Updated:
It is now being reported that one of Kobe’s daughters, Gianna (GiGi), was also on the helicopter when it went down. They were believed to be on their way to one of GiGi’s games that Kobe coached at the Mamba Academy.
{The basketball legend and one of his daughters were aboard his private helicopter over Calabasas when it crashed, officials say.}
Kobe Bryant, who starred for 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers and won five NBA championships, died Sunday in a helicopter crash, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Kobe was 41.
The basketball icon and 2018 Oscar winner died aboard his private helicopter when it crashed in Calabasas and started a fire. Five people, including one of his four daughters, Gianna, 13, died in the crash, which is under investigation.
{It was later reported there were 9 people total on the helicopter.}
Deputies responded to the scene near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street at around 10 a.m., the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's Lost Hills station told KTLA. The helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76B built in 1991, departed John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9:06 a.m. Sunday, the Times said, citing publicly available flight records.
Kobe was known to regularly take a helicopter to Lakers games from his Orange County home in the Newport Coast community during his career.
Kobe won the best animated short Oscar for his 5-minute autobiographical film Dear Basketball. He wrote, executive produced and lent his voice to the project.
"I don't know if it's possible — I mean, as basketball players, we're really supposed to shut up and dribble," he said in his Oscar acceptance speech. "I'm glad we do a little bit more than that. Thank you Academy for this amazing honor. Thank you John Williams for such a wonderful piece of music. Thank you Verizon for believing in the film. Thank you Mali Carter, without you we wouldn't be here. And to my wife, Vanessa, our daughters, Natalia, Gianna and Bianka, contigo te amo. You are my inspiration. Thank you so much, guys."
He and his wife Vanessa had a fourth daughter, Capri Kobe, in June.
Asked by THR's Scott Feinberg in a 2017 Awards Chatter podcast what he would have done had he not played basketball,
When asked what he would have done had he not played basketball Kobe said: "I'd be writing stories. Storytelling is something that's just a part of me, something that I love every bit as much as I've ever loved basketball, which I'm very fortunate to be able to say."
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