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College Crosse Prospectus: Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna, pass away in California helicopter crash

A total of nine people died in a Sunday morning helicopter crash in Calabasas.

Golden State Warriors v Los Angeles Lakers Photo by Maxx Wolfson/Getty Images

Good morning College Crosse Nation, and thanks for making us a part of your day.

If you’re looking for any college lacrosse news from the weekend, even with the first regular season game only five days away, there won’t be any today. Now is not the time. There was nothing of note that could top the tragic event that happened on Sunday that has affected the entire world.

Former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, an 18-time NBA All-Star, 5-time NBA champion, 2-time NBA Finals MVP, and league MVP in 2008, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others died tragically in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. He was 41, Gianna was 13. Both gone way too soon. Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri, and 13-year-old daughter Alyssa were also victims of the crash.

To many, he was one of the greatest basketball players ever and a worldwide icon and the successor to Michael Jordan as the basketball star. To some, he was a personal hero and even a friend, and a huge advocate of women’s sports. To a generation, he was the name you said when you shot something into a trash can or the originator of a way of life, the “Mamba Mentality.” To very few, he was a husband, a father, a son, and even a grandson. Whether you loved or hated him, you had a feeling about him.

Tributes from around the world came in as word spread, especially where Kobe called home for his professional and high school basketball careers. Makeshift memorials formed outside Staples Center in Los Angeles as well as at Lower Merion High School just outside Philadelphia, where Kobe played before turning pro.

All eight NBA games paid tribute to Mamba with 24 second shot clock violations in honor of Kobe’s second number he wore in the NBA.

Outside of the NBA, the entire sports and entertainment world paid tribute to Kobe.

Just Saturday, Kobe was at the Mamba Sports Academy and gave some words of encouragement to kids attending Kyle Harrison’s Session 18 event.

Plenty of tribute pieces and soundbites have also been put together or rehashed.

This will end with a couple more videos, but first a suggestion. Hug your parents, your children, your pets, or your loved ones. Call them if you’re not around them, and tell them you love them. Life can be so short, and sometimes we don’t even realize it.

Jay Williams and this Laker fan summed it up best.

If you have any memories of Kobe, please feel free to share below.

We’ll be back at it tomorrow. Mamba forever.