Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Report: Lakers knew about Kobe Bryant’s death roughly 30 minutes before TMZ broke story

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Steve DelVecchio | Last updated 1/29/20

TMZ has faced a lot of criticism for the way it broke the news of Kobe Bryant’s death on Sunday, and much of the finger-pointing seems unwarranted. There was initially a belief that TMZ reported on Kobe’s death before the Bryant family was informed, but we can now safely conclude that was not the case.

When ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne spoke about the tragedy on “First Take” earlier this week, she reported that Los Angeles Lakers executives received a call from Bryant’s longtime brand manager shortly after 11 a.m. local time. The crash happened a little before 10 a.m., and Shelburne noted that the Lakers were informed about it before any media outlets published stories on it. You can hear Shelburne’s comments at the 3:57 mark below:

“They didn’t hear about it in media reports,” Shelburne said of the Lakers. “They got (the call) maybe 25 minutes or so before the world found out.”

If the Lakers’ ownership group and front office knew before the TMZ report and found out from Kobe’s brand manager, we can be almost certain that Bryant’s wife Vanessa was informed about her husband’s and daughter’s death before the Lakers were.

Shelburne’s report meshes with what TMZ founder Harvey Levin said Tuesday, which is that TMZ had permission from Kobe’s “people” to release the news. Levin admitted it is a fair criticism to say the families of the other crash victims may have found out through the media if they knew their loved ones were also on board, but he defended not being able to sit on such a major story.

There were many significant mistakes made as people were scrambling to find out more about the crash on Sunday, but it is not accurate to say Vanessa Bryant learned of her husband’s death from TMZ.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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