All language subtitles for How It Really Happened s07e03 Kobe Bryant 1

You know, it's about appreciating every
moment for me, you know, because, you

know, we've been through so much, and,
you know, your career kind of, you know,

I'm not an old man, but, you know, you
start seeing the light at the end of the

tunnel is much brighter than the one at
the beginning of the tunnel.

So it's really about appreciating every
day as it comes, you know, every game,

every win, every loss, every practice is
just soaking every day in.

Hello, and welcome.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

Kobe Bryant was just 18 years old when
he took the NBA by storm.

Over his 20 years in the league, he was
an 18-time All-Star, 5-time champion,

and 2-time Olympic gold medalist.

His achievements off the court were just
as lauded. He was an accomplished

writer, Academy Award winner, and a
self-described girl dad of four

beautiful daughters.

At 41, Bryant had reached the pinnacle
of his success.

until one foggy January morning.

This is how it really happened.

Kobe wanted to be the best.

He wanted to be the best who ever lived.

Dynamic, determined, focused, obsessive,
goal

-oriented, willful.

very willful, just able to will his way
through the combination of talent and

athletic character.

I think Kobe Bryant is the consummate
example of an athlete or someone in any

profession who knew what he or she
wanted to do at the earliest possible

age, was committed to staying on that
path and doing whatever was necessary

to achieve that goal.

and then achieved that goal.

I feel like God has blessed me with the
talent to play this game, and I'd be

doing a major injustice if I didn't try
to maximize my potential.

Kobe had many chapters of his playing
career, and now he was entering yet

another chapter of his post-career life.

Kobe Bryant cared so much about
everything he did, and he is completely

adored in Los Angeles because of that.

It doesn't get any better than this.

That's the beauty about growing up in
one city your whole career is that you

grow up in the city.

The good, the bad, everything.

You go through it all.

Right now we're cruising.

Folks, we're out here mountain biking
this morning and saw an aircraft in

distress that went down into the
hillside.

It was a helicopter.

A helicopter?

The first call came in that there was a
helicopter crash in Calabasas, and it

was a fairly good-sized helicopter, and
there were a number of people on board.

I just remember sitting at my computer,
just, you know, looking at the tweets

and monitoring the news, and we saw one
pop up that said Kobe Bryant was in a

helicopter that crashed.

When I saw the alert, I didn't believe
it. I was like, this has to be wrong.

Most people weren't even saying what it
was.

They were just saying, is it true?

I was sitting on my couch at home with
my dad, who was visiting from Colorado.

And on comes the news.

And I'm like, oh, that can't be true.

That can't be true.

It was just this hole in my heart.

You know, just, why?

You know, what happened?

Kobe, 100% of his thought process was of
his daughters and

family. Because every time I would talk
to him, he would mention his daughters

and Vanessa.

And you could just tell that he had a
really deep love for them.

Natalia and Gigi.

are the ones that kind of you saw
throughout a lot of his playing career.

They were the ones dressed in little
Laker uniforms.

Kobe and Gigi just had this bond.

Kobe would have been proud of Gigi no
matter what she did, but he was so

immensely proud of the way that she
played the game.

He loved bragging about Gigi, her
thought process. He loved talking about

the questions that she would ask.

He would talk about the shots that she
would take, the free throws that she

would make.

Gigi was the one that was so much like
Kobe.

Kobe started the sports academy for
Gianna. It was all for Gianna because he

saw that there was nothing out there for
girls.

Christina Mauser was a teacher and a
women's basketball coach.

She was... 38 years old, and she was
actually a very talented basketball

player herself, and Kobe hand-selected
her to be the assistant coach for the

Mamba Academy basketball team.

Christina was a talent, but more than
her talent as a basketball player was

her ability to connect with these girls.

I mean, they adored her.

We were both teachers at a private
school in Orange County, in Newport

Beach.

And I was working with Kobe, and we
said, I really want to get the girls'

club team started.

And so he got some talent from around
the area, and he kind of recruited

certain girls to play on the team.

