A VERY TRAGIC STORY
THE people of the US and sports fans around the world are in mourning after the death on Sunday in a helicopter crash in California of Kobe Bryant, the famed basketball champion. He was 41.

Also killed were Bryant’s daughter Gianna, 13. They are survived by Bryant’s wife Vanessa and three other daughters, Natalia, Bianca and Capri.

Among the nine dead were a well-known California college baseball coach, John Altobelli, and his wife and daughter, Keri and Alyssa, also 13. Though there was no official confirmation last night, her husband wrote on Facebook that Christina Mauser, a basketball coach at Gianna’s school, was also on board.

US sources have cited family tributes being paid to another victim, Sarah Chester, and her daughter Payton, while Ara Zobayan has also been named as the pilot.

WHAT HAPPENED?
BRYANT and all those killed were on their way to a game at Mamba, the sports academy co-founded by Bryant where he could often be found coaching youngsters like his daughter Gianna, who had already expressed her wish to be a professional player like her father. Investigators are at the scene looking for clues. The weather was foggy at the time but the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter was equipped to the highest standards and though local police helicopters had been grounded, clearance had been given for the flight which ended when the helicopter crashed into a hillside outside the city of Calabasas and exploded.

WHO WAS KOBE BRYANT?
ONE of the greatest of all basketball players, Bryant was the son of professional player, Joe Bryant, who spent much of his career in Italy.

Drafted on leaving high school, Bryant spent all his 20 year career at the Los Angeles Lakers, where he became legendary for his feats.

He was one of the most successful players of the past few decades and also one of the wealthiest.

In the US where the NBA professional league is a national passion, Bryant was revered as one of the best, up there with Michel Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal. His reputation was tarnished over accusations he raped a woman at a Colorado hotel in 2003. Bryant denied the allegations, saying the encounter had been consensual, and the case was dropped after the alleged victim refused to testify. Bryant later paid damages out of court and apologised to the woman, saying: “I recognise now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did.”

WHAT WERE HIS ACHIEVEMENTS?
HE won five NBA titles with the Lakers and two Olympic gold medals with the USA national team, He was the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and two-time NBA Finals MVP. He was also NBA scoring champion twice and famously scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, the second-highest single-game total in NBA history. Only Wilt Chamberlain, with a 100-point game in 1962, has scored more.

He made the All-NBA First Team selection 11 times, second-equal with Karl Malone. Bryant’s great friend LeBron James is the only player to have made it in 12 times.

Bryant even won an Oscar for best short animated film in 2016 for Dear Basketball, a five-minute film based on a love letter to the sport he wrote in 2015.

DEAR BASKETBALL?
HE wrote: “Dear basketball, we both know, no matter what I do next, I’ll always be that kid, with the rolled-up socks, garbage can in the corner, five seconds on the clock, ball in my hands.”

AMERICA IS UNITED IN MOURNING HIM
AS with the deaths last year of Celtic greats Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers as well as Ranger’ legend Fernando Ricksen, all club rivalries were put aside as basketball mourned the loss of one of the finest players of all time. Politics were also put aside. On Twitter, President Donald Trump wrote: “Kobe Bryant, despite being one of the truly great basketball players of all time, was just getting started in life.

“He loved his family so much, and had such strong passion for the future. The loss of his beautiful daughter, Gianna, makes this moment even more devastating.”

Former President Barack Obama tweeted: “Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act. To lose Gianna is even more heartbreaking to us as parents. Michelle and I send love and prayers to [Bryant’s wife] Vanessa and the entire Bryant family on an unthinkable day.”

Michael Jordan said: “I loved Kobe – he was like a little brother to me. We used to talk often and I will miss those conversations very much. He was a fierce competitor, one of the greats of the game and a creative force.”

He is mourned elsewhere, too. The Italian basketball federation president, Giovanni Petrucci, said: “All of the NBA players are important, because they’re legends, but he’s particularly important to us because he knew Italy so well, having lived in several cities here. He had a lot of Italian qualities. He spoke Italian very well. He even knew the local slang.”

It’s in the US that his loss is felt most. He really did transcend sport.