13yearold daughter, an aspiring basketball player in her own right. As news of the tragedy spread, fans gathered in los angeles. The site of some of bryants so many athletic moments to celebrate his life and career. The ntsb is on their way to the crash site to investigate. Officials are looking closely at whether weather had something to do with it. Dense fog may have contributed to the incident. Lets bring in Steve Patterson who has been covering the crash. And steve, as youve been on the scene all day, the last briefing that you know so well, the sheriff was saying the faa was on location. I was just mentioning how the ntsb is on its way. And the coroner was also on its way. Whats the latest . In fact, there were some coroner vehicles spotted in the vicinity here as well as a bulldozer. Weve seen a lot of equipment as First Responders authorities and crews along with investigators are swarming the scene. The official word will come from as you mentioned, the ntsb, the federal authorities which are, again, on the way at this point. But again, you know, the focus is going to be getting there as quickly as possible, determining what happened as quickly and as efficiently as possible. As this investigation gets underway. Witnesses report hearing a loud boom, followed by a fire ball. Some of the First Responders here say the first order of business by far was getting rid of a very quick fastmoving brush fire that had eaten up very quickly almost a quarter acre of that hillside which is now in the dark which is still behind me. As are people who have come here all day to pay their respects and get eyes on the scene. You know, weve seen people from all over the city of los angeles and elsewhere come to really pay their respects. We do hear that there is another press conference, another press briefing that is scheduled for just about an hour from now from the l. A. County sheriffs department. They had originally said that they would not be confirming any of the dead on board that craft until next of kin was notified. So the assumption, the prevailing theory here on scene is that that pressure will announce maybe the names of everybody officially on board the helicopter. As weve been learning sort of unofficially about more about people that were on board the craft as this investigation has gone on. But the biggest obviously thing were waiting for is for the ntsb to arrive. For them to dig into what happened on scene there, and for them to quickly determine what has happened here. As you mentioned, again, it seems like part of the thrust of the investigation will be focussed on the weather. I can tell you when we got here, which was maybe a few hours after the crash, there was still a thick fog layer above that hillside. Visibility just as i was driving here was pretty poor. We cant imagine what it looked like at the time of the crash. That may be the focus of the investigation. But again, its going to take some time for investigators to arrive. Richard . Steven, in certain parts as you know so well, the southland is clear as a bell, and other places you will have often these overlays of smog or in this case fog. Also that helicopter sound over high, also very common in southern california. And theyll be looking into all of that. Do you know at this moment whether on the ground right over your right shoulder where the site is, will they continue to work overnight . So i mean, i cant show you, obviously, the background i have is completely dark, and then theres the Light Pollution from all the national media, from the police, the Law Enforcement agencies on the ground. What i can tell you is when i do look over my shoulder, from time to time you see flashlights. You have seen some activity and movement. You can see right now, i think i can see a shining light in the trees. Its hard to point out and hard to tell. That is something we dont know. That is something we may find out in this next press briefing in about 45 minutes to an hour. We do know there are dozens down there on the ground. Nbcs Steve Patterson, covering the breaking story all afternoon. Steve, thank you for keeping us up to date. I appreciate you starting off the hour. Theres been an outpouring at the location that Steve Patterson was at as well as at Staple Center downtown. The grief grows this power. President obama wrote, kobe was a legend on the court, and just Getting Started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act. Shaq with whom he won three nba championships wrote theres no words to express the pain im going through with this tragedy of losing my niece, gigi, and my brother, kobe. And lakers great Magic Johnson said he loved talking to kobe about basketball, being fathers and husbands, and about their love of italy. Kobe bryant, the plan aman and player touched many lives. We have more on his lasting impact. Reporter under the smiling face of kobe bryant at a memorial in los angeles, today unshakable grief. He meant so much to the city of l. A. As a player, as a father, as a businessman, and as a mentor. There will never be nobody else like kobe. Reporter for the fans who gathered here, the death of kobe bryant still seems impossible. Disbelief. Its like i feel like i lost someone in my family. Theres probably nobody that has changed my life as much as kobe bryant, and i was hoping to see him do so many great things. Reporter and yet the flowers and tributes and tears are real. And then just as the sadness becomes unbearable, silent fans in los angeles begin to chant. Thank you kobe. Reporter each filled with their own memories they websited of his greatness. Kobe is not just a person. Hes a generation. Hes a whole generation of all of us who were kids watching him. Hes just hes irreplaceable, man. A man who made so many of us feel invincible when he took to the court now gone