Kobe said, I need a good coach. And he
said, do you think Christina would be

interested? And so I asked her, and she
said, no, I don't want to do it.

And I kind of persuaded her to give it a
shot.

One of the things you need to understand
is that Kobe Bryant lived in Orange

County, and his basketball academy was
in Thousand Oaks. So he lives south of

Los Angeles, and his basketball academy
is north of Los Angeles.

It would take a very long time to drive
there, but it's only about a 30-minute

helicopter ride to get there.

And Kobe Bryant evidently decided that
he just didn't want to have to put up

with the traffic.

He started traveling a lot by
helicopter.

The combination of celebrity and
aviation, mystery and fear, is

very compelling to people.

And what's interesting is you can
connect a dot directly between what

happened to John F. Kennedy Jr.

and what happened to Kobe Bryant.

You can be born with talent and you can
be born with the genetics, but... To be

the best, it requires so much more than
that.

Do you think you were born to do this?

No question.

No question. I mean, this is in my
blood. I mean, my father played, my

uncle played, my grandparents played, my
grandma played.

So this is like, you know, this is what
we do.

I know that he just adored his girls.

He was dedicated to his family. He
picked them up from carpool.

He would drop them off.

and he would bring them flowers to
school on Valentine's Day, and he would

kiss them, he'd hug them. He was a very
affectionate, loving father.

It was impossible to see Kobe in public
in later years in his life and not think

of Gigi.

He clearly loved all his daughters, but
you could see something there, that

there was this shared love of basketball
and this shared desire on their parts

for her to be great at that.

Kobe frequently at WNBA games, often
with his daughter Gianna, preparing her

for the future. And we started learning
about how he was working with her,

showing her his incredible moves.

And who knows what Gianna would have
become. And that's one of the biggest

tragedies of this story is that, I mean,
she could have been amazing. And I think

people expected that she was going to
play in the WNBA and be amazing.

I don't think Kobe ever did anything
without a purpose.

And I think that's what this purpose
was, was to create an environment for

young girls to succeed.

We have spoken to two parents who were
waiting at Kobe's Mamba Sports Academy.

There was a tournament going on there
this morning.

Kobe's team, his daughter's team, Gigi,
they were supposed to be playing there

at noon.

Kobe and the others were headed north of
Los Angeles to an area near the

Camarillo Airport for a basketball
tournament.

The Sikorsky S-76B is the absolute
pinnacle of

executive transportation in the sky.
It's the limousine of the sky. It's as

good as it gets in this category of
helicopter.

Ara Zobian was a very experienced pilot.

He had flown for 13 years, and in
addition to flying Kobe, he had also

flown a lot of other very high-profile
clients.

This pilot was Kobe Bryant and his
family's preferred pilot and also

preferred helicopter company.

He exclusively would request this
specific pilot.

By all accounts, Arizobian.

was an exemplary pilot, experienced,
safe, practically spotless record in

excess of 8,500 hours.

Puts him in an elite category of
helicopter pilots.

Kobe Bryant was willing to let his
children fly alone with this pilot.

So that's a pretty high bar for anybody.

Nine people on board that day are
Zobian, Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi.

You also have two of Gigi's teammates,
Peyton Chester and Alyssa

Altobelli, as well as their parents,
Sarah Chester and John and Carrie

Altobelli and Christina Mauser.

And my oldest daughter, Penny, played on
the lower division of the Mamba team.

But the week prior, Penny had had a 104
fever.

Because she wasn't feeling good, we kept
her off the helicopter.

And I had a show the night before.

I got home around midnight, and we said
goodnight. Christina was up waiting for

me, and then she said, I have to be out
the door by 7.

I said, okay.

So she said, so if I don't see you all,
I'll be back by noon.

I remember her kissing me, saying, I
love you, and I was so tired I didn't

wake up. She walked out the door, and I
heard the door shut. I was going to get

up and say, hey, goodbye, and I just
didn't.

