Witnesses report the engine sputtering before it crashed and went up in flames. It was reported there were 5 people on board, with no survivors.

It’s well known what a legend Kobe was. On Saturday, LeBron James passed Kobe as third on the all-time NBA scoring list. He paid tribute to Bron on Instagram — his last post — by saying, “On to #2 @kingjames! Keep growing the game and charting the path for the next.”

Here are a few pictures from the scene.

Here’s a video called “The Legend of Kobe Bryant (Tribute) – 20 Minutes of Kobe’s TOP 50 NBA Highlights” as a reminder of what a legend he was:

Update January 28, 2020

With the latest news we can say that nine people died in the accident. Also, investigators are doing their best to search for the clues and provide a bit more detailed report.

It seems the last words of the pilot that was operating the helicopter are pointing towards the weather difficulties.

As we can see, the pilot Ara Zobayan had an idea to climb over the cloud layer to avoid the fog. However, that didn’t go as planned and the crash was eminent.

Here’s the list of those killed in the accident

It is now, with absolute certainty, sure that Gianna’s two teammates were on the helicopter that crashed on Sunday morning. Also, beside her two friends, their parents were also present and their basketball coach as well. Such a sad accident. Not only was the NBA legend and his daughter taken too early, but the loss of the others is indescribable.

Kobe Bryant, 41; Gianna Bryant, 13

John Altobelli, 56; Keri Altobelli, 46; Alyssa Altobelli, 13

Christina Mauser, 38

Ara Zobayan, 50

Sarah Chester, 45, and Payton Chester, 13

She shared one picture and wrote alongside the cover, Nicki simply wrote, “When retouching goes wrong.”

Nicki added: “I love my personal unretouched photos where my forehead doesn’t mysteriously grow in length.”

Looking at them they don’t look too retouched. It could be that the lens distorted the image a little.  Coming from experience, a wide angle lens often distorts images.

Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in a most unfamiliar situation. Going in to Sunday nights game against the Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers are actually down three games to zip.

That’s right, the Mavs have won the last three games in a row, putting the Lakers in a situation they are just not quite sure what to do with.

But in great leadership style, Kobe Bryant is ready to step up to the plate and set a new tone for his team as they are facing huge odds of being knocked out the series.

Bryant is quoted as saying this after the loss to the Dallas Mavericks:

“I don’t know, I mean, I might be sick in the head or crazy something like that because I still think we’re still going to win this series”

Certainly we’ve heard crazier things in this life, but these are words that only Kobe Bryant could speak, and have the impact they need to have on the Lakers.

In game 3, the Los Angeles Lakers lost 98-92 to the Mavericks in a game that Kobe Bryant, and the entire Laker’s team, would agree they needed to win desperately.

But according to Bryant, don’t count the Lakers out just yet.  There’s still a game to be played tomorrow night, and we’ll just have to wait and see if Kobe Bryant’s words can motivate his team enough to pull off four straight wins against the Mavericks.

via ESPN

Kobe Bryantand the Los Angeles Lakers are anything but happy about the way their series with the Dallas Mavericks are going.  The Mavericks tore apart the Lakers last night in a 93-81 rout that left Kobe Bryant speechless, and Ron Artists ejected. After the game, while walking down the tunnel, Kobe Bryant was told by a reporter that “you lack energy”, and Kobe’s response was “true, but…”.  Can the Lakers and Kobe Bryant pull out of the two game deficit they now find themselves in, or is this the year the Dallas Mavericks move on to bigger and better things?

Here’s Game 2 highlights of Lakers vs Mavericks:

I was listening to ESPN Radio today and they were talking about Kobe Bryant in his new Call of Duty: Black Ops commercial. And the discussion was all about how some people are outraged that Kobe Bryant would put himself in a commercial that seems to be encouraging war, guns, killing, and all of the above giving you a “smile” and “happy feelings”. And of course, the ones who were (are) most upset are parents. And why were these parents upset you ask?  Because they are the ones who rely on super stars, movie stars, sports figures, etc… to influence their children.

Hang on a minute. As a parent myself, shouldn’t “I” be the one who is influencing my children – not Kobe Bryant?

Anyway, here’s the Kobe Bryant Call of Duty:  Black Ops commercial that has parents in an uproar – check it out:

Although this year’s free agency has been dominated by LeBron James and The Decision, there was another free agent that easily captured the attention of every team GM and owner – and his name is Derek Fisher.

