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Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox were more than teammates on Lakers squads that won titles in the early 2000s. They were friends. When news broke that Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others had perished in a helicopter accident, it was initially believed to be a cruel hoax. Not Kobe. Not Gigi. As tragic as it turned out to be, the rampant spread of misinformation began on social media, with news outlets reporting that all of the Bryant children were on board before retracting their statements.

Wild rumors began spreading about who actually was on board before actual confirmation came. One of those rumors involved Fox and that he was on board. His stepdaughter, Jillian Hervey of Lionbabe confirmed that he was just fine.

The trauma of Fox’s family reading information that he had passed obviously affected him and then some. Imagine being a member of your family and reading that a loved one had died not from a close family member or the authorities but rather Twitter. You’d be hurt beyond belief.

Fox made an appearance on the emotional Tuesday episode of Inside The NBA since the tragic news of Kobe’s death broke.

“I don’t wish it on anyone. This moment has been overwhelming for all of us,” Fox said. “My family went through in the midst of all this never experiencing. I spent time talking to my kids for 45 minutes … I went into full-blown denial. One of my daughter’s greatest fears is finding out that one of her parents would be lost through social media instead of a loved one or family. Fortunately, she called me and we talked and cried over the news of Kobe.”

He added, “The phone just started going off and I thought everyone was calling me to talk about Kobe. I called a friend and … he told me, ‘You’re alive!’ … a city is mourning, a family is mourning and we’re all mourning and I’m glad that’s over with but it was hard to deal with because it shook a lot of people in my life.”

“The race to be first,” Kenny Smith, who shares a North Carolina connection with Fox before trailing off. “Get the story right.”

Fox added, “It’s irresponsible. It’s irresponsible.”

The Bryants along with, John AltobelliKeri AltobelliAlyssa AltobelliSarah ChesterPayton ChesterChristina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan were killed as their helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California – on their way to a game at the Mamba Sports Academy in Newport Beach, California.

REMEMBERING KOBE BRYANT

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