The nation mourns a legend today after former Lakers player Kobe Bryant died alongside eight others in a horrific helicopter crash on Sunday.
Among those killed were the NBA star’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna, sports coaches, parents, and teen peers of Gianna.
The group was reportedly traveling to a practice session at Bryant’s Mamba Academy when the aircraft crashed in Calabasas, California.
Photo/Youtube
Tributes have poured in across the country in honor of those whose lives were lost.
Orange Coast College head baseball coach John Altobelli and his wife Keri died in the crash along with their teen daughter Alyssa.
Alyssa played on the basketball team with Gianna at the Mamba Academy.
Photo/Facebook
The pilot, Ara Zobayan, was also a casualty of the crash.
A friend of Ara, Jared Yochim, wrote an emotional tribute to him on Facebook, saying, “This is the last photo I took with Ara celebrating our friend and fellow pilot Lorenzo Lamas’s 60th birthday. It would be the final beer we shared together. Ara was an incredible pilot, instructor pilot, charter pilot and truly a great man.”
Photo/Facebook
Yochim explained that Ara was not your typical “egotistical helicopter pilot like most of us honestly are.” Rather he was a calm, cool and collected man who was only ever described as “professional, calculated and loving.” In fact, according to former pupil Darren Kemp, Ara was the only pilot that Bryant entrusted to fly him around.
Another victim, Christina Mauser, was the girls’ basketball coach at Harbor Day School in Newport Beach where Gianna was a student.
Personally selected by Bryant to coach his daughter, Mauser was a standout in her field, coaching Gianna to their school’s championship victory back in 2017.
