(CNN) -- It's hard to believe NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, whose prodigious talent and fiery, win-at-all-costs spirit made him one of the most famous and decorated athletes in history, is gone.
He was the rare celebrity who didn't need a last name. Oprah. LeBron. Beyonce. Kobe. Everyone knew who you were talking about.
Still youthful at 41, Bryant -- who died in a helicopter crash Sunday in California -- looked like he could suit up and drop 30 points on a rival NBA team. It doesn't seem that long ago that he was scoring 60 points in his final NBA game, soaking up the cheers of Los Angeles Lakers fans who worshiped him for two decades as one of the city's favorite sons.
After his 20-year NBA career -- all with the Lakers -- Bryant is all but assured of being a first-ballot inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.
"He was a fierce competitor, one of the greats of the game and a creative force," said fellow NBA icon Michael Jordan.
An 18-time All-Star, Bryant was known for his remarkable scoring ability -- his turnaround jumper was nearly unstoppable -- and his championship pedigree. He teamed with fellow All-Star Shaquille O'Neal to win three consecutive NBA titles from 2000 to 2002 and later won two more rings, in 2009 and 2010.
Known as the Black Mamba -- a nickname he gave himself -- Bryant twice led the NBA in scoring and won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 2008.
Bryant's daughter Gianna, 13, was with her father on the helicopter and was also killed in the crash, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
"There's no words to express the pain Im going through with this tragedy of loosing my neice Gigi & my brother @kobebryant I love u and u will be missed," said O'Neal on Twitter. "My condolences goes out to the Bryant family and the families of the other passengers on board. IM SICK RIGHT NOW."
O'Neal later went on to write in a separate post: "Kobe was so much more than an athlete, he was a family man. That was what we had most in common. We love our families. Whenever we got together I would hug his children like they were my own and he would embrace my kids like they were his. His baby girl Gigi was born on the same day as my youngest daughter Me'Arah.
The chopper appeared to slam into the hillside and burst into flames. Several experts have said the weather will probably be a key part of the initial investigation.
The crash occurred as dense fog blanketed the area of the crash.
#3
/\ Yes, the media is absolutely swamped with Kobe news. A horrific and tragic loss of life, but such a media frenzy.
Unrelated, but I learned from an airline friend yesterday that Delta will likely end up paying $1.5m to each of the school kids and faculty that were on the playground when that jet dumped fuel and RTB in L.A. last week.
When asked about bruises on the accuser's neck, Bryant admitted to "strangling" her during the encounter,stating that he held her "from the back" "around her neck", thatstrangling during sex was his "thing" and that he had a pattern of strangling a different sex partner (not his wife) during their recurring sexual encounters.
When asked how hard he was holding onto her neck, Bryant stated, "My hands are strong. I don't know."
#8
I'm no helicopter pilot but don't they come equipped with altimeters and GPS? Was the pilot not paying attention? Even in the fog, he should have known where he was.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2020 12:44 Comments ||
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#9
He was cleared up to 2500 feet AGL, but was flying at 1400. He was told he was too low for that transit. And yes, the S-76 has GPS. He was flying Special VFR however he was way outside VFR conditions. Pilot error all the way.
Always check the weather forecast before you set sail...or take off.
A limo would have been cheaper and less dangerous but a lot slower. In Los Angeles, ground transportation is slow and traffic conditions are unpredictable. A trip from John Wayne Airport in Orange County to Thousand Oaks under ideal conditions might take an hour. But ideal conditions are rare. Most likely it'd be more like two hours or even more. You just never know. Horrendous traffic jams can happen any time and anywhere for what might seem to be trivial reasons. We pay higher gas taxes, higher taxes in general, than any other state in the nation but, especially when it comes to freeways, we don't get our money's worth.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2020 13:09 Comments ||
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#13
He was the rare celebrity who didn't need a last name. Oprah. LeBron. Beyonce. Kobe. Everyone knew who you were talking about.
#14
Ole Black Mamba was found in a lot of different biomes.
I seem to remember Olympian Basketballers Gone Wild in Europe, and some white kid in Colorado - I don't think she was underage but she was really, really young. It was reported he made up with his family, but his wife was sporting a diamond the size of an acorn.
Those A-List Deadpool commenters may not want to lick too deep with the tongue bath.
#16
Sounds like he was on a vfr or special vfr clearance. Flying on instruments in a helicopter is a lot more critical than flying IFR in fixed wing. 49 Pan can tell you about that.
