RIP Kobe Bryant

Jose Fernandez, though he was still pretty young. But had established himself, for sure.

 

Don't sweat it, and don't leave. The RIP threads are some of the most interesting around here, they can be raw and funny and f*cked up, usually in consecutive posts. It's the newsroom I wish I was still in (sometimes).

 

Absolutely devastating. I'm from SoCal, born and raised a Lakers fan. Still am. Was a big Kobe fan -- until July 2003. Lost all the respect for him. And, yes, it's fair to mention it. It's part of his life -- as is his greatness on the court. Just a devastating day.

Today brought back a rash of memories. Private aircraft. Crash. Seems to be poor weather. Mountainside. I was with my sister and a cousin today and they had the same feelings about the crash that took my sister and her family more than two years ago.

And I mentioned how much worse this is, that his wife and three of his daughters survived/weren't on the flight. And how none of us could not imagine if one, two or three of my sister's family survived or weren't on that flight.

My cousin said today that in summer 2017, a few months before the crash, my brother-in-law flew with the kids back to his hometown and Jen said at the time, "My entire life is on that plane." We cried and hugged and remembered today.

RIP to Kobe and condolences to all of his family. Just devastating.