FAREWELL to a LEGEND

The world mourns the tragic death of NBA icon Kobe Bryant

You are responsible for how people remember you – or don’t. So don’t take it lightly,” basketball legend Kobe Bryant once said. “If you do it right, your game will live on in others … and when it comes time for you to leave, leave a legend.”

The basketball community – and, indeed, the rest of the world – is mourning the loss of one of sport’s biggest heroes, with Bryant tragically killed at age 41 on Monday in a helicopter crash that also claimed the life of his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Bryant and ‘Gigi’ were among the nine people who died when their helicopter went down in thick fog in Calabasas, northwest of LA, shortly before 10am, having taken off from Bryant’s Orange County home.

The other victims were pilot Ara Zobayan, Bryant family friends John and Keri Altobelli and their daughter Alyssa (who was one of Gigi’s teammates), mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester, and basketball coach Christina Mauser. Soon after news of the tragedy, devastated fans flocked to the Staples Center in downtown LA, where Bryant played his whole career, to pay their respects to its most iconic player, while social media was flooded with messages of condolences to Bryant’s surviving family, wife Vanessa and their three other daughters, Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and 7-month-old Capri.

The beloved LA Lakers player spent 20 years on the team before retiring in 2016. A day before his death, another legend, LeBron James, passed Bryant for No.3 spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. In what would be his final tweet, Bryant wrote on January 25: “Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames. Much respect my brother.” His message has widely been seen as an indication of his generosity of spirit and kindness.