Kobe Bryant

[tikay]

Rumours are circulating that Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash this morning.

The original source was TZM, hardly known for being reliable, so I hope it's wrong.

[tikay]

Multiple sources are confirming his death, but most seem to be relying on the original source.

[tikay]

https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1221518852783210496?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[tikay]

It's all over Twitter, so much so that Twitter has broke.



Twitter is over capacity. Please wait a few moments then try again.

[tikay]

SI are running the story now;



Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was reportedly killed in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday morning. He was 41 years old.

TMZ was the first to report that Bryant was among those on the helicopter when it went down in the hills of Calabasas and a fire broke out. The crash occurred before 10 a.m. and the fire made it difficult for firefighters and emergency personnel to get to the aircraft, according to The Los Angeles Times.

ESPN, ABC and Variety also confirmed Bryant was on the helicopter.

[tikay]

Multiple sources confirming the news is true, & his Wiki page states he has died.

I don't know enough about NBA to comment properly, & we'll have to wait for Argue to put proper perspective on this, but for sure he was one of the most successful & talented NBA players ever.

I believe he spent his entire career with The Lakers.

Click to see full-size image.

[AlbusFawkes]

Multiple sources confirming the news is true, & his Wiki page states he has died.

I don't know enough about NBA to comment properly, & we'll have to wait for Argue to put proper perspective on this, but for sure he was one of the most successful & talented NBA players ever.

I believe he spent his entire career with The Lakers.

Yes - all at the Lakers.

He was 3rd in overall points scorers until LeBron James overtook him this weekend.
He tweeted his congratulations.

[Jon MW]

Multiple sources confirming the news is true, & his Wiki page states he has died.

I don't know enough about NBA to comment properly, & we'll have to wait for Argue to put proper perspective on this, but for sure he was one of the most successful & talented NBA players ever.

I believe he spent his entire career with The Lakers.

Yes - all at the Lakers.

He was 3rd in overall points scorers until LeBron James overtook him this weekend.
He tweeted his congratulations.

Also the US Dream Team for the Olympics

Click to see full-size image.

This is from 2012 - I don't really know enough about the game to 'really' appreciate how well they played  - but it looked good to me.

[teddybloat]

People comparing his death to 9/11, people receiving death threats for posting links to articles about him raping someone, journos getting cancelled for not conforming to the deification, people being doxxed for posting about his infidelities.

Have zero interest in basketball, but have heard of him. I have no idea of his standing in the game. Looking in from the outside it's the US equivalent of Diana.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Looking in from the outside it's the US equivalent of Diana.

This was exactly how I described it to my wife when the news broke last night.  I have zero interest in basketball, but had enough name recognition of Kobe to know how big a story this would be in the USA.

The BBC didn't exactly cover themselves in glory reporting this last night, as the playing footage in their report was of LeBron James, for which they subsequently apologised.

https://twitter.com/matthewchampion/status/1221557555652153344

[Doobs]

People comparing his death to 9/11, people receiving death threats for posting links to articles about him raping someone, journos getting cancelled for not conforming to the deification, people being doxxed for posting about his infidelities.

Have zero interest in basketball, but have heard of him. I have no idea of his standing in the game. Looking in from the outside it's the US equivalent of Diana.

I saw this morning that the BBC were "institutionally racist" because they had included shots of Lebron James in its report on his death.  I get the picture had James on his back, but what proportion of Brits would be able to pick out Bryant in an identity parade of black NBA basketball players?   I barely watch NBA and don't think I would have been able to 24 hours ago.  Is your average news reader or producer at the BBC going to be any different?  This is hardly Piers Morgan on Meghan Markle, again.

FWIW the footage was of James beating his record the other day, so I guess the context was lost in the rush to get the report on the evening news.

[tikay]

People comparing his death to 9/11, people receiving death threats for posting links to articles about him raping someone, journos getting cancelled for not conforming to the deification, people being doxxed for posting about his infidelities.

Have zero interest in basketball, but have heard of him. I have no idea of his standing in the game. Looking in from the outside it's the US equivalent of Diana.

I saw this morning that the BBC were "institutionally racist" because they had included shots of Lebron James in its report on his death.  I get the picture had James on his back, but what proportion of Brits would be able to pick out Bryant in an identity parade of black NBA basketball players?   I barely watch NBA and don't think I would have been able to 24 hours ago.  Is your average news reader or producer at the BBC going to be any different?  This is hardly Piers Morgan on Meghan Markle, again.

FWIW the footage was of James beating his record the other day, so I guess the context was lost in the rush to get the report on the evening news.

Exactly that. It was the "script" that failed to synchronise with the footage, which was of Lebron beating Kobe's points tally the previous night, that was the point they were trying to make. It was a perfectly valid point to make but they did not execute it well.

I was following it all on Twitter last night & the vitriol aimed at the BBC for being "institutionally racist" was hysterical. There was nothing racist about it, nothing at all.

Twitter is, at the same time, both awful & wonderful.

As to the general noise around his death, I'm like many others, I don't have a great interest in NBA or Kobe, but there is definitely something about the sudden death of major celebs or sportspeople that clicks a "oh my God" switch.

I certainly never shed any tears, but it was certainly a wow moment.

[teddybloat]

re the james / kobe error.

i might be like most brits in that i know 5 basketball players: magic, shaq, kobe, curry and le bron

when i saw kobe trending, in my head i had it as it was le bron james - as in the best player to be playing the game today had died.

only when i googled him did i realise kobe had retired and it was le bron that was the current player.

it sort of lessened the WTFery for me as it was a retired legend that had died.

guess the equivalent would be the other ronaldo dying to an american in the red states.

[nirvana]

Abso incred response to the whole thing. People who obvs know nothing about basketball and didn't know who he was until yesterday saying 'tragic' etc. Stiff upper lips must be brought back into vogue.

[RED-DOG]

I saw this morning that the BBC were "institutionally racist" because they had included shots of Lebron James in its report on his death.

I am a bold advocate for equality, but the BBC, like most media outlets, are very quick to jump on the bandwagon when someone is accused of being racist, misogynistic, homophobic etc when in truth it is often just a genuine mistake or badly chosen words.

He who lives by the sword....