Kobe Bryant, the 18-time NBA All-Star who won five championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, was killed in a helicopter crash along with his daughter, 13-year-old Gianna, and seven others Sunday. He was 41.

Conditions were extremely foggy when the NBA great’s helicopter went down northwest of Los Angeles on a hillside in the city of Calabasas, killing everyone aboard.
A sheriff told a press conference that debris is scattered over an area the size of a football field.

The retired Los Angeles Lakers star was proudest of his five championship rings, the most recent in 2010. Only four NBA players who weren’t on the Boston Celtics’ 1960s dynasty teams have won more titles. Bryant reached seven NBA Finals.

His career was remarkable for its longevity and because he played all 20 seasons with the Lakers – the most ever for one team. Bryant was the fifth player to last two full decades.

Tributes poured in for Bryant from the basketball world and beyond.

“Words can’t describe the pain I am feeling. I loved Kobe – he was like a little brother to me. We used to talk often, and I will miss those conversations very much. He was a fierce competitor, one of the greats of the game and a creative force. Kobe was also an amazing dad who loved his family deeply – and took great pride in his daughter’s love for the game of basketball,” Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan announced in a statement.

“Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act. To lose Gianna is even more heartbreaking to us as parents. Michelle and I send love and prayers to Vanessa and the entire Bryant family on an unthinkable day,” former US President Barack Obama stated on social networking site, Twitter.

(WBJ)