Rick Fox Speaks Out After Being Falsely Reported Dead in Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash

Rick Fox is speaking out after tragedy.

The 50-year-old retired basketball player opened up on NBA on TNT on Thursday (January 28) after initial reports suggested he was in the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, as well as seven other people on Sunday (January 26).

“My family went through, in the midst of all this, something that I couldn’t imagine them experiencing,” he revealed, saying it was one of his daughters “greatest fears” to find out on social media that one of her parents died.

“She, fortunately, called me and we were just talking and crying about the news of Kobe.”

He said someone had told his best friend, King Rice, that he 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. 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 went on to explain.

“I’m glad that’s over with, but it was hard to deal with because it shook a lot of people in my life.”

READ MORE: Rick Fox Not Dead, Was Not in Helicopter with Kobe Bryant