Derek Fisher was courted most prominently by the Miami Heat. On Saturday morning, Fisher met with team president Pat Riley and team owner and was asked to join the stacked roster of Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and LeBron James – Fisher was even reportedly offered the starting point guard position.

But at the end of the day, there was only one person who had more influence than all the money and all the power, and that was teammate Kobe Bryant.

Derek Fisher signed with the LA Lakers for another 3 year contract and along with Kobe Bryant, is now on a quest to obtain his 6th NBA Championship ring.

The financial terms for the 3 year contract have not yet been disclosed.

Really was there any question about who the MVP was going to be after the Lakers beat the Celtics to win the NBA title? Kobe Bryant has now won not only his 2nd NBA title in 2 years, but Kobe Bryant has now won his 2nd Finals MVP in 2 years. The Lakers played an amazingly hard fought game 7 to finally beat the Celtics the send Boston back home without the NBA title.

I believe that Kobe Bryant deserves the MVP not only for his amazing scoring capabilities and his defense, but also for his smart play on the court. Kobe Bryant knew that he was having a terrible night shooting the ball – he just couldn’t get the ball to go through the hoop. So in the 4th quarter, it started to appear as if he realized the bad shooting night he was having, started drawing the double teams on purpose, just to feed the ball off the his team mates to score.

This is just another example of why Kobe Bryant not only deserves the Finals MVP, but also why Kobe is, without question, the greatest basketball player in the world right now!

The Lakers were on fire tonight in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. I’m guessing that Kobe Bryant basically chewed out his teammates by telling them that if he has to carry the team, then you don’t deserve to be called champions. And how true it is…

Kobe Bryant, although he had a spectacular night, was not the only one scoring and driving the Lakers to a dominant victory tonight. The load was carried across all the Lakers players, from starters all the way to deep into the bench.

The Lakers were playing with an intensity that the Boston Celtics just could not contend with, and if they play like this on Thursday night, then it will be lights out for the Celtics.

Jordan Farmar dunks over KG Kevin Garnett

Perhaps one of the most exciting plays of the night during Game 6 of the NBA finals when Jordan Farmar slammed dunked over Kevin Garnett. Farmar took it straight to the hoop without hesitation and KG couldn’t do anything but watch.

Here’s the slam dunk video of Jordan Farmar:

Game 6 of the NBA Finals just went into half time with the Lakers up by 20 points against the Celtics. The Lakers look like a totally different team tonight against Boston Celtics. The most prominent characteristics that sticks out to me is the fact that people other than Kobe Bryant are scoring on the Lakers team. In game 5 in Boston, Kobe Bryant scored 49% of the Lakers total points – tonight, Bryant only has 29% of the total points scored. This means that the Lakers players are stepping up, being aggressive, and making plays on their own without relying 100% on Kobe Bryant. The momentum is clearly in the Lakers favor right now The Lakers are playing harder, being more aggressive, and appear to simply want it more than the Celtics do right now. And like I said, the Lakers are playing as a team allowing the scoring differential to be spread across to other players. If the Lakers come out and keep playing aggressive like they’ve been playing, then game 6 will go to the Lakers along with the momentum of the series. Not to mention, the psychological advantage that the Lakers will gain over the Celtics with a dominant win tonight.

Let’s get ready for the second half of Game 6 of the NBA finals in Los Angeles.

Apparently after you play the Lakers enough, and watch enough film, then you start to see a pattern emerge. And that pattern is that Kobe Bryant is the dominant force in the overall scoring of the Los Angeles Lakers.

I guess this is really something that we all knew.

But being the Boston Celtics, and preparing for the critical game 5 of the NBA finals, there was only one formidable strategy to follow – and that was to force Kobe Bryant to work for every point. And by focusing almost exclusively on Kobe Bryant to stop his scoring, then that would leave it up to the rest of the Lakers team to carry the weight.

And I think we just saw last night that the Lakers, without Kobe Bryant carrying the team to victory, really doesn’t have anyone who is capable of carrying the team.

Which means ultimately that the Boston Celtics’ strategy worked. And in fact, not only did their strategy work last night in defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, but the strategy is more than likely to work each and every night a team takes the court with the Lakers.

If the opposing team is capable of shutting down Kobe Bryant, or at least making him work tirelessly for every shot he takes and every point he scores, then the Lakers just are not able to run away with the game.

