The sports world stopped the day when Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven others died in a helicopter crash. For his part, Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry can still recall the moment like it was yesterday.

“I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life. I was coming back from injury, but I got to participate in practices that day,” the Warriors sharpshooter said, per East Bay Times “On the sidelines, you could see the body language change immediately. Practice just kind of came to a halt.

“A lot of reflection, sadness — an overwhelming moment for sure. You didn’t want to think it was true. It was a tough day for the whole world, for the whole basketball world.”

Kobe's death anniversary on January 26 is fast approaching, but as Curry noted, it doesn't seem to be real.

“It’s surreal. It’s still hard,” Curry said. “It doesn’t seem like it’s been a year since it happened.”

Bryant was an inspiration for many current players in the league, including Curry. Back in 2014, Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry shared a moment where the Lakers star gave the Warriors guard sort of a welcome to the club pat.

“He started to pick me up full court like two possessions in a row, so this was the second possession. I took the challenge, but they let him foul and they didn’t call nothing, so I had to kind of work with that. I came down the court and he was trying to steal it, trying to be physical, so I got him with a little half step to get a little bit of space and then pull up from deep, then obviously it went in. Then he smiled afterwards and a little ass tap there,” Curry recalled the moment with Bryant during the Lakers-Warriors game.

“I tried not to have a reaction there because I was in the moment, but after I was like ‘damn, that was pretty cool because Kobe doesn’t usually show that type of emotion to anyone.”

The day Bryant died, Curry provided a personal statement on his Instagram: 

 

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A post shared by Wardell Curry (@stephencurry30)

The Warriors and the whole NBA will likely take a moment to honor the life and legacy of Bryant and the others who perished that day. For what it's worth, his widow, Vanessa Bryant, released a statement on Instagram to ask those honoring her late husband and daughter to refrain from posting images of the fatal crash.

 

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A post shared by Vanessa Bryant 🦋 (@vanessabryant)