through the locker room doors and eyes widened. After watching the Oregon women’s basketball team beat USC by 40 points at the Galen Center last January, the NBA legend, his daughter Gianna and other aspiring basketball players visited the Ducks.

Bryant greeted players with hugs. He signed their shoes — Kobes, naturally — while they were still on their feet. He complimented their playing style.

Bryant wasn’t in the courtside seat as a dad just chaperoning his daughter and her friends, Oregon coach Kelly Graves realized as he watched the interactions. This wasn’t a duty, this wasn’t an obligation and this wasn’t a publicity stunt.

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As a middle school student, Shen Yuqi started to follow the NBA largely because of Chinese superstar Yao Ming, a 7-foot, 6-inch phenom who caught her attention during the 2006-07 season.

Shen, like many basketball fans growing up China, soon found out the league was filled with dynamic players. She picked a new favorite star — No. 24 of the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the first NBA game she watched on television, the Rockets were playing the Lakers.

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In the 2½ days after Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash, billionaire investor Chris Sacca sifted through old emails and text messages with the Lakers star.

“Somehow yesterday was bad and today feels even worse,” Sacca said in an email to The Times on Tuesday.

Their relationship started several years ago when Bryant asked Sacca to serve as a mentor to help him grow as an investor and entrepreneur. They quickly became friends, bonding over business and fatherhood. Though Bryant built a reputation as a fearsome competitor on the basketball court and a businessman with wide-ranging pursuits off it, children brought out a different side.

One occasion lingers in Sacca’s mind.

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AC Milan and its fans paid tribute to Kobe Bryant with lights and applause before and during Tuesday’s Italian Cup game against Torino at the San Siro stadium.

Bryant, who grew up in Italy between the ages of 6 and 13, was a devout Milan fan. The 18-time NBA All-Star with the Lakers died Sunday with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash near Calabasas.

As Milan and Torino warmed up before the game, the words “Legends Never Die” and “SempreKobe” — a play on the “SempreMilan,” or “AlwaysMilan,” hashtag often used by the club — were displayed on the advertising boards around the San Siro while images of Bryant were shown on the giant screen.

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WWE superstar Roman Reigns, who grew up a huge Lakers fan, was preparing for Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event when he learned of the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.

Times reporter Arash Markazi caught up with Reigns and talked to him about Bryant.

“I watched religiously throughout his career,” Reigns said. “I never thought losing someone like that, essentially a stranger, though obviously a public figure ... I didn’t realize it would affect me so much. It broke my heart. My heart goes out to his wife and his three girls that were left behind. All the families that were involved.

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Kobe Bryant’s greatness as a basketball player is unquestioned. But he was also known for his prickly personality and his villainous on-court demeanor as the self-named Black Mamba.

Those aspects of Bryant’s complicated nature are recalled in Tuesday’s installment of HBO’s sports magazine “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”

The “Real Sports” segment focuses on two profiles the series conducted with Bryant, who died Sunday, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. The first piece, from 2000, finds the player discussing his early motivations to become great, including being inspired by the success of his father, pro basketball player Joseph Bryant.

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A Washington Post reporter who had been placed on administrative leave after she tweeted a link to a story about a 2003 rape allegation against Kobe Bryant has been cleared to return to work, the paper said Tuesday.

In a statement, the Post said that an internal review had determined that political reporter Felicia Sonmez was “not in clear and direct violation of our social media policy,” but that the tweets were “ill-timed.”

Sonmez’s tweet came in the hours after Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash Sunday.

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Turning now to the investigation as federal authorities work to unravel the mystery of why Kobe’s helicopter crashed. Today, local officials had the grim task of removing the remains of the victims, while investigators from the FAA and NTSB searched for clues. L.A. Times reporter Richard Winton saw the immediate aftermath at the time of the crash and has been covering the investigation from Calabasas.

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TOPSHOT - Kobe Bryant poses in the press room with the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for “Dear Basketball,” during the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

(FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Joining other tributes that have poured in around the world, the motion picture academy plans to acknowledge the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant at next month’s Oscars ceremony.

The specific details are being kept under wraps at this time. The Oscars telecast has long included an In Memoriam segment to acknowledge notable members of the Hollywood community who passed away that year, but it is unclear whether Bryant will receive a separate tribute. Bryant won an Academy Award in 2018 for producing and writing the five-minute animated short “Dear Basketball.”