And you better believe that the Boston Celtics are going to come into The Staples Center tomorrow night for game 6 with the exact same strategy in hand – shut down Kobe Bryant, and more than likely you’ll win the game.

It will be interesting to see if the Los Angeles Lakers actually go down in game 6 tomorrow night!

It was clear watching game 2 of the NBA finals last night between the Lakers and the Celtics, that I was watching basketball at the absolute highest caliber that I’ve ever seen before.

From Ray Allen setting an NBA final’s 3 point record, to Kobe Bryant coming in to close the half and scoring 3 pointers at will – last night’s game 2 of the Lakers vs. Celtics was amazing to watch as a basketball fan.

The Lakers seemed to have a pretty easy way of coming back from a pretty big deficit in the first half. I though for sure with this come back that the Lakers were going to come into the second half and start pulling away from the Celtics.

But the hard fought efforts of people like Rajon Rondo, and Glen “Big Baby” Davis, the Celtics were able to fight off the relentless attacks of the Lakers and end up winning game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals is now heading to Boston on Tuesday night with a 9pm tip off.

I have to say however, that unless Boston can come in and play at the high level of caliber of basketball each and every game, then the Lakers will end up winning the NBA finals. The Lakers are a refined machine, losing does not come easy for these guys.

I just found a great site on TNT where you can watch the Los Angeles Lakers play the Phoenix Suns live online. This live online stream features “commercial free” broadcasting, which means you will not be taken to a commercial break.

Instead of commercials, there seems to be one camera that is locked onto Kobe Bryant constantly, regardless of whether he is on the floor playing or on the bench.

WATCH LAKERS VS SUNS ONLINE LIVE HERE

Right now, in the 2nd quarter, the game is very close at 42 – 41, Lakers are up. The Phoenix Suns have a great record playing on their home court. However, the Los Angeles Lakers are still favored to win this game 6 match up.

If the Lakers win tonight’s game 6, then the Lakers will be meeting the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals with Game 1 on Thursday night.

If the Phoenix Suns win tonight, then Game 7 of the Western Conference will head back to The Staples Center in Los Angeles this coming Monday night.

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns in Game 2 of the Western Conference Championship Wednesday night 124 – 112. The game was played in Los Angeles at the Staples Center.

The Los Angeles Lakers are just proving themselves to be too strong, and possess too many weapons for the Phoenix Suns to effectively contend. Even with the Phoenix Suns having Grant Hill and Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Lakers are nearly impossible to stop.

There were some moments during Game 2 when the Lakers looked like they might be a bit nervous and the Phoenix Suns had a couple of good runs, but it’s what happens over the course of 4 full quarters that matters, and the Lakers just couldn’t be stopped.

At this point, the Phoenix Suns have to be sensing that this Western Conference Championship is all be locked in the for the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the Phoenix Suns still need to head back to Phoenix and play in front of a home crowd and who going to be expecting them to play hard and contend. But I’m afraid that the Suns have already experienced the over powering play of the Lakers and they might already be sensing the inevitable.

The Los Angeles Lakers have topped the Phoenix Suns in game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers proved to be too strong for Steve Nash, Grant Hill, and the Phoenix Suns.

Even though there were moments where the Phoenix Suns looked like they could topple the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 at the Staples Center, ultimately the Lakers were too strong.

The Phoenix Suns were playing sloppy, taking forced shots from the perimeter and in my opinion, just over powered and outplayed by the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers are proving that they have too many weapons to be stopped by a team like the Phoenix Suns. And even if players like Andrew Bynum aren’t 100% and only grab four points and four rebounds, the Lakers are still too strong for the Phoenix Suns to contend with.  The Los Angeles Lakers have Lamar Odom who poses just as much of a match up challenge with his ability to play every position and dominate inside and out. Odom earned a career playoff high 19 rebounds to go with his 19 points in Game 1.

The good news for the Los Angeles Lakers is that Kobe Bryant signed a contract extension.  Kobe Bryant signed a contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. The contract extension should also end rumors that he might try to leave the Lakers to go team up with a superstar in another city.

From the looks of Game 2, I’m going to predict that we’ll see the Los Angeles Lakers sweep the Phoenix Suns and meet up with the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

What do you think?

Do you think we’ll see the Los Angeles Lakers sweep the Phoenix Suns?

And if the Lakers do meet up with the Boston Celtics in the final, who do you think will come away with the NBA championship?