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YOU NEWS
SO LONG,
BLACK MAMBA
Largerthanlifeandbiggerthanbasketball–
fans mourn Kobe Bryant’s tragic death. We l Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna
were killed when their helicopter crashed
at the icon’s life and legacy COMPILED BY DENNIS CAVER near Los Angeles.
E REGULARLY travelled Gianna were travelling to her team’s & Spa at Cordillera in Colorado laid
by helicopter to avoid the basketballpracticeattheMambaSports a rape charge against Kobe, but he main-
terrible Los Angeles traf- Academy in Los Angeles, which he tained the encounter was consensual.
fic. Sitting in the often- owned. The case never went to trial after the
gridlockedroadstooktoo Initial reports indicate the helicopter young woman decided she didn’t want
much of a toll on his body was flying through thick fog and poor to testify, and the charges were dropped.
and he avoided it when- visibility led it to crash into a hillside A 2005 civil case was settled out of court.
H ever he could. near Calabasas, California. In 2018 it became news again after
Basketball icon Kobe Bryant is unlike- The other occupants in the Sikorsky Kobe won an Oscar for the animated
ly to have thought of getting into his pri- S-76helicopterwereAlyssaAltobelli,one short film, Dear Basketball, which he
vate helicopter on 26 January as any- of Gianna’s basketball teammates, her wrote and narrated. More than 17 000
thing special. But in the end that trip parents Keri and John Altobelli, team- people signed a petition asking the Acad-
took the ultimate toll when it crashed, mate Payton Chester and her mother emy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
killing all nine on board, including Kobe Sarah Chester, basketball coach Christi- to rescind it.
and one of his daughters, Gianna (13). na Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan. After the charges were dropped in
Kobe (41) had been one of the fiercest, Kobe,whospenthis20-yearbasketball 2004, Kobe issued an apology through
most relentlessly competitive athletes in career with the Los Angeles Lakers, was his attorney. “Although I truly believe this
the world. The powerhouse former bas- coachofGianna’shighschoolbasketball encounter between us was consensual,
ketball player was an NBA All-Star, an team. It was one of his proudest post- I recognise now that she did not and
Olympian, a business mogul and even retirement achievements. does not view this incident the same way
took home an Academy Award for a I did,” he said at the time.
short film he’d made about the game he HE overwhelming emotions “After months of reviewing discovery,
loved so much. that followed news of Kobe’s listening to her attorney, and even her
death were grief and disbelief.
He was also a husband to Vanessa Bry- T testimony in person, I now understand
ant and father to their four girls, Natalia But there were many critics how she feels that she did not consent to
(17), Gianna, Bianka (3) and Capri (seven who shared links to stories this encounter.”
months). about the rape allegations he He apologised to his wife, Vanessa, and
Tributes poured in thick and fast after faced in 2003. famously bought her a $4 million (then
news of the crash broke. Kobe and A 19-year-old receptionist at the Lodge R26m) purple diamond ring.
86 | 6 FEBRUARY 2020 you.co.za