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Reps. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) led members of the California delegation in a moment of silence on the House floor Tuesday afternoon in honor of the nine victims who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash.

Rouda named each of the victims in alphabetical order: John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli, Kobe and Gianna Bryant, Payton and Sarah Chester, Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.The congressman acknowledged the group’s love of basketball and singled out the parents’ and coaches’ on board who were steadfastly dedicated to nurturing the passion and talents of the three 13-year-old girls who died on their way to play a game.“

Orange County is grieving, but we will find solace and purpose in the legacy they left behind,” he said. Waters addressed the loss of Kobe and Gianna Byrant specifically, before the House fell silent.“

I stand today on behalf of all Californians, and certainly the entire city of Los Angeles and millions of fans worldwide who are mourning the sudden loss of Kobe Bryant,” she said. “Our hearts go out to his wife, Vanessa, surviving daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri, relatives, teammates and friends.”

When Kobe Bryant sneakers on Nike’s e-commerce site disappeared from the merchandise mix at some point in the 24 hours after Bryant’s death, some published reports claimed that it was part of Nike’s effort to limit secondary resellers’ ability to lay in a supply of sneakers that could later be sold at grief-inflated prices.

That’s not accurate, according to a Nike representative, who told The Times on Tuesday that the sneakers weren’t purposefully pulled from the company’s e-commerce site but that the existing stock had sold out. The Beaverton, Ore., athletic goods maker has been making Bryant’s signature shoe since 2003, and searches for the Black Mamba’s name on Nike.com redirect to a message of condolences dated Jan. 26.

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Ron Bonilla stands behind his truck that features a KNG KOBE license plate and a Lakers flag at half-staff.

(Kathy Klein / For The Times)

Drivers on Lake Avenue in Pasadena honked their horns late Sunday afternoon as Ron Bonilla drove his black-matte 2007 Toyota Tundra — with personal license plate KNG KOBE and a Lakers flag at half-mast — through traffic.

Bonilla, 48, has been a Lakers fan since 1979, when Magic Johnson joined the team.

“I’ve never felt so connected to any athlete or artist or entertainer as I felt with Kobe,” said Bonilla, proudly wearing Bryant’s No. 24 jersey and a Lakers cap.

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Ara Zobayan of Huntington Beach — the pilot of the helicopter that crashed in Calabasas on Sunday, killing nine people, including Zobayan and retired Lakers star Kobe Bryant — was an experienced flier and a certified flight instructor with more than 8,000 hours of flight time, sources said this week.

Bryant regularly used the helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76B owned by the charter service Island Express. Records show the aircraft had flown between John Wayne Airport, where it took off Sunday morning, and Camarillo Airport, where it was heading, about two dozen times in the past two years.

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The bodies of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others who died in a helicopter crash have been recovered from a Calabasas hillside, coroner officials said Tuesday.

Authorities on Sunday recovered the bodies of at least three victims from the helicopter wreckage. The next day, the search continued for the six remaining victims. Their bodies were eventually located and taken to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s forensic science center, where officials will work to identify them.

Authorities investigating the devastating incident said the impact of the crash was intense, shattering the chopper and sending debris over a wide area.

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Don’t be surprised if you can’t find Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning animated short “Dear Basketball” streaming online anymore in the wake of the basketball star’s death. The film, which Granity Studios briefly made available for free Monday, has been taken down.

The decision Tuesday to take down the video means it’ll be hard to find online — again.

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In the days since the helicopter crash that took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others, NBA players and teams have been paying tribute to the Lakers legend, with gestures including handwritten messages on their sneakers and intentional clock violations of 8 and 24 seconds in honor Bryant’s jersey numbers and custom pregame jerseys.

One fan has suggested a way the league can permanently honor one of its all-time greats — and close to 2 million people agree with the idea.

Change the logo.

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Flight graphic for the homepage.

(Matt Stiles & Priya Krishnakumar)

There is no black box recording.

The audio transmission released so far does not cover the actual moment of the crash.

And the impact of the crash sent debris scattered over a huge area.

These are some of the impediments the National Transportation Safety Board is facing as it investigates why a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight others crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, killing all on board.

The probe is still in its early stages, and a final determination is months away.

At its heart are some basic questions: Why was the pilot flying so low in the moments before the crash, and why could the chopper not clear the hillside?

