NBA legend Kobe Bryant, widely considered one of the best basketball players in history, is among a group of people dead in a Sunday morning helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, ESPN reports. He was 41.

Adrian Wojnarowski, the network’s Senior NBA Insider, tweeted the news on Sunday.

Kobe Bryant is among those dead in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles, a source confirms to ESPN.

According to TMZ, who first reported the news of Bryant’s death, the basketball star was traveling with a small group of people in his private helicopter when it went down and caught fire. The cause of the crash is reportedly being investigated. (Eye witnesses told the outlet they heard the helicopter’s engine sputtering.)

Bryant’s peers in the sports world reacted to the news of his death on social media.

Nooooooooooo God please No!

Every team has to retire 24

We miss you already Kobe ❤️❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼

In NYC, at our upfronts, Kobe was backstage and all he wanted to talk about was coaching his daughter’s team. Such pure joy. I keep thinking of that video of he and his daughter at the Lakers game. Those girls….his family. My goodness, man.

Bryant was born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he was the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant. The younger Bryant started his basketball career at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania, and he entered the NBA draft straight out of high school at the age of 18. He was the 13th overall pick in the 1996 draft, where he was selected by the Charlotte Hornets.

Bryant was then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he remained for his entire career until his retirement in 2016. Bryant won five NBA championships with the Lakers, and was named Finals MVP twice. Other accolades include the two gold medals he won at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, and the Academy Award he got in 2018 for his short film Dear Basketball.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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