41 year old NBA legend and 18-time All-Star Kobe Bryant died on January 26, 2020 in a helicopter crash. The five-time NBA champion was traveling in the helicopter with his 13 year old daughter Gianna Maria and three other people when it crashed in Calabasas, California. Gianna Maria and the other people in the helicopter also lost their lives in the tragedy.

It’s been reported that the helicopter was traveling to Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California for a basketball game. It’s unclear at the time of this writing what exactly caused the crash, but eyewitness reports obtained from TMZ say that the helicopter engine was “sputtering” before it went down. There have also been reports of “heavy fog” in the area that may have played a role in the helicopter crash.

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Bryant’s decades-long career in the NBA was hugely successful. He was widely considered one of the absolute best basketball players of all time, breaking records and leading the league in scoring in two separate seasons. Bryant’s incredible success in the NBA saw him breakout as one of the league’s mainstream stars.

Throughout the course of his career, Bryant appeared in a number of video games. Bryant is one of the rare professional athletes to have had a video game named after him, with Nintendo publishing Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside and NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant for the Nintendo 64. A third NBA Courtside game released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002, and while it didn’t feature Bryant’s namesake, he was still the cover athlete.

Bryant also appeared as the cover athlete in other NBA video games as well, most recently the Legend Edition of NBA 2K17. Prior to that, he was the cover athlete of NBA 2K10, NBA ‘09: The Inside, and NBA 07: Feature the Life Vol. 2.

Bryant’s role in the video game industry saw the NBA star featured in commercials for various non-NBA video games as well. More specifically, Bryant was seen in commercials for Activision-published games, including Guitar Hero: World Tour and a memorable Call of Duty: Black Ops commercial where he appeared alongside Jimmy Kimmel.

Kobe Bryant is survived by his wife Vanessa Bryant and his daughters Natalia, Bianca, and Capri.

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Source: TMZ