YouTube download / AP video / LeBron James: Kobe's loss still felt as season restarts. James and coach Frank Vogel discuss the Los Angeles Lakers season restarting at Walt Disney World, with the main focus after practice on Monday remembering Kobe Bryant.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
ORLANDO, Fla. - The helicopter crash in January that took the lives of nine people including Kobe Byrant and hid daughter, Gianna, is still fresh in the minds of many, perhaps no more so on the Los Angeles Lakers squad than LeBron James.
“There’s not a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t think about him,” the three-time NBA champion old reporters after practice Monday in response to questions about the five-time NBA champion Laker legend.
“It’s never going to be a closure, I mean, we continue to live on his legacy and continue to have our hearts heavy with both sadness and with happiness for his family that are still here.” James told reporters after practice on Monday in the Bubble.
At 9:06 a.m. on Jan. 26, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter departed from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., with nine people aboard: Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, six family friends, and the pilot. The group was traveling to Camarillo Airport in Ventura County for a basketball game at Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks.
The helicopter experienced extreme fog and turned south towards the mountains. At 9:40 a.m. the helicopter climbed rapidly from 1,200 to 2,000 feet, flying at 161 knots (298 km/h; 185 mph). Five minutes later the helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and began burning. Bryant, his daughter, and the other seven occupants, including the pilot, were all killed.
The helicopter crash was perhaps the biggest news story of 2020 before the global coronavirus pandemic took hold weeks later. On March 12, the NBA suspended the 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for the coronavirus.
The helicopter crash was perhaps the biggest news story of 2020 before the global coronavirus pandemic took hold weeks later. On March 12, the NBA suspended the 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for the coronavirus.
In addition to the NBA taking action that day, Disney announced its parks were closing by that weekend and the NCAA outright cancelled its men's and women's March Madness basketball tournaments against the backdrop of at least 1,663 cases of novel coronavirus and 40 deaths in the US.
At least 46 states, plus Washington, D.C., had confirmed cases. Globally, there were over 128,000 confirmed cases with over 4,700 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The following day, President Donald Trump declared declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency. By mid-June, most of the states had re-opened from lockdowns after a nationwide attempt to slow or even flatten the spread of the coronavirus with stay-at-home orders (shelter in place), practicing social distance and wearing of masks covering the nose and mouth.
By early June the NBA had planned to resume its season on July 31 at Disney World in what has become known as the NBA's Orlando Bubble: On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan calling for 13 Western Conference teams and nine Eastern Conference teams, all clubs within six games of a playoff spot, that would play eight regular-season "seeding" games. A possible play-in tournament for the eighth seed in each conference would then be held if the ninth seed finishes the regular season within four games of the eighth seed. This proposal was then approved by members of the National Basketball Players Association on June 5.
The Lakers are the top team in the Western Conference and the Milwaukee Bucks are the top team in the Eastern Conference. The Orlando Magic are the eighth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.
And while the 40 deaths in the US as of March 12 was a frightening statistic causing the US and many countries to go into lockdown modes, the situation is far more frightening today. Consider that as of Monday, the US had amassed 143,630 coronavirus deaths, by far more than any other country.
And Florida now is one of the hot spots for the deadly infectious disease. Still, the NBA is proceeding with re-starting its season at month's end without fans in attendance and players quarantined in designated hotels on the Disney complex where the games will be played. Select ganmes will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN, both networks owned by Disney.
Henry Frederick is publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched 12 years ago that serves greater Daytona Beach, Sanford & Orlando, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed more than a hundred journalism industry awards in print & online -- more than than all other members of the working press combined in Central Florida since the mid-1990s. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism with academic honors from Full Sail University in 2019. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and other high profile cases, Frederick has appeared on national crime documentary programs on Discovery ID and Reelz for his investigative reporting and cops & courts breaking news stories.