Even at 15, 16, 17, all of that, the
talk, the money, the attention, that

didn't matter to me at all.

And it still doesn't because, you know,
what I love to do is play basketball. So

as long as that love's there and my
focus is there, I'll be fine.

The summer of 1978 was a big deal for
pop culture and sports.

So if you were around at the time,
you'll remember the movie Grief. That

was dominating at the box office that
summer. Larry Bird was drafted to the

Celtics.

And on August the 23rd, 1978, something
happened.

Most people would have completely
missed.

But actually, it's a date that is highly
relevant because arguably it helped

change the course of the NBA. That was
the day that Kobe Bryant was born.

Joe and Pam Bryant got married in
college. They had two daughters before

Kobe being Bryant was born. And Kobe,
the great state from Japan,

was... favorite of the Bryants. They
loved the name, and that

played a role in their naming their son
Kobe.

Joe Bryant grew up in southwest
Philadelphia.

He was an absolute basketball star on
the playgrounds of the city.

Now, Kobe got all that style, that love
of style, that love of being a

showman from Joe.

But the killer side of Kobe, that came
from his mother.

Pam Cox Bryant was the killer in the
equation.

The hard-nosed, really fiercely
competitive personality.

When Kobe Bryant talked about the Mamba
mentality, his mother Pam is where the

Mamba mentality came from.

Joe had been a first round pick for the
76ers and his NBA career wasn't going

probably as well as he wanted.

The Italian league was an up and coming
league. And I think they saw it as a

great opportunity maybe to get himself
on track.

Joe to make a good living and be able to
play in the way he wanted to play.

So he and the family moved to Italy and
he spent the better part of eight years

there.

Kobe.

You know, he was the ball boy. He was
the mop boy on the floor, taking it all

in in wide-eyed wonder.

Kobe and his sisters learned the
language quickly, but it was a tough

adjustment for American children to go
into that European setting.

The fact that Kobe Bryant grew up in
Italy, he had very much an international

perspective. He was very worldly in his
interest in terms of food and culture.

And I think that broadened his
perspective once he came back to the U

.S. in the late autumn of 1991.

They wanted always ultimately to get
back to Philadelphia.

Joe and Pam's roots were all in
Philadelphia.

And that's where they settled in on
Lower Marion because they wanted a good

academic place for their kids to go.

Joe Bryant wanted his son to succeed
very, very badly.

I definitely think he had a dream about
Kobe as much as Kobe had the dream.

Kobe is in eighth grade when the family
returns, and already there's scuttlebutt

around him. Who is this kid who just
kind of came out of nowhere?

The first time I saw Kobe play, I was
playing in a rec league one Saturday

afternoon. It was all men playing, and I
saw this one guy. He looked like he was

about maybe a junior in high school,
skinny, about six feet tall, but good

and played hard.

So after the game was over, I asked him
where he went to school, and he said,

uh, Bala.

And the only place I could think of was
a middle school. And I said, how old are

you? And he said, I'm 13.

I thought, oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

I said, what's your name? And he said,
I'm Kobe Bryant.

Early on, Kobe liked to shoot the ball.
He liked to shoot the ball a lot.

While he was a freshman, his teammates
actually resented him for it.

But as he gets better as a player,

He becomes more unselfish, and the team
starts to improve.

Even if he had been a terrible player,
he would have been one of my all-time

favorites to coach.

Just because he loved the game so much,
he worked so hard at it, he was so

passionate about it.

You could tell just by speaking with him
that he had an extra gear of

intelligence that not only most
basketball players, but most high school

kids don't have.

Kobe was a very strong academic student,
very curious.

In particular, he liked his English
classes.

Just about everything that Kobe wrote
about in high school had a little

something to do with basketball.

I could see it in 11th grade for
absolute sure that this wasn't just

going to be a great player. This wasn't
just going to be a great college player.

This was a 10-time NBA All-Star.

By the time he's a senior, Kobe really
is a celebrity. Everybody in the

Philadelphia area and even around the
country to a great degree know him as

the best high school player in the
country.

