The retired basketball player opens up that his family blew up his phone when they heard he might be in the helicopter accident that killed the former Lakers star.
- January 30, 2020
AceShowbiz - Basketball player turned actor Rick Fox's family were left shaken after it was reported that he'd been killed in the same helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant and his daughter.
Kobe and 13-year-old Gianna were killed when the aircraft crashed on Sunday, January 26, 2020 - with many disbelieving the tragic news when it was first reported. Speculation about the crash was also rife as details started emerging, with some outlets reporting that Rick was among the passengers on the helicopter.
The retired sportsman opened up about how his family dealt with the false reports as he appeared on TV show NBA on TNT in an interview airing on Thursday, January 28, 2020.
"My family went through, in the midst of all this, something that I couldn't imagine them experiencing," he sighed, revealing that it was one of his daughter's "greatest fears" to hear through social media that one of her parents had died.
"She, fortunately, called me and we were just talking and crying about the news of Kobe," he explained.
Apparently, the false report emerged when someone told Rick's best friend King Rice that the screen star may have been on the helicopter.
"I'm seeing King's number repeatedly going and going and going, and I think he's worried about me, so I said, 'I'm gonna talk to my best friend,' so I answered and said, 'Hey man, this is crazy about Kobe,' and he just was bawling," he continued. "And I started crying. And he was like, 'You're alive!' And I was like, 'Well, yeah. Like what do you mean?' And it was in that moment that my phone just started going, and my mom and my sister and my brother... this has been a lot to process for all of us."
"I'm glad that's over with, but it was hard to deal with because it shook a lot of people in my life."