From my distant view, it was probably flying visual flight conditions into instrument flight conditions. Lots of people have done it, in both fixed and rotary wing. Not a healthy choice. Very tragic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/27/2020 19:02 Comments ||
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#17
Seems like a case of vanity and self importance getting trumped by reality. The fog and ground didn't care who he was. And 8 other people paid the price.
#18
Lord garth--4000 feet/minute is easily achieved if you're going 150 miles/hour on a shallow O(15degree) descent. Daily Mail went into some detail about the SVFR request. It implied that the some scheduling advantages to not flying instrument.
Posted by: James ||
01/27/2020 23:05 Comments ||
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#19
Why do we give a fook about this over-muscled moron?
What is wrong with our society that we lavish such remorse, so much acre, upon an oversized sexual predator and dunce famous for putting a round ball into a round hole while wearing shiny underwear?
#20
[Daily Mail] [Ara Zobayan] was a licensed commercial helicopter pilot of 12 years, certified flight instructor of two years and a ground instructor of 11 years, according to federal aviation records.
#21
You're missing the bigger picture there, Lex. It's about the the long arc of human progress! The liberation and uplifting of an oppressed people. Their march toward dignity and self-realisation. All that stuff.
Black people are more self-reliant;
To the order of things, more compliant.
Well... not us ourselves --
for who studies or delves? --
But our carnival giants like Bryant.
Or any corruptocrat's client. Or prime time crime rhymers. Self-destructing moonwalking crooners so freaky that it'd almost be a relief if they were just normal pedos... that we call by their first names. Woke politicians from O-where. Heroes!
[DailyMail] Mayor Zhou confessed his government had not released information 'in time'
He also revealed the city was seeing large scale human-to-human transmission
He said yesterday five million residents had left the city before the lockdown
Death toll of the life-threatening infection doubled over the weekend to 81
While scientists fear more than 100,000 people have been infected already
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/27/2020 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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#1
A nationwide petri dish
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/27/2020 1:41 Comments ||
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#3
From my reading on the Civil War, troops from major cities were less likely to die from disease than farm boys; continual exposure to pathogens made the city dwellers more resistant in general. Don't think this holds true for a brand new disease, but if so, balance of power could go bluish.
#7
I went to my local shop tonight for a pack of cigarettes. It's on a strip of 20 family owned restaurants, barber shops, and convenience stores. The shop was open - the owner has a tracheotomy and a tube in his throat, so apparently he has already weathered something quite severe and is not worried about this virus. His was the only shop open, and I only saw 1 car in motion, in a city of 30,000,000. It looks like CQ is being treated as the next front.
[ClashDaily] "For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost. The Forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer."
"What truly matters, is not which party controls our government, but if our government is controlled by the people."
How does the message in this video, one of energy and optimism, compare and contrast to the grim warnings and heckling we hear on the other side?
Is this the sort of message that stirs your blood? A message that, to use the old cliché, ’moves and inspires’ you?
[USA Carry Review) Well, with the many polymer, striker-fired semi-auto pistols on the market today, do we really need another one? Certainly, the answer is "yes" if it has something worthwhile to add to the selection. FN America was nice enough to send me their new for 2017 striker-fired pistol in 9mm. Given the huge supply of similar guns now, I was a little hesitant but knew that FN makes outstanding quality handguns.
I was anxious to shoot and evaluate the new 509. I have reviewed several nice 9mms in depth in the past few years but was anxious to review this new FN 509 that just came out. Earlier I reviewed the FNS 9-C and gave it very high marks and the new 509 is based on it. In my recent book, "Concealed Carry & Handgun Essentials," I ranked the FNS-9 C high among my Top 21 Concealed Carry guns, so I wanted to see how the 509 compared since it is built on the proven architecture of the FNS compact.
#1
I had an FNP. It was well made for sure, but quickly supplanted by the FNX. The rapid iteration FN seems to prefer is good news for the new purchaser, less so for the legacy owner.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/27/2020 7:31 Comments ||
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#2
Gun reviews should start with the price... then I'll decide if it's worth my time.
h/t Instapundit
[NR] - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday to approve the Trump administration’s "public charge" rule for new immigrants.
The justices approved the rule by a vote of 5-4 along ideological lines.
"Public charge" has in recent years been defined as a person dependent on cash assistance programs. The Trump administration updated the definition in August 2019 to include people likely to require non-cash government benefits, and sought to implement a policy limiting the number of new immigrants who would require government assistance such as food stamps or Medicaid.
#2
Heard a commentator on National People's Radio (NPR) say that this decision may be a sign that the cheap-ass legal trick (I'm paraphrasing) of getting an injunction from activist judges no longer works.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
