KOBE BRYANT

REMEMBERING A LEGEND | AUG. 23, 1978 - JAN. 26, 2020

5 PAGES OF COVERAGE IN SPORTS

● POSTER REMEMBERING THE 5-TIME NBA CHAMPION ● REACTION FROM AROUND ATLANTA AND THE WORLD ● HOW HE PLAYED IN 29 GAMES AGAINST THE HAWKS

Kobe Bryant’s life held no more intrinsic value than the other eight souls killed in Sunday’s helicopter crash. This much we must know.

Aboard that doomed

craft was all the combined sadness of parents torn from their children’s lives, of spouses left behind, of three young girls gone with far too many empty pages in their diaries. There are no rankings for such losses, all equally inconceivable.

Yet it is Bryant for whom the world mourns, because he is the one the world knows.

The reaction at a time like this, when a towering sports figure dies a sudden, untimely death, stretches beyond the usual borders of grief. It really is something fascinating to behold and it once more affirms the long emotional reach of sports.

Fans gather near Bryant’s Los Angeles home court and leave tributes and speak of this like a death of a loved one, even if Bryant actually is less an acquaintance to any of them than the mailman or the kid who bags their groceries. But just watching him play at a level beyond anyone else on the same floor somehow built this intimate bond. His victories became theirs.

That bond extends across the entire world, that being the marketplace now of

‘He was just special. We will miss him and we’ll remember him for his greatness.’

Magic Johnson, former Lakers star

RONALD MARTINEZ / GETTY IMAGES/TNS When a big star such as Kobe Bryant has an untimely death, the global grief affirms the long emotional reach of sports.