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WASHINGTON —The Washington Post has placed a political reporter on administrative leave after she tweeted a link to a story about rape allegations against NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, who was killed Sunday. Dozens of journalists at the newspaper criticized the decision.

Reporter Felicia Sonmez’s tweet Sunday, amid widespread public mourning over Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash, drew considerable backlash on social media. The Post reported that Somnez received threats of death and rape and had to move to a hotel after her home address was published online.

The Post said Somnez deleted the original tweet at the request of a managing editor. She also received an email from executive editor Marty Baron saying: “A real lack of judgment to tweet this. Please stop. You’re hurting this institution by doing this.” Somnez shared the email with an Associated Press reporter.

The Post said Somnez had been placed on paid leave while newsroom managers looked into the episode. A spokeswoman for the newspaper did not respond to questions about Baron’s role.

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Tears replaced laughs on the comedy scene Monday as TV hosts delivered touching tributes to Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.

Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen DeGeneres struggled to keep it together while lamenting life’s fragility and recounting some of their fondest memories with the Laker legend. James Corden and Conan O’Brien were also among those who honored Bryant with reflective words and, in some cases, highlight reels of his past guest appearances.

“Tonight’s show is going to be different from our usual show,” Kimmel began his “Jimmy Kimmel Live” monologue. “We don’t have a studio audience here tonight because going forward with a comedy show didn’t feel right, considering what happened yesterday.... That was a punch in the gut for many of us. Kobe was — and I know this might not make sense, but — he was just the last person you could ever imagine something like this happening to.”

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CALABASAS, CA-JANUARY 26, 2020: People gather on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas near the scene of a helicopter that crashed and burst into flames Sunday morning amid foggy conditions in the hills above. All people aboard were killed including Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Investigators and recovery teams were back at a Calabasas hillside Tuesday, continuing to remove remains from the site of a helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others as they tried to determine what caused the tragedy.

Authorities have recovered the bodies of at least three victims and say the process of removing others may take several days to complete. They said the impact of the crash was intense, shattering the chopper and sending debris over a wide area.

“This was a pretty devastating accident,” National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jennifer Homendy said. “There is an impact area on one of the hills, and a piece of the tail is down the hill on the left side of the hill. The fuselage is on the other side of that hill. Then the main rotor is about hundred yards beyond that. The debris field is about 500 to 600 feet.”

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Bad Bunny luciendo un nuevo “look” durante su presentación en el Calibash 2020 en Los Ángeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Bad Bunny is paying his respects to the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant the way he knows best: through music.

The singer released the song “6 Rings” on Monday in honor of the late Lakers star, who died in a helicopter crash over the weekend along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.

The two-minute track, sung in Spanish, includes commentary from Bryant’s 2006 game against the Toronto Raptors where the Lakers player scored a staggering 81 points.

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Kobe Bryant sits on the bench during a Lakers overtime loss to the Phoenix Suns.

(Los Angeles Times)

It took almost 200 pages in “Mamba Mentality,” Kobe Bryant’s 2018 book, for him to write explicitly about losing basketball games, and when he did, it was to the point.

“THE AGONY OF DEFEAT IS AS LOW AS THE JOY OF WINNING IS HIGH,” he wrote in capital letters — white text on a black page below a photo of a himself sitting dejected on the Lakers bench.

Bryant’s countenance let you know.

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TNT will air a one-hour special tribute to Kobe Bryant tonight at 7 p.m.

The live special will be streamed from the Staples Center and will air ahead of the Celtics vs. Heat game in Miami. The tribute will be hosted by Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker and Steve Nash will be guests on the program.

TNT’s pregame, halftime and postgame coverage will all focus on Bryant from the Staples Center, which was slated to host the postponed Lakers/Clippers game.

CALABASAS-CA-JANUARY 27, 2020: A small makeshift memorial near the site of the helicopter crash in Calabasas that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others Sunday morning, on Monday, January 27, 2020. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

As out-of-town visitors arrived in Calabasas looking to glimpse the hillside where Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people died in a helicopter crash, some ran into sheriff’s checkpoints, some became lost and others had no idea where to go.

Enter 70-year-old Linda Adams.

The 30-year Calabasas resident pointed to a shortcut between Las Virgenes Creek, where fans gathered to scan the hillside, and Las Virgenes Road, which saved several travelers at least a mile of walking.

A few onlookers even joined Adams to catch a better and closer view of the crash site.

