Kobe Bryant’s death is a tragedy that lingers,
LOS ANGELES – As I stood in line at the cash register of a clothing store, I received a text message that would mark the beginning of a tumultuous year in 2020. It would also mark the beginning of a day that pains me just as much nearly a year later.
On Jan. 26, 2020 at 11:29 a.m. PT, a friend sent a TMZ story that reported former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash followed with three crying emojis.
I stared at my phone screen in shock. I refused to click on the link because I feared it might be a virus. I also feared the news might be true. So, I just stood there staring at my phone. The cashier could have charged me thousands of dollars for a handful of clothes. I would have neither noticed nor cared.
Instead, I reflected immediately on a sit-down interview I had with Bryant in his office in Costa Mesa, California, nine days earlier. Bryant spoke extensively on how he pivoted almost seamlessly from a storied 20-year NBA career into overseeing a storytelling company (Granity), a sports training facility (Mamba Sports Academy) and spending more time with his family.
After covering Bryant for a combined 71⁄2 years as a Lakers blogger with the Los Angeles Times and a beat writer for the L.A. Daily News, it was a treat to catch up with Bryant and talk about the second chapter of his life. And now it all had come to an abrupt end at 41 years old? None of it made sense.
As tears welled up in my eyes, I suddenly snapped out of my daze after the cashier gave me my purchase. I darted out of the store and started making phone calls. The first two calls I made went to voicemail. I connected with someone on my third call and asked if it was true that Bryant died. That person told me they had to call me back.
By no means did that mean I could report definitively about Bryant’s passing. But that response signaled to me that the news was accurate. If it wasn’t, that person could have easily refuted the story. Moments later, one of my editors called.
While my colleague Jeff Zillgitt was writing an obituary, I started the 30-mile drive to Calabasas in hopes I could talk to authorities about the details surrounding the crash.
About 20 minutes later, Zillgitt and I confirmed the news from different sources that both Bryant and his 13-yearold daughter, Gianna, were on the helicopter that crashed by the Santa Monica Mountains. They were on their way to an AAU game at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks. For the next hour, I had nothing but time and the road ahead of me to make more calls and sob in between them.
To limit the stream of camera crews and mourning Bryant fans, the sheriff’s office had shut off car access at various check points near the crash site. So by about 1:30 p.m., I found a place to park before making the three-mile walk toward the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street where a number of distressed Bryant fans had congregated.
Fans could still see the smoke and wreckage of the crash that took place in the mountains. They grieved in silence and with each other over a tragedy that seemed impossible to process.
“Unbelievable,” said RJ Sobhanpanah,
28, of Thousand Oaks. “He was our idol. It doesn’t make sense.”
Because of that, a handful of Lakers fans were more than eager to talk with me to share stories and hoping I could share information with them.
“I was in total shock,” said Ojan Sobhanpanah, RJ’s 21-year-old brother. “He literally saved my life. I would not be who I am without him.”
Ojan stressed he was not speaking in hyperbole. Almost a decade after attending Bryant’s summer camp in Thousand Oaks, Ojan said he dropped from 231 pounds to 168 in the last year. He credited Bryant’s “Mamba Mentality.”
For privacy concerns, authorities would not confirm the victims on the helicopter crash that included Kobe and Gianna Bryant, Orange Coast College’s baseball coach (John Altobelli), his wife (Keri) and daughter (Alyssa); Gianna’s AAU teammate (Payton Chester) and her mother (Sarah), an AAU coach (Christina Mauser) and the pilot (Ara Zobayan). But Daryl Osby, fire chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the department received a 911 call at 9:47 a.m. PT from eye witnesses that reported seeing a potential brush fire or helicopter fire.
The LA Fire Department then sent 56 people with 15 units that included paramedics, fire engines and a rescue crew. Crews extinguished a quarter-acre brush fire.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva revealed there was an issue with visibility because of weather conditions but said that the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were investigating why the helicopter was in the air. Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, has since filed a lawsuit against the helicopter company, and the NTSB plans to have a virtual hearing in early February to determine the probable cause of the crash.
After filing the news, I walked back toward the Church in the Canyon in hopes to have a seat at the vigil service. Pastor Bob Bjerkaas delivered a 13-minute sermon in front of 80 people.
“Kobe Bryant was a man like you and me,” Bjerkaas said. “He had ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses, feelings and hopes. But he also had something extraordinary and it was a gift from God.”
Afterwards, Bjerkaas embraced and prayed with mourning fans. Nearly 30 minutes north, a similar scene emerged outside of the Mamba Sports Academy. At around 8 p.m., fans left bushels of flowers, autographed Bryant jerseys, framed newspapers, Lakers flags and cards just outside the facility. A deadening silence filled the air.
As I made the hour-long drive back home, I held out hope that I would soon awake from a nightmare. Or that a reputable source would alert me that Kobe and Gianna Bryant actually weren’t in the crash, and that authorities made a mistake.
Once I got back home at around 10:30 p.m., I still had more work to do. I updated the various news dispatches I had filed from the scene. Then while fighting through tears and exhaustion, I wrote a column about Bryant’s final sit-down, on-camera interview and what it meant following his tragedy.
What once felt inspiring about Bryant’s initially successful second act then felt tragic because it ended too abruptly.
After filing that column at 3:00 a.m., I hit the pillow. Before dozing off, I prayed for the nine victims to rest in peace.