After one game in the state tournament,
every single player on the opposing team

that had just lost to Laura Marion lined
up at center court to get Kobe's

autograph.

Kobe told me his great gift in life was
that he knew what he wanted to do from a

very young age.

He obviously wanted to be a pro
basketball player just like his father.

He wanted to get to the NBA and he
wanted to get there as quickly as he

possibly could.

We didn't really think that he would do
it right away.

But of course, he had his own plan.

So they held a press conference at the
high school.

He is so...

Confident in that moment.

You watch him stand up there.

There's no hesitation.

There's no ums, no ahs.

He's playing to the cameras.

And he pauses at one moment and he says,
And

he puts his hand to his chin and he
pretends like he's hesitating and he's

really not.

And the crowd starts to laugh and cheer
a little bit.

And this big smile comes over his face.

And you see, in so many ways,

the confidence, even the arrogance, the
sort of star power, the star presence

that he has, everything that's ahead for
him over the next 25 years.

Welcome back to How It Really Happened.

Kobe once told a friend that he didn't
fear death.

He had been reading about the samurai
and quoted, A beautiful death is

inspirational. If you can inspire people
through your life, you never die.

Six months later, Kobe Bryant would be
gone.

Kobe Bryant was heading to a basketball
tournament. He was bringing his 13-year

-old daughter, Gianna. She was on the
way to play. There were a number of

parents and a number of children heading
to this basketball tournament.

That morning, the pilot, Ara Zobian, two
hours before the flight, did his routine

weather check.

And the weather was not great, but not
no-go either.

Moist air and fog had drifted in from
the Pacific Ocean.

And in Los Angeles, those clouds on a
cloudy day can hang right at the top of

the mountains.

I was actually in Calabasas. I remember
distinctly.

Talking to my dad, saying, like, are you
okay to drive? Because we really cannot

see the street in front of us. I mean,
I'd never seen fog like that.

Highland Express helicopters on the two
prior days had canceled 13 flights

because of weather conditions.

And the weather conditions on this day,
depending upon who you ask, were maybe a

little better or were not better at all.

Team Kobe knew that if he was going to
maximize his star power, to be as famous

and as great as he wanted to be, he had
to do it in a big city.

Kobe was going to get to the Lakers by
hook or by crook, and so he made it

clear that he wasn't going to play for
certain teams if they drafted him.

Jerry West hatches a plan.

He has a trade in place.

to make sure that the Lakers acquire
Kobe Bryant.

Kobe had a chip on his shoulder because
there were people who doubted him. He

wanted to prove that he wasn't coming in
at some gimmick. He wanted to play right

away.

So when the Lakers acquired Shaquille
O'Neal in that offseason, and when they

made the draft day trade to get Kobe,
there was an expectation that the Lakers

were going to be the dominant team, not
only in the Western Conference, but in

the entire league.

But there was some stumbling right out
of the gate.

Kobe was immediately thrust into the
spotlight.

And he said that that was very
difficult, that it was hard to

navigate.

Even when I came out of high school, I
think people were kind of giving me the

cold shoulder to begin with.

Because I think, unfortunately, some
people wanted me to fail because I

defied the odds.

I don't care what you guys say. I don't
care how old you guys are. You're wrong.

I can do this.

I don't think it was intentional, and
his teammates may have taken it the

wrong way.

But he separated himself and watched
tape. He stayed in his room and

immediately distanced himself from a lot
of other players.

He could be standoffish.

His pro teammates in Los Angeles, these
older men, had no way to figure out this

kid who was invading their lives and
turning things upside down.

Rookies are supposed to be deferential,
no matter how talented they may be.

But when they have an alpha personality
and they're not willing to check it at

the door,

that's going to rub some people the
wrong way.

He's a kid.

He's in this man's game.

And not only that, but he doesn't
relate.

Are you different from other guys in the
NBA, do you think, in your heart and

mind and soul?