far too soon. Memorialized today as one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. Gaudy schwartz reporting for us. And dave, Sports Editor at the nation, and on the phone, Sports Writer for the athletic. Thank you both for being here. Dave, start us out here. It has been said as you heard by president obama, there was unfortunately, an inability, because of todays catastrophe, no second act for kobe bryant, but one might argue he was through his second act. We just dont know what his third, fourth, and fifth act would have been. Well, i dont want to overinterpret what president obama mental, but this idea of a second act had a lot to do with the trail that it looked like kobe bryant was going to blaze moving forward. The idea he won an oscar in 2018 for best animated short. The idea that he wanted to take the fame and the fortune he accrued as a basketball player and become something of a mogul, to become a creative in the world of hollywood, and people lebron james were looking to him to blaze that trail for the next act. And then there was the next act about what was going to happen in terms of gianna and his daughter and the idea of kobe bryant as the father of these amazing daughters. Who knew what they were going to do. And its the fact of the lives being cut short. I think its hitting people hard. Kobe was 41. But he was a young 41 because he was about to start this second life that were now not going to be able to witness. For those who are not an l. A. Laker fan, or a kobe fan or do not watch the nba, who was kobe bryant . You know, thats a really complicated question to answer, frankly, because there are so many different responses that youll get. I think the main response that youll get when you are talking to basketball fans, whether their laker fans or not is that he defined a generation of greatness. He could do things we thought we would never see since michael and we saw them with kobe. And i think that fans everywhere are mourning a loss of a talent, of a personality and a person that kobe was 18 when he came into the league. And he was 41 when he died today. We got the majority of kobe. And i was struck. I went down to Staple Center immediately when i heard the news and i was there early, and started to see fans trickle in, and a lot of the fans i talked to, they said he was 41. Im 42. Like, this is a generation of people who came up watching kobe bryant when we were the same age as he. So i think thats something that is going to be hard to put into words in the next few days. And part of that, and you make a really good point here. When you think of kobe bryant, the time that he came of age, right, in the public sphere as he, again, played for 20 years, over to you on this, dave. He grew up in a time where fantasy football also grew up. Where the relationship between an nba fan was one to one, not so much from one to a team. Kobe bryant being loved by young fans all around the country also means that he was part of the globalization of the nba during the same time and has fans around the world. Well, the thing about kobe, you talk about him being loved. What i find fascinating is no one was indifferent about kobe. People loved him. People hated him. It wasnt so much that people love ord disliked him, but people were either for him or against him. And theres the expression, thin line between love and hate, the opposite of love is indifference. People were not indifferent about kobe. He inspired that kind of passion. And for him to come up during this age of globalization meant that he was more than an athlete. He was he became a brand. Brand kobe. The first person since Michael Jordan to be able to leverage that. But kobe was going to leverage it differently than Michael Jordan. Michael jordan leveraged it to become an African American owner of an nba team which was trail blazing. T kobe bryant wanted to do something outside of basketball. I think everybody has High Expectations as to what the next chapter would bring. Its the cutting short of the chaptd chapter along with his daughter and the other family who we need to lift up. We need to remember everybody who passed today. Its like tragedy on top of tragedy. Reverend al sharpton had the opportunity to speak with kobe bryant during the funeral of Michael Jackson, and the rev was telling me earlier how kobe came up to the rev during the funeral because the rev was giving the yu eulo eulogy, and he said this is strange to see a person of this importance during my time and his relevance in pop culture. I dont know how to process it. Today were seeing him passing at an age where he was not supposed to by all counts, and now who else is looking at his passing and going, what does that mean to me . In your conversations with those in the nba, in the football world, and those on the ground, the fans, have they been asking themselves that same question that kobe asked so many years ago . I think its exactly the same question, and even before the rev had that conversation on your show a couple hours ago, i had said earlier this morning when i first heard the news, this reminded me a lot of what new york felt like when Michael Jackson died and Walking Around the city and this numb, heavy silence, this quiet that i witnessed. Staple center today that was exactly what i wngsitnessed and what fans are feeling. And several people i interviewed and talked to said the same thing to me. You remember where you were when certain people have died. Michael jackson was one of them, and kobe bryant was absolutely one of them as well. And i think similarly, we have complicated and strong feelings about these figures that were really going to need the time to process what kobe meant to us, to process his legacy, and its not thats easy to do in the moment when you hear the news. Dave . I had i mean, in the