Rick Fox is safe and alive, contrary to rumors suggesting he passed this weekend.
The retired NBA player has broken his silence in light of the tragic death of his friend and former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant, who died at the age of 41 on Sunday in a tragic helicopter crash along with eight other passengers, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. Fox finally addressed the inaccurate reports alleging he was one of the nine people who lost their lives in the fatal incident this weekend in last night’s Kobe Bryant memorial on Inside the NBA.
“My family went through, in the midst of all this, something that I couldn’t imagine them experiencing,” Fox said according to PEOPLE, revealing how the tragedy specifically affected one of his daughters, who said one of her “greatest fears” is learning 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.”
Evidently, Fox learned of his falsely reported death by friend King Rice, who was told the 50-year-old may have been aboard the aircraft. “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,” Fox recalled.
“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,” he continued. “I’m glad that’s over with, but it was hard to deal with because it shook a lot of people in my life.”
Photo: Getty Images