I mean, I don't enjoy doing some of the
things that other players might enjoy

doing. Not to say what they do is bad. I
mean, I just don't like doing it.

Some of the guys like to go out to balls
or go out to clubs and things like that.

I really have no interest for it.

Kobe Bryant was very lonely.

It manifested itself in the fact that he
would take the time to talk to a sports

writer like me on the phone.

There was nowhere for him to turn. He
was looking for people who were willing

to understand him.

After games, Kobe would often call up
his agent's assistant and go to hang

out at her apartment.

They would watch HBO together because
Kobe had nowhere else to go.

When Kobe Bryant moved to Los Angeles,
his parents initially lived with him.

Bought a house in Pacific Palisades, and
his parents and one of his sisters moved

in with him and lived with him for that
first year or two that he was with the

Lakers. His mother would make
home-cooked meals for him, macaroni and

cheese. It was a very comfortable kind
of homey environment for Kobe to live in

his first couple of years with the
Lakers.

There was much about Kobe's life that
his family managed.

He was making the money of a man, but he
had this protracted teen existence

with his mom and pops right there with
him. I think there was definitely a

sense on Kobe's part that his parents
were going to be along for the ride on

his journey throughout the NBA for
perhaps longer than he would have liked.

Kobe would sometimes make reference to
the fact that he had his parents on

allowance. These events over money were
such a factor that Kobe Bryant, walked

right onto Leno and made a joke about it
before his rookie season. It was fresh

in his mind.

The

first

couple years were tough.

He's a boy playing with grown men, and
he had told me he was frustrated he

wasn't playing more in his first two
years.

He thought he was unstoppable.

He comes in as a phenom. He's tabbed as
the heir to Michael Jordan.

He isn't quite ready for that
immediately.

You can see how good he is and
potentially how good he is right away.

This might be the only chance for
somebody or a kid up in the stands to

see you play.

So from that aspect, whenever I step out
there in the basketball field, I want to

give it my all.

It wasn't just fans in Los Angeles who
fell in love with the kid Kobe Bryant.

You could just feel it growing in the
fan base.

This kid is on his way to being
something.

They were simply going to a girls'
basketball game.

Gianna was playing basketball, and Kobe
Bryant was going to coach. They were

going to go have some fun.

On a Sunday afternoon.

So what we know on January 26, 2020,
Kobe Bryant, as well as eight

other passengers, including his
daughter, Gigi, took off from Orange

County en route to Camarillo, which is
near Thousand Oaks.

They had a basketball game for his
daughter.

and a couple of her teammates who were
also on the helicopter.

The pilot had flown the same route the
day prior.

He's aware of the route. He's aware of
everything.

But because of the presenting weather
challenges on the morning of the

accident, they had to alter that flight,
and they took a different route to their

destination.

Now, we have been told by the L.A.
Police Department that Sunday morning,

around the time of this crash, The LAPD
grounded their helicopter fleet because

the weather was not good enough for them
to fly. The visibility was low. It's

significant that the police and
sheriff's department grounded their

helicopter air department.

It tells you that that division felt
that it was not safe to fly that day.

That situation was compounded by the
fact that the pilot checked the weather

two hours before flight.

And did not, again, just before taking
off, reassess the weather and reassess

the flight risk.

The pilot should always assess the
flight risk before taking off if the

weather can change in 10 minutes.

And they should have checked it prior to
departure.

I remember walking out of the arena and
I asked Kobe, what are you going to do

this summer, man?

He said, basketball.

There is nothing else.

And even as he was saying that, he was
searching for that something in his

life.

Kobe was a musician briefly, a rap
artist.

Kobe met Vanessa on a video shoot, and
they fell in love pretty quickly.

Vanessa was someone that we saw with
Kobe. They were together a lot, but we

never really heard from Vanessa.

It was very much a public relationship,
but she was very private.

It was young love. He wanted out of the
lonely hell he was in,

and that relationship...

became that way out for him.

I remember when Kobe got engaged, nobody
knew who the girl was, and then they

find out she's a high school student and
gorgeous, but nobody knew anything about

him, about what he did at night, what he
did during the day except for practice

and watched film.