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Melrose Avenue memorial for Kobe Bryant

(Britny Mejia/ Los Angeles Times)

The mural towered over Melrose Avenue, and for three years, since it was painted outside of the sneaker shop across from Fairfax High, Ethan Anderson would stare at it from a classroom window. Every day he walked or drove past, looking at it so often that the towering likeness, soaring across a purple wall of Shoe Palace, merely had become a part of the landscape.

To Anderson and so many others who’d grown up in the long shadow he cast, it seemed Kobe Bryant always would be there, his presence looming forever over Los Angeles. But on Sunday morning, Bryant died in a helicopter crash that killed eight others, including his daughter Gianna, and as Los Angeles mourned, turning the sidewalk outside Shoe Palace into a shrine, Anderson found himself thinking about that mural and the legacy of the man in it.

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LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 13: Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers address the media during the post game news conference after scoring 60 point in his final NBA game at Staples Center on April 13, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died Sunday when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed and burst into flames in the hills above Calabasas. His daughter Gianna, 13, was also on board and died along with seven others.

Bryant was known to give some memorable quotes over the years — some inspirational, some funny and all pure Kobe. Here are some that might provide a little comfort during this tragic time.

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When Gianna “Gigi” Bryant first told her basketball star father that she wanted to play the sport, Kobe Bryant took her seriously.

“He kind of sat down with Gigi and said, ‘If you want to play, we’re going to do this,’” said Jeff Melton, assistant athletic director at Vanguard University. “’We’ll do this if this is a passion for you.’”

When she said yes, her father — who became legendary for his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers — began tapping into his world of opportunities. He arranged for her to meet her basketball idol, Katie Lou Samuelson, a guard for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. He took her to Atlanta Hawks NBA games to watch Trae Young, another of her favorite players.

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It’s OK to cry, to be overcome by grief. It’s OK to be mad, to scream out in frustration. Most of all, it’s OK to ask for help.

That was the message to the Orange Coast College baseball team as it prepared for Tuesday’s season opener against Chula Vista Southwestern, a game that will be played just two days after longtime Pirates coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their 13-year-old daughter, Alyssa, died in the fiery helicopter crash that also killed former Lakers star Kobe Bryant on Sunday.

“We athletes, we’re macho, and we want to be tough, and because of that, sometimes we pretend like we’re not hurting,” former Cal State Fullerton and Oregon coach George Horton, a close friend of the Altobelli family, told players before practice Monday.

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It was in the first round of the 2012 playoffs, the Lakers were in Denver, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I couldn’t bear one more moment of listening to that smug Kobe Bryant.

Asked about the defense being played on him by the Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari during a postgame news conference, Bryant filled the small media room with dripping sarcasm.

He smiled, shook his head, and said something like, oh yeah, he was real worried, truly bothered, so stressed ...

And I lost it.

“Kobe, you’re such an asshole!” I yelled at him.

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Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant took in the U.S. Women’s National soccer team game vs. China at Qualcomm Stadium on April 10, 2014

(K.C. Alfred/U-T San Diego)

Sunday should have been a day filled with adrenaline-pumping competition set to a soundtrack of cheers and the scuffle of sneakers on a basketball court.

It wasn’t supposed to be a day marred by a tragedy that took the lives of nine people and left a city heartbroken.

Many of the victims of the Calabasas helicopter crash were united in their love of basketball, headed to a tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks. They included Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, a budding basketball player who was ready to follow in her father’s footsteps; baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and their basketball-playing daughter Alyssa; mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester; Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.

As Los Angeles collectively mourned their Lakers hero, multiple families and friends reeled while reality hit.

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A light fog had settled on the runway of John Wayne Airport Sunday morning when Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and six other passengers boarded a chartered helicopter to fly to a basketball tournament in Thousand Oaks.

A half-hour later, they were flying over thickening clouds in the San Fernando Valley. The pilot was worried enough to ask flight controllers to keep track of them. As he approached the hills of Calabasas at 150 miles per hour, they radioed him, telling him he was too low for them to see on radar.

The pilot commenced a climb, rising 765 feet in 36 seconds, enough to clear adjacent hills.

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(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)

On Sunday morning, when Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, there was a thick marine layer and patchy dense fog that obscured some of the terrain.

