RIP Kobe Bryant

WTF is up with that headline? "... NBA Star Known to All as Kobe" What's so bad about writing "... NBA Star Kobe Bryant?"

 

I was golfing with some buddies and on the way home the radio station we were listening to in the car was playing Nirvana wall to wall - which was unusual at the time - and I joked, "Man, did someone die?" before they cut in recapping his death.

 

Elliott Smith > Kurt Cobain when it comes to suicide.

Smith died on October 21, 2003 at the age of 34 from two stab wounds to the chest.[8] At the time of the stabbing, he was at his Lemoyne Street home in Echo Park, California,[85] where he lived with his girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba. According to Chiba, the two were arguing,[40] and she locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower.[86] Chiba heard him scream and upon opening the door saw Smith standing with a knife in his chest. She pulled the knife out, after which he collapsed and she called 9-1-1 at 12:18 pm. Smith died in the hospital, with the time of death listed as 1:36 p.m.​

 

Ha. I'm still catching up on the thread and had that exact same reaction.

 

Same. Had just gotten home from school and flipped on the TV and there was Kurt Loder telling the news.

 

I'm not going to wade too far into the rape stuff, but it does feel skeevy every time a news anchor (or anyone else) describes Kobe as a "devoted husband."

 

I was trying to think last night of which of these I found most personally jarring. They're going to be different for most people.

For me it was Jerome Brown, because it was obvious he was on a track to greatness and the guy was filled with life. In the pre-Internet world bad news travelled slowly - but that didn't. Reggie White essentially broke the news during a prayer service.

 

Going from the cashier's word choice, I was thinking Antioch or Hendersonville.

 

Talk of stunning deaths reminded me I was in my car in 1977 and turned on WABX, which was the big progressive rock station in Detroit
They were playing Jailhouse Rock, which I thought was kind of strange
After the song, the DJ explained he was playing Elvis because he had just died
To show how different the times were, Elvis was mentioned by Walter Cronkite on the first story after the first commercial, about 10 minutes into the broadcast

 

When Earnhardt died, the paper I was at did a tab right off the bat. Like it was just assumed that was what we would be working on for the next week. Tabs were done for a lot of shit as the ad money was still rolling in, but I can't remember a sports personality from the era that got similar treatment.