[xerxes]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

CharlesAnthony CharlesAnthony:

Where is the helicopter?

The crash site is small and the fire-men are not too quick to get out their fire extinguishers.

Other people also complained/observed that the initial news coverage of the crash did not include any aerial coverage of the crash site and was instead focused on the reaction from fans and people who knew Kobe.

Once you realize that Kobe's helicopter crashed partly due to foggy and low visibility conditions then it makes sense that there were no news helicopters over the scene.

On a media related note someone noticed the vast coverage clusterfuck by the media:

https://www.lacortenews.com/n/the-media ... ants-death

That usually happens in breaking news situations. News orgs flail around trying to scoop the others in finding some new tidbit of information and in the process, rumour and hearsay get promoted to facts.

Personally, I think this how a lot of BS conspiracy theories get started. One thing gets reported, then debunked later and idiots take that incongruity as a sign of a coverup.

[xerxes]

Column: How can Kobe Bryant be gone? His legend wasn’t supposed to end this way
By BILL PLASCHKE - LA Times

Kobe Bryant is gone.

I’m screaming right now, cursing into the sky, crying into my keyboard, and I don’t care who knows it.

Kobe Bryant is gone, and those are the hardest words I’ve ever had to write for this newspaper, and I still don’t believe them as I’m writing them. I’m still crying, and go ahead, let it out. Don’t be embarrassed, cry with me, weep and wail and shout into the streets, fill a suddenly empty Los Angeles with your pain.

No. No. No, damn it, no!

Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine people who died in a helicopter crash Sunday in Calabasas and how does that happen? Kobe is stronger than any helicopter. He didn’t even need a helicopter. For 20 years he flew into greatness while carrying a breathless city with him.

This can’t be true.

Kobe does not die. Not now. Kobe lives into his golden years, lives long enough to see his statues erected outside Staples Center and his jerseys inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He lives long enough to sit courtside at Staples when he’s stooped and gray, keeping alive the memories of two decades of greatness with a wink, maybe even fooling everyone one last time by retiring in a community next to Shaq.

How can Mamba be dead? Mambas don’t die. Why this, why now, why him, why them? Kobe and Gianna leave behind an incredibly strong wife and mother, Vanessa, and daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, who was born last summer. The horror of this is unspeakable. The tragedy of this is immeasurable.

Go ahead and keep crying, you won’t be alone. A huge hole has been cut out of Los Angeles’ heart, and the wound is breathtaking.

Kobe was your childhood hero. He was your adult icon. For 20 years he was on posters in your bedroom, on the television in your living room, in the lunch talk in your school cafeteria, in the smack talk at your office water cooler, and ultimately riding on a truck down Figueroa Street while you cheered and bragged and bathed in his greatness.

You watched him grow up, and this city’s relentless approach to sports grew with him, and soon, even with all of his off-court failings, many people felt they carried a little piece of him.

On your best days, the days you landed a big account or aced a big test or just survived a battle with traffic, you felt like Kobe. You were Kobe. And in the end, as he retired into a life of movies and books and coaching Gianna’s basketball team, he was us.

For me, he not only dominated my professional life, he consumed it. He arrived in Los Angeles two months before I began writing this column. We used to joke that we started our journeys together. But then he would pat me on the back and shake his head at that notion because, well, he always followed his own path.

He was the one Laker who never had an entourage, and many nights after games we would chat as I walked with him to his car. Except when he would get mad at me for what he considered unfair criticism, and then we wouldn’t talk for weeks, because when he was playing, he was that rare fighter who never dropped his fists.

I covered his first game. I covered his last game. I wrote about everything in between, the titles and the sexual assault charge and the trade demands and the titles again and then finally that 60-point career-ending game against Utah.

I screamed from press row that night, just as I’m screaming now, still shaking, still not believing.

Kobe Bryant is gone.

We talked just last week.

I emailed Kobe with a request to speak to him about being passed on the all-time scoring list by LeBron James.

He emailed me back immediately. He always did.

He cleared his calendar and made time to chat on the phone because, as he always said, “You’ve been there for everything with me.”

But then, in our 20-minute conversation, he showed a side of Kobe that I had not seen before.

The edge was gone. The arms were open. He urged acceptance of LeBron. He preached calm for Lakers fans. He said greatness wasn’t worth anything if you couldn’t share it.

