OT Terribly sad news - Kobe Bryant

[Matthew]

I did read that his 13 year old daughter was also on board as well as another former NBA player. Reported by CBS I believe.

[Elefantino]

Not to drift, but this reminds me of the death of NASCAR great Davey Allison in 1993. My son, then 10, was a huge Davey fan and spent time with him in Sonoma in '92. Lots of tears then, too.

So sad.

[Blue Jays]

Whoa. Horrible news. A sports legend.

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by Matthew

I did read that his 13 year old daughter was also on board as well as another former NBA player. Reported by CBS I believe.

New York Times is also reporting that his daughter was with him (The retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif.)

[Matthew]

CNN just said nine confirmed dead now. Just keeps getting worse.

[David Kirk]

This effing blows.

Even with all he accomplished in his early years one can say his life had just begun.

Rest in peace young man.

dave

[joosttx]

So sad. On so many levels. I am wishing his family peace and healing. God Bless them.

[FlashUNC]

Great 2 guard who fit the era he played in.

After that, well, that's about the only compliment I can think of for the guy.

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Great 2 guard who fit the era he played in.

After that, well, that's about the only compliment I can think of for the guy.

Just stop after that 1st sentence, if you don't have anything nice to say. He was doing some good work with after school all stars, and his own foundation that I heard or read in SOCAL news not that long ago.

[XXtwindad]

[QUOTE=FlashUNC;2648989]Great 2 guard who fit the era he played in.

After that, well, that's about the only compliment I can think of for the guy.

Well, I can see your perspective. It's certainly a rational one. His legacy is complicated - undoubtedly the most complicated in this Millennium. But that doesn't explain why I've been teary eyed all day.

Kobe was a master of burnishing his own legacy. He created the "Mamba," the gunner who saved the day late in the game (the stats don't exactly agree) and the charming, charismatic, and handsome man who was tailor-made for Tinseltown. Except that was really a myth, too. See: hotel room, Colorado. And his teammates didn't exactly adore him.

Contrast Kobe with AI, who was seemingly his antithesis. And he was. Yet the press flipped the script. AI was adored by his community, and his teammates.

But it's easy to digest a ready-made script. At the Philly/LA game last night, (the same game where the cameras zoomed in on LBJ's eerily prescient "Kobe Homage" shoes) my buddy and I saw a guy embrace Mark Jackson and Van Gundy. We didn't know who it was. We were shocked when we found out it was AI. Hard to believe. He looked drastically different from his playing days.

But not Kobe. He was the first basketball superstar of the Internet Age, and for 25 years, he never appeared anything less than youthful, confident, and indestructible. Hard to reconcile the fact that he's gone.

That's why I've been crying on and off today. Especially now that I'm a parent. You want to believe that someone like Kobe, who so artfully mastered his own legacy, would be impervious to the capricious whims of fate.

But he wasn't.

https://www.heraldcourier.com/sports...e39cb09c4.html

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by jimcav

Just stop after that 1st sentence, if you don't have anything nice to say. He was doing some good work with after school all stars, and his own foundation that I heard or read in SOCAL news not that long ago.

Or for a more holistic reading he leaves a, uh, complicated legacy.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Or for a more holistic reading he leaves a, uh, complicated legacy.

We can always count on you to come in and demonstrate how to lack class when a time calls for it. Why can’t you just keep your holier than thou soapbox rants to yourself when there’s a thread about someone’s death?

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by Chris

We can always count on you to come in and demonstrate how to lack class when a time calls for it. Why can’t you just keep your holier than thou soapbox rants to yourself when there’s a thread about someone’s death?

Because it's a discussion forum?

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Or for a more holistic reading he leaves a, uh, complicated legacy.

I'm actually not a personal fan, apart from enjoying his athleticism, I just question the need or utility of any disparaging comments on what is a essentially a RIP thread, started out of respect. Bambi was the 1st movie my parents ever took me to, and my mom would often use it to remind me to speak kindly, or not at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and has the right to express it; and perhaps it is just the contentious political times are wearing on me, but I sometimes wish people would just give more consideration to when to express. But, I suppose I'm just as guilty, as I didn't need to comment on your entirely reasonable view that you had nothing else positive to say.

[cash05458]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Great 2 guard who fit the era he played in.

After that, well, that's about the only compliment I can think of for the guy.

check out facebook stuff...pretty much it's noone will miss a rapist...things are so outta control in this nation emotionally...