Kobe Bryant messaged Shaquille O’Neal’s son, Shareef, just hours before he died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Bryant was killed alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others on board a helicopter which crashed outside the city of Calabasas, which is situated to the west of Los Angeles, at around 10am local time on Sunday morning
Following the news of Bryant’s death Shareef, a 20-year-old college basketball player, revealed a message he had received from the LA Lakers legend earlier that morning.
In the message sent on Instagram at 8.29am local time, Bryant asked Shareef: ‘You good fam?’
Shareef replied: ‘Yeah. Just been getting this work in trying to figure out my next move. How you been?’
It’s likely that Bryant was checking in on Shareef who announced last week that he wanted to transfer from UCLA.
But the 41-year-old did not send a response before his helicopter crashed later that morning.
Shareef has since posted a series of emotional tweets in which he referred to Bryant as his ‘uncle’ and paid tribute to his ‘cousin’ Gianna who was also killed in the helicopter crash.
GIGI❤️ love you cousin
— Shareef O’Neal (@SSJreef) January 26, 2020
You’ve really been there for me all 20 years of my life … been there for me since I was born .. love you
— Shareef O’Neal (@SSJreef) January 26, 2020
He later admitted that he was struggling to get to sleep following Bryant’s tragic passing and called for a parade in Los Angeles to honour the NBA legend.
Can we shut down LA for a day and just have a Kobe parade … someone set it up
— Shareef O’Neal (@SSJreef) January 26, 2020
Can’t even sleep …
— Shareef O’Neal (@SSJreef) January 27, 2020
Right above me every night I go to sleep ❤️ I’m going to play through you ❤️?? pic.twitter.com/BPYuGsxV2G
— Shareef O’Neal (@SSJreef) January 27, 2020
Bryant and Shareef’s father Shaquille were teammates at the LA Lakers and won three NBA championships together.
Following the news of Bryant’s death, Shaquille O’Neal posted a tribute message to the LA Lakers icon.
‘There’s no words to express the pain I’m going through with this tragedy of loosing [sic] my niece Gigi & my brother [Kobe Bryant],’ the basketball legend posted on Twitter.
‘I love u [sic] and u will be missed. My condolences goes [sic] out to the Bryant family and the families of the other passengers on board. I’m sick right now.’
METRO SPORT