The conditions were the result of a deteriorating cold front passing through the area with moist northwest flow, which caused low clouds to pile up against the northern slopes of Ventura and L.A. County mountains. There were showers to the north, and clouds pushing into coastal valleys were thick enough to cause drizzle along the coast and in nearby foothills, according to the National Weather Service. A webcam at Oat Mountain, northwest of Porter Ranch, suggested that the marine layer was 3,000 feet thick.

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Lakers legend Kobe Bryant poses for a photo with Dodgers great Tommy Lasorda during a game at Dodger Stadium in July 2013.of the Los Angeles Lakers and Tommy Lasorda attend a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees on July 31, 2013 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Caifornia.

(Jill Weisledero / Dodgers via Getty Images)

Justin Turner received the news of Kobe Bryant’s death Sunday from his wife, Kourtney, as he packed a van for his charity golf event Monday. The Dodgers third baseman’s initial reaction was like that of many others — he assumed it wasn’t true. He didn’t believe it until he heard radio reports confirming the unfathomable as he drove to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks near the site of the helicopter crash that killed the 41-year-old Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.

“I was just shaking,” Turner said.

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The last Saturday of Kobe Bryant’s life came and went like any typical weekend at home for the retired Lakers superstar.

He took one daughter to the mall. Accompanied another to a basketball game. Planned a Sunday morning trip with friends.

And slept with his family at their house in Orange County.

For nearly 20 years, one of the most famous names in sports lived a surprisingly public life in this unlikeliest of places.

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Just before crashing into a Calabasas hillside, the pilot of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter rapidly ascended to avoid a cloud layer, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.

Jennifer Homendy, an NTSB member, said the pilot flying from Orange County to Ventura County requested special visual flight rules, which allow pilots to fly under 1,000 feet. A marine layer had settled over the region Sunday morning and some areas were shrouded in fog.

Homendy said it remained unclear why the helicopter slammed into the hillside. Debris from the crash was scattered across 600 feet, she said.

“It was a pretty devastating accident scene,” she added. “There is an impact area on one of the hills and a piece of the tail is down the hill on the left side of the hill. The fuselage is on the other side of that hill. Then the main rotor is about hundred yards beyond that. The debris field is about 500 to 600 feet.”

She said there was no black box and it isn’t required.

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Lawrance Tolliver, owner of Tolliver’s Barber Shop in South LA, works on Jospeh Kenery Monday, January 27, 2020, where the talk was all about the helicopter crash that tooth life of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others.

(Jason Armond /Los Angeles Times)

Alexander Toney had just walked into the grocery store with his family on Sunday when he first heard rumors that Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant may have died.

At first, the South L.A. barber didn’t believe it, saying he thought TMZ’s reports weren’t credible. But after more outlets confirmed that not only Bryant, but his 13-year old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died in the fiery helicopter crash, the grim reality sunk in.

As they walked down the aisles getting their food, he said he wrapped his arms around his four kids more tightly than usual.

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LeBron James broke his silence on Monday evening, posting a wrenching message on Instagram in the form of a note to the late Kobe Bryant.

“I’m not ready but here I go,” the post began. “Man I sitting here trying to write something for this post but every time I try I begin crying again just thinking about you, niece Gigi and the friendship/bond/brotherhood we had! I literally just heard your voice Sunday morning before I left Philly to head back to LA. Didn’t think for one bit in a million years that would be the last conversation we’d have.”

Bryant called James after the Lakers played in Philadelphia on Saturday night to congratulate James for moving up to third on the league’s all-time scoring list. In doing so, James had passed Bryant who scored 33,643 points in his NBA career.

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ROME — As the world mourns the death of Kobe Bryant, his first coach recalled how the basketball legend cried when taken out during a game at the age of 7 because he was too good.

Gioacchino Fusacchia, 60, coached Bryant in Rieti, a small town in central Italy, when the late athlete’s father, Joe, played professional basketball following a career in the NBA.

“Kobe followed Joe everywhere, to matches, to training, and was already passionate about basketball,” said Fusacchia, who was in his mid-20s during the period the Bryants were in Rieti, from 1984 to 1986.

Rieti was Joe’s first stop in a seven-year spell in Italy during which he played seasons with other Italian teams in the southern region of Calabria and the northern regions of Tuscany and Emilio-Romagna before returning to the United States.

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After Kobe Bryant’s death Sunday, finding his animated short “Dear Basketball” to watch online was a difficult task — until now.

