by Hailey Barrus – Basketball icon Kobe Bryant died suddenly in a helicopter crash outside of Calabasas, California on Sunday, January 26.
Bryant was best known for his 20-season basketball career as a Los Angeles Laker, where he was the youngest person to wear an NBA jersey. He won five championships, was an 18 time All-Star, on the All-NBA Team 15 times, and received four All-Star MVP awards.
Bryant was an icon and role model for this generation of athletes and his “mamba mentality” was not only applied to basketball, but all sports and life in general.
Senior Mustang basketball player Trystan Cummins took Kobe’s death to heart. Asked about what Bryant meant to him, Cummins said, “Kobe is one of the main reasons I fell in love with basketball. I can’t remember the last time I threw something in the trash and didn’t jokingly yell ‘Kobe.’”
Cummins went on to say, “He shaped my generation of athletes with his ‘mamba mentality’ and I know myself and the rest of the Mustang basketball team will miss him and try to carry on his legacy every time we step onto the court.”
Morgan Sale, a Morningside junior, said, “I think having someone who is seen in the media as perfect and unattainable die so suddenly really puts your life into perspective. Kobe did great things in basketball, but he was destined to do even greater things in retirement… He started an exceptional youth basketball academy, and was just a great role model for my entire generation to look up to.”
Sale continued, “Now it is our turn to take that torch Kobe carried and carry ourselves the way he did to inspire generations to come.”
This tragedy continues to affect people all across the world with viral montages, tweets, and quotes spreading across the internet.
Eight other people died in the crash, including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; John Altobelli, head baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Orange County; Altobelli’s wife and daughter, Keri and Alyssa; Sarah and Payton Chester of Orange County; Gianna’s school basketball coach, Christina Mauser; and pilot Ara Zobayan.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s department is continuing to investigate the crash.
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