The sound rarely bothered him before 2020. It has bothered him plenty since then.
Gary Vitti, the Los Angeles Lakers’ former longtime head athletic trainer, often heard helicopters and airplanes fly over his home in Manhattan Beach, Calif. because of its proximity to the city’s airports. He never thought much about it.
And now? Different story. When Vitti has heard a helicopter or plane fly over his house every day for the past year, it reminds him of something that still pains him. On Jan. 26, 2020, former Lakers star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash.
“It’s in my face all the time. I can’t seem to shake it,” Vitti told USA TODAY Sports. “What are you going to do — move? You’re not going to move. So there’s a little zing that I get a reminder with every day.”
Those in the Lakers organization and in the NBA community have felt those zings every day since Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s life ended abruptly.
Only four years removed from a storied 20-year career with the Lakers, Bryant had cemented a Hall-of-Fame worthy resume by winning five NBA championships, climbing to fourth-place on the league’s all-time scoring list and inspiring the current generation of players. But after winning an Oscar for a short film (“Dear Basketball”), starting a story-telling company (Granity) and overseeing a sports training facility (Mamba Sports Academy), Bryant still had more ambitions for his second act. Part of that second act entailed coaching 13-year-old Gianna, who shared her father’s ambitions to excel on the hardwood.
