Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered their biggest loss in a helicopter crash. The untimely death of one of the greatest players in the history of their franchise came as a shock to everyone in the world. The legend, Kobe Bryant had made a plethora of memories with everyone inside and outside the NBA as well. Not only did he inspire people to be great players, but he continued to spread wisdom and support to everyone in the world who needed it.

Jerry West on receiving the news

Jerry West is another great from the Lakers’ franchise and the former General Manager as well. He is popularly known for trading for Kobe in the 1996 NBA Draft. Both of them shared an iconic mentor-mentee relationship that made the news of Kobe’s demise very tough on Jerry. He not only guided Kobe’s career but called himself his ‘surrogate father‘.

In an interview with Andy Bernstein, a famous sports photographer, West narrates his experience of hearing the news about Kobe.

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Andy asked,” So, Jerry, when Kobe died so suddenly with his daughter and all of those people on the helicopter in January, it had to bring that back to you?”

West says, “I think you have to come with grips with things, OK? The finality is something that’s there. When I think back to that day, I’m sitting here on a Sunday morning reading the newspaper, as I always do, because I love to read. And I get a call that said somebody said there was a helicopter crash. And they suspect that it might have been Kobe on that plane with other people. The first thing you do, you start to worry. Please, this can’t happen to him. He’s got too much of a life to give. His career afterwards was going to be bigger than it was as an athlete. And I think the suddenness of it and his age, but more importantly the daughter and let’s not forget the other people, it just was gut-wrenching to me to think that they’d been taken.”

Memories of Kobe Bryant live on

West narrates some of the Kobe moments that he starkly remembers. “I’ll never forget of some of the times I saw him sitting at the game with his daughter, Gianna, on the floor. And to see the joy, to see the love between those two, it was just amazing,” says West

He talks about the pictures of Kobe with his family members, saying, “We have some pictures here with him and my kids, and when I look at them, I say, ‘Oh, my God. Look at how young he was. Look how young my kids were.’ Those are the constant reminders that I have.”

It is very evident that Kobe has touched many lives and will forever be remembered as the Mamba.