That Gigi was on the helicopter with him has hit me like a ton of fucking bricks.
NBA 2019-20 Thread
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Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
Stunned.
13 year old daughter (and obviously another girl same age) makes it just so much more tragic.
Seems unreal.
13 year old daughter (and obviously another girl same age) makes it just so much more tragic.
Seems unreal.
Bluer White
New Yorker
Ugh.
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
This news is so big that our US Embassy in Iraq got bombed about a half hour ago and the news isn't even mentioning it.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
I'm assuming GAF hasn't checked in yet because he's on the mother of all benders right now.
Raptors-Spurs started their game by each taking 24 second shot clock violations. I didn’t expect to find it so moving, but that hit way harder than I thought it would.
This is a crushing day in the basketball world. Absolutely crushing. For Kobe to go like that is bad enough - but for his daughter to be with him? No words. Just incredible sadness.
DaveC
Blue Crack Addict
MrPryck2U
ONE love, blood, life
RIP Kobe and Gianna.
I was asleep in my bedroom with the NFL Network running an SB marathon when an announcer broke in with the news. I knew that whatever name he was gonna say had died. Didn't expect it to be Kobe.
I was asleep in my bedroom with the NFL Network running an SB marathon when an announcer broke in with the news. I knew that whatever name he was gonna say had died. Didn't expect it to be Kobe.
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
The news just got worse with each passing hour, not 5 people, but 9 people including 3 middle school aged girls. What a horrible tragedy.
phanan
Blue Crack Addict
Just incredibly sad.
cobl04
45:33
This article is really, really good: Mourn Kobe Bryant or don't: but mourn the whole, flawed man
It is...
I've wrestled with this myself over the past few days. Honestly Gigi passing away has been the more crushing aspect of all of this, for me at least. Kobe's death is shocking - Gigi's is utterly heartbreaking.
I don't think, as this article states, that his advocacy for female athletes and women's sports falls a mile short of redemption. It's an incredibly important thing, especially at a time where more and more girls are dropping out of sports at earlier ages.
He was genuinely involved beyond just helping his daughter, and there are a thousands of female basketball players from grassroots to the highest levels of the WNBA that have been positively impacted by his involvement in their lives and careers. That's not a small feat.
Redemption is not absolution.
He lived a better life from that point on and was a positive force for good off the court - but that doesn't forgive his acts from 2003. Only the victim can do that. But not everyone who commits a horrific act uses their second chance for good. He did.
cobl04
45:33
Well said, and yes, I think it did undersell his good deeds a bit.
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
Had Gigi gone to the WNBA, can you imagine what that name recognition would have done for the league?
Oh yes. I've hugged my son a bit tighter these past few days.
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-last-flight-of-kobe-bryant/ar-BBZp0ul?ocid=spartandhp
Sounds lkie the last minutes of their lives must have been terrifying.
Simply awful.
Sounds lkie the last minutes of their lives must have been terrifying.
Simply awful.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Well-said.
It’s a fair point that he could have done more speaking out against sexual assault, but I’m not sure victims would want him alongside them as an advocate. Not sure how much time would have to go by for that to be a comfortable situation.
It’s safe to say that after having 4 daughters, he’s imagined one of them in a similar situation and now has an understanding of how terrible it is to be a woman and have your side of the story questioned, doubted, torn apart.
Of course, Kobe himself wasn’t the one personally intimidating this victim until the point that she dropped the case. You know those Laker lawyers took over right from the beginning to protect their very valuable commodity. Could Kobe have stopped things from escalating too far, before it ruined her life? I suppose, but that’s a runaway train he was likely told to stay out of the way from if he wanted to keep his job, his family, his freedom.
As Headache said, this doesn’t absolve or excuse anything he did. He committed a sexual assault and was lucky to not be jailed for it. I’m just not sure it’s fair to blame the machinations of high-powered lawyers on him as well.
Bluer White
New Yorker
TNT has been something else the last hour. Damn.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
I only caught the clip of Shaq, but that was enough. 
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Shaq's point about almost all the NBA greats still being alive was illuminating. All these guys get to meet and speak with their idols.
No future players are going to get the chance to do this with Kobe.
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
I'm struggling to think of a celebrity death in my lifetime that had this widespread and intense of a reaction. Might have to go all the way back to Kurt Cobain.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Yeah, that was a big deal.
But Cobain's fans had only lived with him for 3-4 years at most. They saw a handful of videos, some interviews, a concert, etc.
Kobe played for almost 20 years, that's a lot of exposure.
But Cobain's fans had only lived with him for 3-4 years at most. They saw a handful of videos, some interviews, a concert, etc.
Kobe played for almost 20 years, that's a lot of exposure.
cobl04
45:33
Bowie ?
LuckyNumber7
Blue Crack Addict
There’s something to be said about the way Kobe died.
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Princess Diana in 1997, if you count royals as celebrities. That's the biggest I can remember. She'd been in the spotlight for 15 years, and the coverage of her passing was enormous.
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Yeah, I was trying to think of other star-level players who passed young. Wilt and Moses were both in their sixties, which is relatively young, but the only "star" player I can think of who passed genuinely young is Pete Maravich, who was only 40.
It's just not supposed to happen like this.
I can't stop thinking about all the families suffering as a result of this.
I had just been watching, days before this happened, one of those clips of Kobe and his daughter at a game. They both looked so happy. Just devastating.
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
No incredible shock factor with Bowie. We didn't know about his illness but he was 69 and to find out how he died isn't as stunning as this.
Honestly it might go back to John Lennon for something this shocking that affects such a large swath of the population (Lennon being larger of course).
I suppose you could argue Michael Jackson as well.
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