One of the biggest things that I
remembered initially about the

relationship with Kobe and Vanessa is
that there was a lot of pushback from

his parents that this was happening too
quickly.

This was not a relationship that his
parents were comfortable with.

I think Kobe felt like it was time for
him to break out on his own, that there

was some tension there developing
between him and his family. And I think

it was a shock to his system and to
theirs when...

He said to them, it's time for me to get
married.

It's time for me to embark on my own
journey.

I love my parents and I love my sisters
and my family to death. But at the same

time, you want that space to grow on
your own.

At that point in time, it was a little
lonely.

It was a little lonely.

Then I was fortunate enough to get
engaged and find a woman I wanted to

marry. It wasn't lonely no more.

And as the Hollywood drama plays out, it
was right there. You can say what you

want to me, parents.

You can try to control my life. You're
not controlling my life. It led to him

throwing off those controls in dramatic
fashion.

That was the moment that we sent some
conflict, and you really stopped

seeing the parents.

The break between Kobe and his family
was very surprising and was very stark.

There were very few people who were
along for his ride.

for the entirety of his life and his
career.

And as it turns out, his mother and
father were kind of caught in that way

of him looking at the world.

Kobe's work ethic still drove the bus.

He may not have been the top dog. He may
not have been the favored one.

It may have been Shaquille O'Neal's
team.

But it all coalesced into this amazing
championship run.

The Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers
116-111 to win their first NBA

championship in 12 years.

To win in 2000 the championship, I think
it just gave him the feedback he needed

to get to say that there's more.

On April 18, 2001, Kobe and Vanessa got
married. It was...

Circumstances fraught with difficulty.

It was very, very intimate. No teammates
were there.

His mom and dad weren't even there.

There would be further alienation from
the event.

It was the kind of thing that led to
much more difficulty and heartbreak down

the road.

And the moment they won that
championship, his teammates were

celebrating. And the whole locker room
was going crazy.

Kobe's holding the Larry O'Brien trophy
in an embrace.

And he has this kind of forlorn look on
his face.

By that time, he has already had a
falling out with his family. His

relationship with his mom and dad is
fractured.

And here he is in a moment that he
should be celebrating like no other.

And he really can't.

because the people he's been closest to
his entire life aren't there to

celebrate it with him.

Kobe's troubled personal life, more than
anything, really brought the focus of

the basketball court as his sanctuary.

Kobe Bryant suddenly was hit with that
flood tide of emotion about his family,

about everything that he had bottled up
to go through that.

It's the picture of all the pride.

that Kobe Bryant had paid for his
greatness.

The Lakers would go on a course to win a
third straight championship, and then he

would tear apart his life. He ran into
his destructive moment in Colorado,

and everything was gone.

Sometimes the bigger they are, the
bigger the price they paid, and that's

certainly true of Kobe Bryant.

And something is burning and is pushing
me to improve and to find out more about

this game and to do it to the point
where we win another championship.

And I can't just level off and not grow
and not improve as a basketball player.

Kobe had flown out to Colorado for some
therapy on his knee.

He stayed.

At a resort there, there was a young
worker at the hotel.

There was an engagement in Kobe's room.

The first time I ever really remember
covering Kobe Bryant was the 4th of

July, 2003, when a warrant was issued
for his arrest relating to

this alleged sexual assault in Eagle
Rock, Colorado.

It was just such a huge deal at the
time.

Kobe and one or two of his bodyguards,
he had several who I got to know, drove

up from Denver and checked into the
lodge at Cordillera.

And then he made friends with this
woman. He asked her for a tour of the

hotel, and she gave him a tour, and they
went up to his room and started

making out.

It got to be more physical.

The bellman saw her immediately after it
happened and thought, scratches around

her neck, and she was crying. And then
she eventually then went to the police.

And suddenly his life went from the kid,
this

monastic life where he gave everything
to the gang, to this guy in the

police photos.

