The Los Angeles Lakers and NBA community lost a giant in Kobe Bryant on Sunday, with reports of the 41-year-old retired shooting guard passing away in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. Another Lakers legend in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reacted to Bryant's sudden death:
“Most people will remember Kobe as the magnificent athlete who inspired a whole generation of basketball players,” Abdul-Jabbar, 72, wrote on social media. “But I will always remember him as a man who was much more than an athlete.”
Abdul-Jabbar went through his thought process of grieving Bryant in a video shared on Twitter on Sunday afternoon:
Most people will remember Kobe as the magnificent athlete who inspired a whole generation of basketball players. But I will always remember him as a man who was much more than an athlete. pic.twitter.com/9EZuwk8wrV
— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (@kaj33) January 26, 2020
Bryant retired after the 2015-16 season as a five-time NBA champion and one-time league MVP. He was an 18-time All-Star and played his entire two-decade-long career as a member of the Lakers after L.A. acquired him on draft night in 1996 from the Charlotte Hornets. Bryant exited his NBA career by scoring 60 points against the Utah Jazz in April 2016 and was just eclipsed by LeBron James on the league's all-time scoring list.
Abdul-Jabbar, one-time Lakers power forward Karl Malone, and current Laker James are the only three players to have scored more points in their career than Bryant.
Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, the NBA's second-most points in a game behind Hall of Fame center Wilt Chamberlain nearly 60 years ago.
Kobe Bryant was an icon for the city of Los Angeles, and no doubt legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar along with Lakers fans and the whole NBA world are grievously mourning his loss.
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