I am sad to report Kobe Bryant and 4 Others Die in Helicopter Crash.
Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant was among five people killed when a helicopter crashed and then caught fire on a hillside in the Calabasas area Sunday.
Sources have confirmed Kobe Bryant was reportedly on his way to a travel basketball game with his daughter Gianna when the helicopter crashed.
Last night I was watching sports clips and in a strange bit of irony, Kobe Bryant was passed up as the number three point scorer in NBA history by LeBron James, just yesterday.
Trading Places
The above from List of National Basketball Association Career Scoring Leaders.
‘Much Respect to My Brother’
Yesterday Kobe Bryant on LeBron James passing him: ‘Much Respect to My Brother‘.
When LeBron James passed Kobe Bryant on the NBA’s all-time scoring leaderboard on Saturday night, it was fair to wonder: How is Kobe taking the news? After all, he’s one of the fiercest — and most vocal — competitors we’ve ever seen.
Kobe isn’t always congratulatory when it comes to his competition, but he and LeBron seem to have grown to like each other. So the former Lakers star gave a shoutout on Twitter to the current Lakers star: “Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames. Much respect my brother.”
James passed Bryant’s career total of 33,643 points during the Lakers’ game against the Philadelphia 76ers. James is now third behind Karl Malone (36,928) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38387).
Wow.
Condolences to family and friends of Kobe Bryant.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Accident claims an American hero: https://youtu.be/_JgMY5UzEwo
Probably the most horrific day ever for the Bryant family. It should be a cautionary tale for those ever getting in a helicopter.
A small plane crashed in Corona just the other day, killing 4 people on take off. Every so often there is a story in the news of panic in the air, when an airliner incident happened in mid flight.
Fortunately, most of those don’t result in a crash. Then there is the 737 Max debacle.
On occasion, i flew on a helicopter in Korea and lived to talk about it. Kobe apparently had flown on helicopters over a long period of time. We have police and TV helicopters that fly over the neighborhood all the time and none have fallen out of the sky while doing so, though there was one that made a safe emergency landing in SoCal the other day. It was checked out and flew off from where it landed.
Do yourselves a favor and skip the ZH comments if you’re over there. The complete lack of human empathy is telling, even to someone like me who doesn’t care about Kobe or the NBA. Even worse, some of the people calling for reason are psychos themselves, often seen advocating for nuclear strikes on various ME countries and China. You can imagine what it takes to unnerve people who are normally rabid MIC warmongers.
It’s another gift from the red/blue divide and conquer game, transforming us from adults capable of rational discussion to poo-flinging monkeys.
Yes let’s hope that Mish’s commenters maintain a sense of decency. I expect they will.
Helicopters aren’t toys ……
Kobe used a chopper to play a trick on former Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka, the LA Times reported in 2017.
Bryant had the pilot do military maneuvers on the chopper with Pelinka on board, and even turn the engine off in midair.
“My life was flashing before my eyes,” Pelinka told the newspaper. “I almost had a heart attack. Kobe’s just sitting there calm and collected.”
“I never felt outside pressure. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and I knew how much work it took to achieve… The expectations I placed on myself were higher than what anyone expected from me.” Kobe Bryant
I continue to follow the advice of an Army Warrant Officer UH-1 pilot I used to know.
His advice was “Never get into a helicopter unless you have to.”
Local news here has just reported that one of Kobe’s four children was also killed. Other three fatalities not yet identified.
Yep – just updated the post. I heard all 4 kids but I won’t report without a reliable source
Now reported that there were 8 passengers plus the pilot on board. No names to be officially released until the LA County Coroner reports.