I was on the treadmill running when the screen changed and there was a newsman sitting at his desk and behind him in the chiron it said

Kobe Bryant and a picture of him and it said in 1978 to 20 20

five time NBA champion for the Los Angeles Lakers was killed when a

helicopter crashed and caught fire in Southern California and my first

reaction was, what?

Wait, 20, what?

No, that's, that's what you, that's 20-20s now.

What does that mean?

What is that?

That's what I thought. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does this mean?

When I saw the headline, I mean, it just certainly hits you like a ton of bricks.

I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want, I mean, I received text messages from people and I didn't respond to any of them because I didn't want to acknowledge that Kobe was dead.

And I just never forget when it was confirmed that his daughter, G.G. was on the helicopter just to hear a woman just start to scream and whale and that for me that was when it was just it was like how can this get worse and then and then it's like oh my god it's getting worse it's getting worse

as far as where were you moments here in LA, this is the biggest, it's going to be a day that everyone

will remember, you know, unfortunately. Welcome to the Athletic Podcast Network. I'm Mike Smeltz. On this special episode,

we're looking back at the 24-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday night surrounding the

Sunday morning helicopter crash in Calabassis that took the lives of nine people

Kobe and G. G. G. Brienne, John Carey and Alyssa Altabelli, Christina Mauser,

Aria Zabayan, and Peyton and Sarah Chester.

A team of writers here at the Athletic

will help tell the story of those 24 hours. From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, and across the NBA.

Heading into the weekend, Los Angeles sports fans had Kobe on their mind.

...