Right now, the district attorney here in
this county deciding whether or not to

file charges against Kobe Bryant. And
I'll never forget standing outside that

courthouse and pronouncing what they had
decided, which was that Kobe Bryant was

going to be charged.

And it was stunning.

Tonight, Kobe Bryant, one of the most
marketable sports stars in this country,

was charged with sexual assault.

It was a huge issue during the season.

It definitely, you know, cast a negative
light on Kobe around the world, around

the league.

Kobe Bryant was adamant that he did not
have sex with someone against their

wishes. I'm innocent.

I didn't force her to do anything
against her will.

He admitted to adultery and being
unfaithful to Vanessa.

I sit here in front of you guys.

Furious at myself, disgusted at myself
for making a mistake

of adultery.

We saw the press conference where she
was sitting there with him, and she

looked very strong, but she looked like
a ghost. They both looked terrible.

And the way that Vanessa stood by Kobe,
and the way Vanessa was next to Kobe,

and... It took a lot of strength,
obviously, for her to do that.

It would have been easy for her to walk
away or simply not be a part of that.

There was nothing resolved for a year.
It was a very serious allegation.

It was O.J. Light.

But Kobe went like business as usual. He
managed that stress. He managed whatever

he needed to do. The team supported him.
But basketball can be a refuge and a way

to just let go of all of that other
stuff.

It's tough.

Sometimes it just seems like there's
light at the end of the tunnel, you

know? You pray, you have faith, and
let's be known, the light is brighter

than ever.

And all of a sudden... With less than
one week before opening statements were

to begin, the criminal case against the
NBA star has been dropped.

The case is over.

Kobe ended up settling with his accuser.

He was confident, he was resolute in his
innocence.

I'm innocent.

And he just moved on. But Kobe's
endorsement deal all but dried up.

Nobody wanted anything to do with him.
You could argue that when it got to his

troubles at Colorado, that his
tremendous will and focus, that

determination allowed him to survive
such a dramatic

undoing.

So when the pilot and all of his
passengers took off from the John Wayne

Airport, air traffic control told the
pilot that the weather was instrument

flight rules.

In other words, you look out the window
and you fly where you're going.

That's visual flight.

Instrument flight rules means that you
must check in and your every move, left,

right, up, down, altitude, headings, you
name it, is controlled by air traffic

control.

Did you just want to follow the 118?

118, and then we'll look around Van Nuys
to catch the 101.

Flying the Los Angeles corridor from
south to north, it's tricky, it's

congested. And what the pilot does, he's
looking for two roads. He's looking for

one highway and then the 101.

Sounds odd that here's a pilot following
roads.

Pilots follow roads all the time.

So when air traffic control told the
pilot that it was instrument flight

rules and your visibility is gone, that
meant the pilot had very limited

choices.

What's interesting about helicopter
pilots is they don't get a lot of

instrument time.

He had 8,500 plus hours of helicopter
time, but he had only 75 hours of

instrument time in his entire career.

and 68 of those were simulated
instrument times. And as we neared

Burbank, we saw that the weather
conditions were even lower than what was

forecasted. That should have been a big
red flag.

The pilot had to either get down under
the clouds, get up above over the

clouds, because in instrument flight
rules, you can't see where you're going.

You're basically flying blind.

This is a case of a split-second
decision that was just 100% wrong.

The pilot advised they were climbing to
avoid a cloud layer.

Contact is terminated between air
traffic control and the pilot. That

effectively means that the pilot is on
his own. The helicopter starts

descending. The pilot has experienced
something that can be very deadly.

This accident did not need to happen.
This accident was entirely preventable.

No doubt about it, this is the most
devastating day in NBA history.

Out of an abundance of caution, Kobe and
Vanessa tried to avoid flying in a

helicopter together, thinking that if
something happened to one of them, the

other would be there for their kids.

Simple gesture, but one they never
imagined would end in tragedy.

What happened in the final moments that
brought down that doomed flight?

Next, in part two.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.