The world of sport, but not only, cries the death of Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time. But not only. The tragedy occurred on Sunday around 10 in the morning in California, 19 in Italy, when Bryant's private helicopter went down in Calabasas, Los Angeles County. The dynamics of the accident are yet to be understood. For now we only know that the aircraft, after touching down, caught fire, killing all the passengers: nine people in all. This was confirmed by the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, during a press conference. Unfortunately, Also on board was one of Kobe's four daughters, Gianna Maria, known as "Gigi", just 13 years old. She also played basketball: she was going with her father to practice at the Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks.
"The black mamba”: this is the nickname Bryant gave himself in 2004, after seeing the film Kill Bill: Volume 2 by Quentin Tarantino, in which this species of snake is described as an inescapable creature. At the time Kobe had already won three of his own five NBA titles with the Lakers (2000, 2001 and 2002, paired with Shaquille O'Neil). The other two would arrive in 2009 and 2010 (with another second violinist, the Spaniard Pau Gasol). As much as he tried, Bryant never managed to grab the number six title, which would have allowed him to reach Michael Jordan and, perhaps, to finally be remembered as the greatest of all time. On the other hand, they also appear in his palmares two Olympic gold medals, obtained with the dream team American in Beijing 2008 and in London 2012.
In 2017 he had even won an Oscar for Best Animated Short with “Dear Basketball,” based on his farewell letter to the game.
A few minutes after the helicopter crash, the news of Bryant's death spread around the world and a crowd (not just fans) gathered in front of the "Staples Center" in Los Angeles, the Lakers arena, the team in which Bryant played for exactly twenty years (1996-2016). Only one shirt for the whole career.
Below, we report the reactions of the main protagonists of the world of NBA basketball.