days ahead theres going to be a lot of discussion about kobe bryant and his journey and his arc, about 2003 when he was charged with sexual assault, and those charges being dropped in 2005. I think for today, i mean, i know its hard to do in this ticker tape social media culture, but i think for today, people just need to exhale and not police other peoples grief and just let people feel what they are feeling. Because these are some very intense emotions. Absolutely. Wellsaid. Thank you both so much. I appreciate your perspectives. Coming up for you, well have more on the death of kobe bryant and his daughter, gianna, and seven others right after this. Ven others right after this its very difficult for me to put into words about the loss of kobe bryant. Kobe loved his wife and daughters. He was an incredible athlete, and a leader in a lot of ways. He inspired a whole generation of young athletes. I had the privilege of being there when he scored his 81point game, and it was something that i will always remember as one of the highlights of the things that i have learned and observed in sports. As parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. vo why the aceves family chose verizon. We all use our phones very differently. These two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. And my oldest is learning to be a pilot. We need a Reliable Network because i need to know hes safe. As soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. Mama vo the network more people rely on, gives you more. 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You know, he was such a great opponent. You know . Its what you want in sports. He had that dna that very few athletes can ever have, the tiger woods and the Michael Jordans. You know . Its funny. I was getting to know him more since he retired. You know . Yeah. This is a tough one. On any average day in the southland, there heard doc rive rivers. Today hes remembering kobe bryant as the foe he learned to love. The fivetime nba champion dying in a fatal Helicopter Crash that killed eight others including his daughter, gianna. We have to guests with us. Reflect on that. When we hear from doc rivers here, jack, you really get a sense. Crosstown rivals, you learn to love your opponent at a certain point, and certainly doc rivers is remembering that today. Yeah. You know, ive been in i was firsthand hearing the phoenix suns. I was doing a book with them, and i remember them talking in the playoffs about how to defend kobe bryant, and the conversation went on for, like, an hour and a half. Well, what do we do here . And some of the best minds in the game and the staffs, do we do this or that. Finally after an hour and a half, someone said we cant defend against this guy. They had just spent an hour and a half trying to figure out how to do it. That was the kind of player kobe was. There really wasnt a defense for the guy, even more so than maybe michael. Im not saying i think Michael Jordan was the best player. I would always take michael over kobe, but when he was gone and revved up, when he was on it, you were just not stopping that guy, and i think it was that kind of thing that doc rivers was remembering today. And dan, it was that tenac y tenacity. Right . I mean, 60, 60point games in his career. Thats unfathomable, but theres tons of statistics i could go through, and you know them by heart when you think of somebody like kobe bryant, he represented certainly a generation of an era, leaving high school and going straight to the nba. The nba then changing the rules after that. And making it all the way through the social media era, if you will, of sports and that authenticity that was brought upon you, whether you wanted it or not as an nba star. Yeah. He was really groomed for it. His dad was in the nba. Jack knows that being a philly guy. Part of a sixer team. He grew up around it. He was in italy and masters italian and was really a kind of a sophisticated guy who had been around great players and he was ready to go from high school into the nba. So he pulled that off magically, and so many seasons. And i always think of these things, you know, being a boston guy, that the celtic laker thing was a big part of the nba rivalry in the 60s and right through the 80s with bern and magic. And kobe was the last stand of that with going against paul pierce and Kevin Garnett, and they played in two finals and 08 and 10. Kobes team lost in 08 and got the celtics in 10. A big deal for him to conquer that and win without shaq. He called himself as you two know, the black mamba. Thats a venomous snake, the largest venomous snake in some parts of africa. 14 feet long as they get. Why did he call himself the black mamba . Kobe was i was trying to think of one word to describe him, and im trying to think of the best use of this word. But it might not come out that way. That is ruthless. Kobe was the kind of guy usually when athletes die or were paying them tributes, they say they made their teammates better. That wasnt kobes thing. That was not that was not on kobes mind when he went out there. I mean, you could say that about all the great ones. Jordan had to learn that a little bit. But that wasnt kobes thing. Kobe was an island. Kobe was to himself. And all that encompasses the bad and good of that, chuck daily used to say great coach, your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. Kobes was his feeling of invinceability what led him to accomplish what he did on the court, get 60 points in his last game . I mean, thats just absurd. I dont care if youre taking 150 shots, but that same trait made him a very difficult teammate. He was not easy to play with. And the games kobe won later in his career and dan referred to the championships against is celtics. They won because of kobes greatness. It wasnt because