Time stops when tragedy hits. Grief becomes the dominant tone of every room, and a funk takes over that isn’t easy to shake. That was the feeling when Micheal Jackson’s death was announced, along with Whitney Houston, Prince... Nipsey Hussle. When a great dies every memory, every magical moment that they manufactured glows as we remember and never forget the time we had in their essence. When a great dies young, not only do we remember, we imagine what could’ve been next. The moments in which they could’ve topped themselves. The memories that could’ve added to the legend.

That’s what happened on January 26th. The legend, the myth, the father of Mamba Mentality, Kobe Bryant, passed away.

The world lost one of it’s most influential figures to a helicopter crash. And right now grief is a thing we all have in common, but it looks different on everyone. For some, it’s tears, others it’s gathering outside of Staples Center, for others, time alone is the way to process what happened. 

Even as we process, we still do not know what entirely happened, as more information on the specifics emerges hour by hour. Currently, we know that Bryant and his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant (13), along with six other passengers and the pilot, were flying from Calabasas to Bryant’s sports academy for Gigi’s basketball game later that day, when their helicopter crashed into a nearby mountain site.

The academy was hosting the Mamba Cup Tournament Series, a series of tournaments for boys and girls basketball teams from the third through eighth grades. All the games were canceled after the news of Bryant’s death became public.

There are multiple reports claiming that weather, fog specifically, played a part in the crash. Los Angeles County fire chief Daryl Osby said on Sunday afternoon that the Federal Aviation Administration was on the scene and will work with the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the crash. He said authorities will not release the names of victims until they are identified and next of kin are notified.

Residents in Calabasas who heard the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant described it as “a falling noise” and that you could tell “something was wrong.”

One resident described the crash saying, “I heard it go by this morning and then there was a big pop! Went outside and saw it crashed into the mountain. It exploded two more times after the crash.”

Personally, I was landing in Hawaii when I heard the news. Once I took my phone off of airplane mode, my messages flooded with the news of Kobe Bryant’s passing. I dropped my phone and sat and cried in the airplane and looked over and saw an older man crying, and across the other aisle, an elderly woman was crying. That was the mood of a plane that had just landed in Hawaii. Flight attendants, passengers, the pilots-- the grief of losing Bryant overtook the entire aircraft.

The weight of this loss doesn’t even feel real. It feels like something you see in the movies or on Netflix or in school when you learn about JFK. That weight is so heavy because Bryant wasn’t just an athlete. He was an entity that brought the massive, diverse, segregated region of Los Angeles together.

Bryant had an aura that cannot be explained. He transcended the Lakers and the NBA because he was pure greatness, and you can’t explain greatness. 

“I guess I don’t have a lot to say,” Doc Rivers said, per NBATV. “The news is just devastating to everybody who knew him. I’ve known him a long time and he means a lot to me, obviously. He was such a great opponent. It’s what you want in sports. He had that DNA that very few athletes can ever have. The Tiger Woods’. The Michael Jordan’s. It’s funny, I was getting to know him more since he retired. This is a tough one. I don’t know. We have to go play. The news is just devastating for (wife) Vanessa and his family. It’s just so many people he touched. Looking at my young players and seeing how emotional they are, they didn’t even know him. It just tells you how far his reach was. This is just shocking news for all of us. I’m sorry I don’t have a lot to say. I have to go talk to a team and before a game and tell them to play a game.”

In the bay, the Warriors were in the middle of practice when the news, first reported by TMZ and later confirmed by multiple outlets, broke. The team cut practice short as players and members of the organization were too upset by the news to address the media Sunday afternoon. 

The team released a statement saying:

“We were incredibly saddened and shocked to learn about the tragic passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, earlier today in the Los Angeles area. Kobe was one of the iconic players in the history of the NBA and touched fans in every market, including the Bay Area, for 20 years. His unquenchable desire and drive to be the best elevated him to a level that few have ever reached and enabled him to leave a legacy that will be celebrated for generations. We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family, the entire Lakers organization and his legion of fans around the world.

Bryant’s essence and play inspired the next generation of athletes, some of which turned into the leaders of the Warrior’s dynasty.”

Back in 2014, Bryant and Warriors’ superstar Stephen Curry shared a moment where Bryant gave Curry sort of a welcome to the club pat. Curry recalls it saying:

“This was the year after his Achilles (injury), so there’s a whole backstory…He was trying to get his competitive fire back after he missed so much time. This is a preseason game, I believe we were in Ontario, Canada.

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.

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.”

Curry provided a personal statement on his Instagram saying, “A lot of questions right now. Our faith is being tested...but all I can say is thank you 🙏🏽. May you and Gianna rest easy!”

Bryant has done the same for a dozen of emerging stars like Trae Young and Luka Doncic-- taking the time to trash talk Doncic in Doncic’s native language. Bryant’s last tweet was a congratulatory message to Lebron James on passing Bryant on the all-time scoring list. 

The world lost so much today. 

We lost Kobe, a father who instilled toughness, intelligence, and courage into his family and career.

We lost Gianna Bryant, a daughter who had her better years ahead of her.

We lost John Altobelli, a father and Orange Coast College baseball legend who dedicated his time and efforts to building up the next generation.

We lost Keri Altobelli, a wife, and mother.

We lost Alyssa Altobelli, a daughter just getting started with her life.

We lost Christina Mauser, a girls basketball coach determined to give back to her community.

We lost three other souls who have shaped the lives of their loved ones. 

January 26th will be a day synonymous with the sentence, “Where were you?” Where were you when the story of one of basketball’s most prominent legends halted? 

That story started from shooting imaginary game-winning shots and transcended into an iconic image with a few actual game-winning shots along the way. 

But that story isn’t over. Kobe’s reach goes way beyond basketball and area codes. 

When Kyrie Irving hit the game-winning shot to give the city of Cleveland it’s first NBA Championship, he face-timed Kobe to celebrate that moment. When Arike Ogunbowale hit back to back game-winning fadeaway to give Norte Dame their first NCAA championship in 17 years, she yelled, “Kobe”. Arguably the greatest women’s college basketball player ever, Sabrina Ionescu, considers Kobe a close friend and models her game after him.

Every child, baller or not, who had the satisfaction of balling up a piece of paper, shooting it into the trash and yelling Kobe understands that reach. That reach has inspired millions of hoopers, entrepreneurs, artists, and so much more. That reach transcends era, sport, and comprehension. 

Kobe Bryant’s influence and work have just begun, so even though it’s hard right now to comprehend what’s happened, we have to remember what Bryant stood for and what he envisioned, and it is up to us to keep that vision going.

Doc Rivers said it best, following the news of Bryant’s passing.

“You know, sometimes things don’t make sense and we, there’s times you should feel just … you just feel sad,” Rivers said. “And this is one of them and you know you have to get through it. We will, we all will, we all have to be strong. We laughed and joked about the ‘mamba mentality.’ We’re all going to need it right now.”

So thank you, Kobe, for all the years of greatness, all the motivation, all the inspiration— Rest In Peace Mamba.