Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA champion regarded as the greatest Los Angeles Laker of all-time, died alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash Sunday. He was 41; his daughter was 13.
Bryant was one of the most significant players in NBA history, amassing championships in two separate eras of Laker basketball — a threepeat alongside Shaquille O’Neal from 2000-02 and back-to-back titles with Pau Gasol from 2009-10. He was the defining player of the 2000s, a decade in which the NBA struggled to emerge from its post-Jordan lull.
Bryant’s death is the biggest shock in American professional sports in generations, if not ever. It is not a small list. The murder of Steve McNair 11 years ago, the Dale Earnhardt crash in 2001, the crash of Payne Stewart months after his US Open win in 1999, Hank Gathers’ on-court passing in 1989 and the plane crash death of Thurman Munson in 1979 come to mind.
Other athletes of Bryant’s exalted stature have passed before their time, but rarely as suddenly. Babe Ruth passed of cancer; Walter Payton of liver disease; Lou Gehrig of an ailment that would eventually bear his name. Perhaps only Roberto Clemente’s 1972 death is truly comparable.
For the NBA especially, Sunday’s news shook the league’s foundation like no event in its history. The NBA has been a fortunate league. Nearly all of its greats are either currently alive or lived long lives, Pete Maravich and Wilt Chamberlain noted exceptions.
The league has lost young, promising players during their careers, including Drazen Petrovic and Reggie Lewis in the same 1993 offseason. Neither player had the opportunity to achieve Bryant’s level of success, both cut down before the age of 30.
The shock is compounded by the fact that Bryant was an active presence in the NBA community in the four years since his 2016 retirement. He hosted a version of the ESPN+ series Detail, won an Academy Award in 2018, and was frequently seen at NBA arenas, often with his late daughter.
After retiring, Bryant achieved a level of nearly universal appreciation among NBA fans. It was a far cry from a playing career that was polarizing, both on the court and off. No obituary of Bryant would be complete without noting his 2003 sexual assault charge. Less important were his clashes with O’Neal, with whom he eventually reconciled.
By the end of his life, he was a benign figure best known as a father deeply involved in his daughter’s youth basketball career. Bryant and his daughter were headed to one of her games when the helicopter crashed.
As one would expect, Bryant’s passing was the dominant news story of the day in and out of sports. ESPN went into the kind of rolling coverage that it once devoted to the death of Muhammad Ali, with Zuban Mehenti and Michael Eaves anchoring for several hours on ESPN2. ESPN and ABC had Pro Bowl obligations, addressing the news on that broadcast. CBS addressed the news during its college basketball and golf coverage. NBC News broke into programming for a special report. Bryant was also honored at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, which took place at Staples Center.
ABC and ESPN simulcast an hour-long special on Bryant’s passing at 10 PM ET Sunday night. ESPN has previously simulcast an ABC News presidential town hall and, most notably, ABC’s news coverage on September 11, 2001.
Bryant had been in the news in the hours leading to his passing. Hours before, LeBron James passed him on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. James spoke glowingly about Bryant after the game. Bryant’s final Twitter post congratulated James.
NBA teams honored Bryant Sunday by opening games with eight-second or 24-second violations. His journey was as memorable as any in league history, from high school phenom to champion, capped with a 60-point career finale that was staggering in the moment, made only more so by how the story ended less than four years later.
That this is how his story ended will remain surreal for decades to come.
