NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter got killed in helicopter crash

Kobe Bryant,
the basketball icon who won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers,
died in a helicopter crash on Sunday, leaving a legacy that spanned 20 years in
professional sports and a growing second career as an investor.

Bryant was
among nine people killed when a helicopter slammed into a hillside in
Calabasas, California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said. He was
41. Also among the victims were his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, another
parent and a teammate from Gianna’s travel sports team.

A 6-foot-6
small forward, Bryant was a gifted scorer whose intensity and work ethic became
lore throughout the sports world. He entered the NBA in 1996 directly out of
high school, and as the youngest player in the league had an almost-immediate
impact for the Lakers.

At the time
the team was looking for the next star to continue a run of legends that
included Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson.

Bryant
delivered. During his 20-year pro career he won, in addition to his NBA titles,
two gold medals in the Olympics, two NBA Finals MVPs and a regular season MVP
in 2008. He led the league in scoring twice and retired with 33,643 points, third
on the league’s all-time scoring list until he was passed this weekend by
LeBron James. He wore two jerseys for the Lakers ,No. 8 and No. 24 and the team
retired both.

The National
Transportation Safety Board said it dispatched investigators to the crash site.

The
superstar, his daughter and other passengers were traveling in a Sikorsky
S-76B, a popular helicopter for commercial uses that has been used for decades.
The helicopter identified by flight-tracking website Flightradar24 is owned by
Island Express Holding Corp. in Van Nuys, California, according to Federal
Aviation Administration records.

Flightradar24
said preliminary data indicated the helicopter had taken off from John Wayne
Airport in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles, at 9:06 a.m. local time.
It flew over Los Angeles and Glendale, then over the San Fernando Valley before
turning toward the rugged Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu.

In its last
recorded position at 9:45 a.m., the helicopter was at 1,700 feet altitude and
flying at 176 miles per hour. Photos of the crash site show that it hit an
undeveloped hillside.

The final
tweet on Bryant’s personal account referred to James’s achievement on the court
this weekend passing him as No. 3 on the all-time NBA scoring list.