Granity Studios, the NBA star’s multimedia production company, made the Academy Award-winning film available for free Monday afternoon on the dearbasketball.com website and on Vimeo.

“Dear Basketball” is based on a poem he wrote in November 2015 to announce his retirement. The poem was published by the Players’ Tribune, a website that features first-person accounts written by pro athletes.

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Kobe Bryant was a Los Angeles superstar.

But he called Newport Beach his home. It was here he raised his daughters, was involved in its schools and youth sports and made friends at the neighborhood grocery store and Starbucks.

And it was this community that saw so much loss Sunday, as the helicopter carrying Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others slammed into a hillside above Calabasas, killing all on board.

Also on the copter were Newport Beach residents John Altobelli; his wife, Keri; and their daughter, Alyssa, who played on the same club team as Gianna Bryant. Newport Beach mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester were identified by friends and family as also being on board.

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The NBA has postponed the Lakers-Clippers game that was scheduled for Tuesday.

“The decision was made out of respect for the Lakers organization, which is deeply grieving the tragic loss of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash on Sunday.”

No makeup date has been released.

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Lakers star Kobe Bryant shoots a jump shot over the outstretched hand of a Pistons defender in the Lakers’ 97-85 victory.

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

It usually happens during a pickup basketball game. A player plants his feet, jumps and shoots with a yell of “Kobe!” -- partly a joke, but also a plea to guide the ball into the hoop with the skill of the late Lakers great Kobe Bryant.

It’s just a moment, but it’s a legacy that Bryant has left countless amateur basketball players -- and those folks just trying to throw a wad of paper into a faraway trash can -- around the world.

As the news of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash on Sunday spread, Twitter users and Times readers from all over shared memories of their “Kobe!” shots: jump shots, trick shots and three-point attempts. Here’s what they had to say (some responses have been lightly edited for clarity).

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Jim Hill rushed into the KCBS-Channel 2 studio in suit and tie and had Magic Johnson on the phone while other local TV crews were scrambling to do fan-on-the-street reactions. That was impressive but not unexpected.

Liz Habib’s voice cracked before she had to stop and wipe away tears, abandoning a KTTV-Channel 11 live standup. That felt appropriate.

ESPN and ABC continued to televise the NFL’s Pro Bowl in a simulcast, a meaningless exercise, while pushing its live coverage of events to ESPN2. That was beyond awkward, bordering on disrespectful.

Media outlets trying to disseminate what TMZ first reported Sunday morning as a helicopter crash in Calabasas that took five lives, including that of retired Lakers star Kobe Bryant, ignited the comprehension, disbelief and misinformation anxiety that often permeate the first 24 hours of a news cycle.

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The mood of Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning animated short film, “Dear Basketball,” always seemed a little curious. Part love letter to his sport, it was also part eulogy.

“My heart can take the pounding,” Bryant said in his narration, over a quiet moment in John Williams’ poignant score. “My mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye. And that’s OK. I’m ready to let you go.”

The 2017 film serves as a bit of tragic poetry following the death of Bryant, daughter Gianna and seven other people in a Calabasas helicopter crash Sunday.

The project began as a letter he penned in 2015 for the Players’ Tribune announcing his retirement from the NBA. Bryant created the production company Granity Studios — originally Kobe Studios — with ambitions to create books, TV series and even feature films. “Dear Basketball” was its first effort.

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In a request for Kobe Bryant memories, some fans expressed themselves through poetry. It’s a fitting tribute to the legendary Lakers great who wrote a poem called “Dear Basketball” to announce his retirement from the NBA. That poem was made into a film that earned him an Academy Award, a Sports Emmy and an Annie Award.

Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas on Sunday morning, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others. His career with the Lakers spanned 20 years before his retirement in 2016, and included five NBA championship titles, two Finals MVPs and one regular season MVP.

The Times asked readers to write in with their favorite memories of Bryant. If you have a poem to add, please submit it through the form below.

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Fans honor the memory of Kobe Bryant with a moment of silence before an NBA basketball game between the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Clippers in Orlando, Fla.

(Reinhold Matay/Associated Press)

The Clippers felt as though they’d been put through an emotional wringer when playing Sunday in Orlando, where they tipped off against the Magic less than four hours after receiving news of Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash.

Once their 112-97 victory was over, however, an understanding began to take hold that an even more emotional scene awaits them Tuesday at Staples Center, when the Lakers host the Clippers.

