During a 2018 interview, late basketball legend Kobe Bryant explained that he frequently opted to take helicopter rides to and from basketball-related events to avoid notorious Los Angeles traffic, thus saving time so he could spend more moments with his children. For example, Bryant said he enjoyed taking his daughters to school, as well as picking them up.
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others, including a teammate of Gianna’s and her parents, were tragically killed in a helicopter accident on Sunday in California.
“Traffic started getting really, really bad and I was sitting in traffic and I wound up missing like a school play, because I was sitting in traffic,” the former Laker said during an episode of the Barstool Sports’ “The Corp,” HuffPost reported.
“I had to figure out a way where I could still train and focus on the craft but still not compromise family time,” he continued. “So that’s when I looked into helicopters, to be able to get down and back in 15 minutes and that’s when it started.”
“You have like road trips and times where you don’t see your kids. So every chance I get to see them, to spend time with them — even if it’s 20 minutes in the car — I want that,” added Bryant.
According to The New York Times, the helicopter was headed to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, where Bryant coached daughter Gianna’s basketball team.
“The gym had handwritten signs on the door: Closed,” the Times reported, adding: “A few dozen people, adults of all ages, stood huddled in silence around the memorial of several jerseys, candles, dozens of bouquets, Sports Illustrated magazines with Bryant on the cover, and a Lakers flag. Written on one bouquet was ‘We love you Kobe and Gigi.’ Another card, the shape of a Lakers basketball, read, ‘The day we lost a legend: 1-26-20 Thank you for being a role model for me and for others.'”
As noted by The Daily Wire on Monday, Bryant, a devout Catholic, reportedly attended mass the morning of the accident.
“A friend texted me today to tell me that a friend of her’s saw #KobeBryant at #Catholic Mass this morning,” Boston priest David Barnes said via Twitter on Sunday. “Mass is the worship of God. Heaven is the worship of God. Go to Mass here so that you can worship God forever in heaven.”
In 2015, the basketball star credited his faith and the help of a Catholic priest for allowing him to overcome major personal stumbles, reported Catholic News Agency.
Bryant was accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in a Colorado hotel room in 2003. He admitted to cheating on his wife and engaging in the sexual encounter, but has always maintained that it was consensual.
“What I came to understand, coming out of Colorado, is that I had to be me, in the place where I was at that moment,” Bryant told GQ in 2015.
“The one thing that really helped me during that process — I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic — was talking to a priest,” he added.
“It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ’Did you do it?’ And I say, ’Of course not.’ Then he asks, ’Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ’Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ’Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go.’ And that was the turning point,” recalled Bryant.
WATCH:
The story behind why Kobe flew in a private helicopters in LA 💔 pic.twitter.com/0jeB9qCpHd
— Tequila Taze (@TazerBlack) January 27, 2020