Sports world marks fifth anniversary of deaths of Kobe, Gianna Bryant

The sweet part of the post on X was a photo of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant with his arm around Gianna, one of his four daughters and a budding basketball player, as they took in a game together. Their broad smiles said all anyone needed to know about their bond with each other and with the game.

Then reality strikes with the caption: "Always in our hearts."

Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of the death of the Bryants and seven others, killed in a helicopter crash in the hillsides of Calabasas, California, as the group made its way to a tournament at Bryant's Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks.

Kobe was 41; Gianna, nicknamed Gigi, was 13.

The sports world remembered them on Sunday.

After winning his second consecutive Australian Open, Italian Jannik Sinner changed into a pair of official Kobe Bryant shoes for the trophy ceremony.

Kobe Bryant is remembered every day with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, where a statue of Kobe and Gianna also is displayed.

And tributes throughout the city and the world have gone up in honor of the Bryants through the Kobe & Gianna Bryant mural project, which has overseen the installation of Bryant-themed murals on buildings, basketball courts and other facilities.

According to Kobemural.com, there are 463 murals in the United States -- 343 of them in Southern California -- plus 183 more in 45-plus countries.

Also killed that day were Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, wife Keri and their daughter, Alyssa; coach Christina Mauser; Sarah Chester and daughter Payton; and the pilot, Ara Zobayan.