After about five minutes the message of this call was clear, the steely-eyed Mamba was purposely moving into a role of a wise, embracing and grateful leader of a community that had shown him so much patience and love.

“It’s crazy, watching this city and growing with it,” he said before hanging up. “I feel such an appreciation, I can never pay the city back for what it’s given me.”

And now he’s gone. Kobe is gone. Kobe is gone.

I’ll say it 81 times and it still won’t make any sense.

Kobe Bryant is gone and, so, too, is a little bit of all of us.

[Strutz]

Wow that was quite the tribute.

[CharlesAnthony]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

On a media related note someone noticed the vast coverage clusterfuck by the media:

Noticed?
There has been nothing but clusterfuck coming from the media.

Until we hear from his wife and see a funeral, this death is highly suspicious. As long as the audience is convinced it was an accident, I suppose all is well.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

CharlesAnthony CharlesAnthony:

Until we hear from his wife and see a funeral, this death is highly suspicious. As long as the audience is convinced it was an accident, I suppose all is well.

What the f**king hell is wrong with you?!?!

It WAS an accident! The helicopter had some kind of issue while climbing above some low clouds and spiraled out of control and crashed.

How the hell can you be so cold in the face of nine human beings losing their lives and altering the lives of their families in this way? There has been a terrible amount of pain released from the tragedy, and all you care about is looking for a conspiracy where there is none!

You're a complete piece of crap in my mind. No respect whatsoever!

-J.

[xerxes]

Shaq just looks broken here. And understandably so.

[Freakinoldguy]

You know, after watching people respond to this tragedy I'm amazed at just how many lives this man positively touched and how many people loved him and considered him their friend.

He was definitely a rarity in that shit show of self absorbed indulgence called Los Angeles celebrity.

He may be gone but, he sure as hell won't be forgotten.

[stratos]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

You know, after watching people respond to this tragedy I'm amazed at just how many lives this man positively touched and how many people loved him and considered him their friend.

He was definitely a rarity in that shit show of self absorbed indulgence called Los Angeles celebrity.

He may be gone but, he sure as hell won't be forgotten.

He was no saint. Many people are forgetting that he cheated on his wife and that the woman he cheated on her with said she was rapped by him (at first). I don't remember if this was settled out of court or just was dropped by the woman. He also is credited with running Shaq out of LA and basically making him play his last couple of years on another team. He refused to redo his contract at the end of his carrier causing the team to be unable to get the talent to keep them at the top of NBA.

All that said HE was a great player, a loving father, and did do many positive things that effected thousands of people.

[Freakinoldguy]

stratos stratos:

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

You know, after watching people respond to this tragedy I'm amazed at just how many lives this man positively touched and how many people loved him and considered him their friend.

He was definitely a rarity in that shit show of self absorbed indulgence called Los Angeles celebrity.

He may be gone but, he sure as hell won't be forgotten.

He was no saint. Many people are forgetting that he cheated on his wife and that the woman he cheated on her with said she was rapped by him (at first). I don't remember if this was settled out of court or just was dropped by the woman. He also is credited with running Shaq out of LA and basically making him play his last couple of years on another team. He refused to redo his contract at the end of his carrier causing the team to be unable to get the talent to keep them at the top of NBA.

All that said HE was a great player, a loving father, and did do many positive things that effected thousands of people.

Of course he did, but it's a case of "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". The guy learned from his mistakes and came out the other end a much better person which is something that almost never happens with a celebrity especially a self absorbed self entitled athlete.

Other than Lakers fans who are mostly assholes anyway, how many people loved him when he was charged with sexual assault? How many people loved him when and Shaq had a falling out? How many people loved him when he was one of the biggest showboating ball hogs in the game?

At first I thought this outpouring of love was just the cult of celebrity till almost everyone who he'd touched in some way came forward, not with his failings but with his positivity, his kindness and his willingness to help others.

So yeah the guy was an asshole at one time, but it would appear that after he got accused of sexual assault the 17 year old self entitled basketball superstar who went directly from high school to the big's grew up and became a man. In a way it's actually a better success story than the usual crap Hollywood puts out on celluloid. But, the only sad part is that it ended as a tragedy rather than a continuing uplifting success story.