Retired NBA player Rick Fox was as devastated as everyone regarding the tragedy which claimed the lives of his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other companions.
Fox shared the floor with Bryant from 1997 to 2004 and was a big part of the Lakers' three-peat from 2000 to 2002.
In the hours of the harrowing accident that rocked the world over the weekend, several reports claimed that Fox was with Bryant and was on board the helicopter that crashed to a foggy Calabasas hillside. The reports, of course, were deemed false and was disproved by Fox's lawyers.
On Tuesday, the 6-foot-7 retired small forward made an appearance on NBA on TNT alongside hosts Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Ernie Johnson. Retired players Dwyane Wade and Derek Fisher were present on the panel as well to discuss Kobe Bryant's legacy.
After offering condolences to the families of everyone involved, Fox opened up about how the false reports of his supposed demise affected his immediate family.
.@RickFox discusses how Sunday’s inaccurate reports affected his family. pic.twitter.com/tynwNicB01
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 29, 2020
Apart from the fake news concerning Rick Fox, several media outlets also initially spread several unverified and false claims surrounding the details of the accident.
Earlier reports claimed that only five people were aboard the helicopter, while another one reported that all of Bryant's daughters were with him at the time.
TMZ, who was the first one to release the story, also received flak for supposedly breaking the story before the family of the Lakers legend was notified of the incident. TMZ founder Harvey Levin has since denied those claims and said they had the consent of the Bryant household.
As of writing, the bodies of the nine victims of the crash have been recovered. The bodies of Kobe and three others have been officially identified, while the other victims are already identified by their families.
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