The teams’ previous meetings this season, both Clippers victories, were already played amid a charged atmosphere, given each organization’s expectation to contend for this season’s NBA championship. Yet Tuesday, in what will be the Lakers’ first game since the death of the player Magic Johnson called the “greatest Laker of all time,” figures to be a far more emotional backdrop.

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Sierra Canyon High girls’ basketball coach Alicia Komaki said she spent 12 hours Sunday sitting in her Chatsworth office watching nonstop news coverage about Kobe Bryant’s death. It made her reflect on what his absence might mean to women’s basketball, one of the most important recipients of his support since his retirement from the NBA.

From taking his daughters to WNBA games to coaching his daughter in youth basketball, Bryant was setting the stage to become an invaluable contributor in an arena that needed support. He was headed to Thousand Oaks to coach daughter Gianna, 13, in a youth tournament Sunday when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed, killing him, Gianna and seven others.

Komaki said the word around the club circuit was Bryant might become the girls’ basketball coach at Newport Coast Sage Hill, where Gianna was possibly going to enroll. A Sage Hill representative denied that Bryant was a coaching candidate. Bryant’s eldest daughter, Natalia, attends Sage Hill and is on the volleyball team.

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Gianna Bryant and her father, basketball great Kobe Bryant, attend the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

(Getty Images)

My youngest daughter and I were at a friend’s baby shower when we learned of Kobe Bryant’s death. I was glancing at my phone when a breaking news alert flashed across my screen, and I gasped.

“What?” Darby said, reaching for her own phone. So she learned as I did that Kobe’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, had been with him when the helicopter crashed. I squeezed my own 13-year-old daughter’s hand under the table and said, “We’ll talk about it after,” and we returned, as best we could, to the shower’s excitement and joy.

We did talk about it later, on the drive home, but I was just as shocked and numb as she. “I feel so sad,” she said as we walked into the house. “That is how everyone is going to feel,” I said unhelpfully, mechanically. “It is just a terrible, terrible thing.”

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People who knew Kobe Bryant as the father of four who lived up the street, ordered a certain pink drink at the corner Starbucks and trick-or-treated with their children gathered Sunday night in a park not far from his home to share their memories.

Newport Ridge Community Park is near Bryant’s Newport Coast home and near their homes too. These were neighbors of the retired Lakers basketball legend and youth basketball coach whom some of the younger people knew around their school gym as Mr. Bryant.

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Lakers star Kobe Bryant, left, and New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis talk while sitting on the bench during a game at the 2012 London Olympics.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

During his playing career, there weren’t many young players whom Kobe Bryant mentored. He made an exception for Anthony Davis.

“Anthony was different just because of his curiosity about the game itself,” Bryant said in an interview last fall. “His obvious potential. His ability. But he had a curious nature about him and how he wanted to learn more and more about that game. So I’d gravitate toward that.”

Bryant was one of nine people killed in a helicopter crash Sunday morning along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; Alyssa Altobelli, Gianna’s teammate on the Mamba basketball team; and her parents John and Keri Altobelli; Christina Mauser, who helped coach the Mamba girls basketball team; and the pilot, Ara Zobayan. Two other passengers haven’t been publicly identified yet.

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Hollywood veteran Jack Nicholson is a three-time Oscar winner and 12-time nominee, with more than 70 credits to his name. But on Sunday, he was simply a heartbroken Lakers fan.

Following the sudden death of local hero Kobe Bryant, Nicholson reflected on his relationship with the basketball icon and his home team yesterday in a rare phone interview with CBS Los Angeles. Bryant died early Sunday in a Calabasas helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.

“My reaction is the same as almost all of L.A.,” the actor said. “Suddenly, where everything was solid, there’s a big hole in the wall. I was so used to seeing and talking to Kobe that — it kills you. It’s just a terrible event.”

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This story originally published on latimes.com on April 11th, 2016.

As Kobe Bryant plays out his 20th and final season with the Lakers, The Times has reached out to players, coaches and broadcasters for recollections about his career.

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Senate Chaplain Barry Black in an opening prayer ahead of the impeachment trial mourned the loss of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and “those who died with them.”

“We all have a limited time on Earth to leave the world better than we found it,” Black said. “As this impeachment process unfolds, give our senators the desire to make the most of their time on Earth. Teach them how to live, o God, and lead them along the path of honesty.”

(Required)