Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Rick Fox was the subject of inaccurate death reports this past Sunday when a tragic helicopter crash took the lives of nine individuals, including Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.
Erroneous reports claiming Fox was one of the passengers on board circulated on social media in the aftermath of the incident. The 13-year NBA veteran reflected on the impact those stories had on the people closest to him.
"My family went through, in the midst of all of this, something I couldn't have imagined them experiencing," Fox said during Tuesday's TNT broadcast that paid tribute to the late NBA great. "A city is mourning, a family is mourning. We’re all mourning, and I’m glad that’s over with, but it was hard to deal with because it shook a lot of people in my life."
Fox was Bryant's teammate for seven seasons and helped the Lakers win three consecutive championships in the early 2000s.