LeBron James, Lakers Discuss Learning About Kobe Bryant's Death on Team Plane

The Los Angeles Lakers learned of Kobe Bryant's death on the team plane flying home from Philadelphia, but the news was initially met by disbelief among players and coaches.

"There was that uncomfortable time, feeling like, 'This is a crazy report,'" head coach Frank Vogel said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "Like, 'This is not true. There's no way.' My expectation was to hear that it was a false report."

Anthony Davis had a similar reaction when he heard initial reports from teammate Dwight Howard.

"Dwight tells me, 'Man, Kobe died.' And me thinking as invincible as Kobe Bryant is, I'm like, 'Kobe who?' Because I'm like, that's not—it's not Kobe Bryant," the center said. 

Davis also had to be the one to tell LeBron James, who was close with Bryant and had spoken to him earlier that morning after passing the Lakers legend on the all-time scoring list.

"I remember the first thing Bron said to me was, 'Man, y'all stop playin—like, stop playing with me,'" Davis said. "And I'm trying to get on the internet. And Dwight, like, you can see him start crying. He was like, 'It's true.'"

Though many of the players were asleep on the cross-country flight, everyone eventually woke up to the news that Bryant had been killed in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people.

Vogel, who had confirmed the news with team president Jeanie Buss, went through the plane to speak to each player one at a time.

Eventually, James took charge to lead the team in prayer.

"It was just off the top off my head, just off the cuff," James said. "I think it was needed for us to come together and just give thanks to the man above."

It created an emotional scene for the final two hours of the flight back to Los Angeles.

"Everybody was crying," Davis said. "It was just like something that we didn't believe, something that was shocking to all of us. Because Kobe, he's touched so many, you know—players on this team, staff members. You know, Judy [Seto], his trainer; Rob [Pelinka, his] agent; Robert Lara, security. He touched so many people."