Kobe Bryant: Harry How/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK) — Jimmy Fallon and James Corden each took a moment on Monday to pay homage to NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people. Jimmy Kimmel went even further, devoting his entire show to remembering the basketball great.
Fallon, the host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, recalled he and Bryant met in Los Angeles years ago, when both were rising stars, and have been friends ever since.
“When we’d run into each other over the years, we’d laugh about that night we first met [and] laugh at all the good things that happened since, and…how much fun it was to raise kids and all the stupid mistakes we made trying to figure out how to be good dads,” Fallon said through tears. “And today, he and one of his girls are gone.”
“I wish I could say something to make sense of it all,” said Corden, host of CBS’ Late Late Show. “All I can think of is this: if you can, take a moment…to call up someone you love and just let them know.”
Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! opened his show by announcing that “going forward with a comedy show didn’t feel right” and used the hour to air Bryant’s last appearance on the show from September of 2019.
Kimmel, admitting Kobe “was not a perfect person, added, “But I will say he loved his family, he worked very hard, and he brought a lot of joy to a lot of people in this city and we’re going to miss him.”
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