How to talk to your kids about Kobe Bryant's death

Millions of children looked up to the basketball legend. Here are a few ways you can provide comfort and support.

Kobe Bryant.
(Image credit: Illustrated | ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

The circumstances of Sunday's tragic helicopter crash that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant and eight other people were painful to comprehend. Beyond being an 18-time All-Star who lifted the NBA Championship trophy five times for his beloved Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant was 41 years old, a husband, and a father of four.

But that wasn't the worst of it. He was also the coach of his 13-year-old daughter Gianna's travel basketball team and was taking her, two other teenage girls, their parents, and another basketball coach from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, to a game in Thousand Oaks, a distance of 80 miles. All of them and the pilot died.

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Andrea Barbalich

Andrea Barbalich is editor in chief of The Week Junior, a weekly newsmagazine for children ages 8 to 14 launching this spring from the publisher of The Week.