Kobe and Gigi Bryant killed in helicopter crash

[KenAdams]

This is incredibly sad. Gigi had a promising basketball career ahead of her too

LouHotel this.
and reliving the trauma.the way they treated her will go down as the one of the biggest victim blaming cases ive ever seen.
and all those fans and people hounded that poor girl at the time.fans can be a mob at the best of times over 'their love' can you imagine them aimed agasinst a woman threatening to bring him down

Well quite Lou.

His death is tragic for his family, but on a thread where strangers are fawning over him as some sort of hero I think it’s fair enough to point out that he really wasn’t.

Never heard of him to be honest. Not a big follower of sport and especially not American Sport.

Feel very sad that a 13 y.o. girl has died.

Sad that a man only just past 40 died too. As for his sexual assault allegation..... Be careful what you say.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant#Sexual_assault_allegation

FFS. A 13-year-old has lost her life and people are busy denigrating her dead father.

This.

And not only that, a woman has just lost her husband of nearly 19 years and her daughter. Her 17 and 3 year old and 7 month old daughters have lost their Daddy and their sister.

I feel sad for his daughter, of a lost life of opportunity and sunrises. He on the other hand, not so much. Terrible circumstances of death for the other people involved and my heart goes out to them.
His fans treated his victim atrociously, from what I read she was only 19 years old. So sympathy as others have pointed out for man, accused of rape is pretty low on my list.
As for his wife I have sympathy for her, for the child she has lost but not her husband. I have a fairly negative view on woman who support rapists.

I couldn't believe it when I first saw the headline, then more information coming out about how one of his daughters was with him too.

Cannot imagine how his wife and other daughters are at the moment in time, his youngest was only 6 months old!

Also, reinforces my hatred of helicopters, I will never be made to travel in one!

I'm a huge basketball fan. RIP big man and sweet angel.

Absolutely heartbroken

A very sad household here tonight we just can't believe the news of their passing and feel absolute sickened for his wife and remaining daughters.

What is life...

God rest their souls

@TigerOnATrain
Why be careful what you say?

It seems very odd that because this bloke could bounce a ball around the fact he was a rapist is over looked by some.

It is always a tragic waste when dc die and losing your dc deserves every sympathy regardless of their father's behavior.

I cry no tears for him.

I will save them for his daughter and other children.

That's some pretty unsavoury reading about him.

I do feel enormous sympathy for his wife though. Losing a child is a horrific thing to experience.

I’m an avid basket ball fan, absolutley love it, my sister told me about 1 hour before it hit the uk new channels she saw it online on tmz, now I know these sometimes chat crap so didn’t believe it at first. Thought it was one of them fake news things. Very sad 😔

Amazing what you can get away with when you are famous. People will still love you.

Outstandingly good (by all accounts) basketball player, also (according to the reports of the time) really quite rapey, I won't shed too many tears.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant_sexual_assault_case

Strangling during sex was his thing and now he has died we have to pretend that was not the case. The same as when he won an Oscar.

As Simon Armitage says in Poem: Here's how they rated him when they looked back, Sometimes he did this sometimes he did that.

It will be up to a higher being to judge him now if you believe in such a thing but you cannot expect people to have amnesia over the unsavoury elements of his life.

That does not go for Gianna clearly.

@Drowningmysorroes I must remember to never feel empathy for anyone unless I know them personally!

I'm sorry for the child who died, and the other victims, that's tragic. And also for the families. After reading those links, I can't feel the same sympathy for him.

I feel for that poor 13 year old, she must have been terrified. I feel for her siblings. As for him, karma has a way of biting you on the arse

For the benefit of those who don’t follow basketball, Bryant’s standing and celebrity status in the US was equivalent to that of Cristiano Ronaldo in Europe.

Condolences to his family and friends.

So, so sad. I couldn’t believe it when I read about it 😞

I remember reading about the rape allegations & the way the alleged victim was treated was disgusting. Also remember how he made it up to his wife by buying some ridiculously expensive ring. Its weird how celebrities/sports stars are put on pedestals & can do no wrong.

Incredibly tragic for his young daughter though.

Weird.

My thread wondering why this was headline news on the BBC has been deleted.

I'm glad previous posters put up the links. His past should not be erased.