SO LONG, BLACK MAMBA

Larger than life and bigger than basketball – fans mourn Kobe Bryant’s tragic death. We look at the icon’s life and legacy

- DENNIS CAVERNELIS

HE REGULARLY travelled by helicopter to avoid the terrible Los Angeles traffic. Sitting in the often-gridlocked roads took too much of a toll on his body and he avoided it whenever he could.

Basketball icon Kobe Bryant is unlikely to have thought of getting into his private helicopter on 26 January as anything special. But in the end that trip took the ultimate toll when it crashed, killing all nine on board, including Kobe and one of his daughters, Gianna (13).

Kobe (41) had been one of the fiercest, most relentlessly competitive athletes in the world. The powerhouse former basketball player was an NBA All-Star, an Olympian, a business mogul and even took home an Academy Award for a short film he’d made about the game he loved so much.

He was also a husband to Vanessa Bryant and father to their four girls, Natalia (17), Gianna, Bianka (3) and Capri (seven months).

Tributes poured in thick and fast after news of the crash broke. Kobe and Gianna were travelling to her team’s basketball practice at the Mamba Sports Academy in Los Angeles, which he owned.

Initial reports indicate the helicopter was flying through thick fog and poor visibility led it to crash into a hillside near Calabasas, California.

The other occupants in the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter were Alyssa Altobelli, one of Gianna’s basketball teammates, her parents Keri and John Altobelli, teammate Payton Chester and her mother Sarah Chester, basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.

Kobe, who spent his 20-year basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers, was coach of Gianna’s high school basketball team. It was one of his proudest postretirement achievements.

THE overwhelming emotions that followed news of Kobe’s death were grief and disbelief. But there were many critics who shared links to stories about the rape allegations he faced in 2003.