>> this is nightline. >> tonight, inside the investigation, the possible clue and haunting new video. moments before the helicopter crash that killed nba star kobe bryant and eight others. recovering wreckage. new questions raised with the growing memorials, heavy hearts and tearful tributes. plus growing up kobe. from the suburbs of philadelphia. how his childhood helped to shape his career and causes from where he stood on the court. >> he would do drills, shoot, work on angles. he was a savant. >> to where he stood on the contentious issues facing america. kobe beyond basketball. nightline will be right back.

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that fateful flight. here is abc's t.j. mahomes. >> that house feeled with tears, hundreds gathered on the orange coast college baseball diamond to celebrate the life of the man they called coach alto who headed the team for nearly 30 years, john altobelli, his wife keri and daughter were among those killed in sunday's helicopter crash along with basketball legend kobe bryant. the five-time nba champ, eight time all-star, two-time olympic gold medalist, oscar winner, husband, and father. at at staples center and around the world fans and family are trying to come to terms with the shocking deaths of bryant, his 13-year-old daughter gianna and seven others. through the tears and tributes come many questions and mostly

why and how that helicopter crashed. it was supposed to be a quick trip to a girls' basketball game. five parents and three teenagers flown by a pilot with more than 20 years experience. the bryant's day started with an early morning mass. >> he was here before the 7:30 mass, our first of the day. >> 9:06 a.m. kobe bryant's helicopter left to head to thousand oaks. >> they normally go up towards burbank and over to the thousand oaks area. there was a problem in burbank. the weather was there. he was told to circle for a while. >> the new video shows the helicopter circling around 9:30. 9:44 witnesses reported hearing a helicopter flying low. >> the house was shaking, the sound of like 30 harley-davidson choppers, you know. that is how loud it is. >> david told my colleague that he was startled to see how low

it was flying. he said he has given his video to the ntsb. >> flying above the fog? >> lower, really, really low. right above that tree. >> that is why you started to shoot. >> yes. >> this seemed odd. >> yes. >> air traffic controllers informed the pilot they couldn't detect him on radar. >> you are still too low level for a flight following at this time. >> the last thing we hear, you can hear it in the controller's voice. asking the pilot are you out there. he gets no response. >> one witness called 9-1-1 after hearing a big thud saying the fog was thick as milk. >> you hear the helicopter. >> i can't see anything. hearing the helicopter. all of a sudden it is immediately above me. if i couldn't see it and i am looking directly up at it, he is not going to be able to see anything on the ground. >> it is unusual the aircraft

was accelerating as it was descending. that is unexplained. did something mechanically go wrong or the pilot put in an input that was counter intuitive to what he should have been doing and we don't have the answer to that yet. >> these are the new images showing the catastrophic scene as investigators are picking up mangled wires and shredded fiberglass. they say there was no black box or a voice recorder. but there may have been an ipad with an app pilots use to navigate. >> there is a chance the ipad could have important data, air speed, altitude to tell us the final moments like a data recorder would that the helicopter did not have. >> helicopters were a preferred method of getting around l.a. for a reason. he discussed that with his interview. >> i had to figure out how i

could train and focus on the craft and not compromise family time. that is when i looked into helicopters getting down and back in 15 minutes. my routine was always the same. weights early in the morning, kids to school. fly down, practice like crazy, extra work and media, fly back. get back in the carpool line and pick the kids up. >> gianna's teammate alyssa was among the victims along with her parents keri and john altobelli, the coach of the team. >> he had a big heart. he was caring. loved everybody involved with the program. he loved his family, children, wife. we will miss him terribly. >> his wife, keri, a source of support. >> you can see the love she had for her husband. >> sarah chester and her daughter died also on sunday, she was in the eighth grade. the head of the school says they

are a community in mourning saying this is an unimaginable loss for the chester family and the entire st. margaret's community. >> we were fearful of her flying in the helicopter. >> matt mauser lost his wife christina. she was hand-picked by the basketball legend. >> kobe did not pick my wife because she was average. i don't think anything he ever did was average. he picked my wife because she was exceptional at what she did. my wife had a brilliant, brilliant eye for coaching. she picked up schemes, knew every angle, defense, defensive positioning, post moves. she really took a lot of pride in being there for those girls. she adored them. >> what was the last thing you said to her?

>> i was in bed. she kissed me and said i will see you tonight. good-bye. i hope i said i love you. i just don't know. >> the group was flown by ara zobayan, the company that trained him released a statement saying we are heart broken at the loss of our friend and pilot ara zobayan, flying was his life's passion. outside the stadium where kobe thrilled fans for decades, still a place of mourning. inside the court is dark. the fans heard from the team's current star, lebron james, who posted sitting here trying to write something for the post but every time that i try i begin crying again, just thinking about you. niece gigi and the friendship/bond and brotherhood we had and shaquille o'neal speaking on the nba on tnt pregame show. >> the fact that we are not going to be able to joke at his hall of fame ceremony. we are not going to be able to

say hi, i got five. you got four. the fact we are not going to be able to say if we would have stayed together we could have gotten ten. those are the things you can't get back. >> tributes for kobe's daughter as well. late monday evening the women's basketball team at the university of connecticut where gianna hoped to play posted this tribute. and this afternoon in orange coast. >> a lot of hugs. a lot of sad. today for the next three hours your focus is playing baseball. >> these young baseball players remembering their beloved coach and family by doing what they say he would want them to do the most, take the field. >> our thanks to t.j. up next how kobe bryant's drive and dedication to his craft scored him his ultimate dream.

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even when kobe bryant was a towering figure in the nba, the star never forgot his high school roots in suburban philadelphia. lessons learned from the past helped to shape the man he was on and off of the court. >> we now know not only that the world watched when kobe bryant played, much of it wept when he died. from l.a. to india, the philippines to of all places boston. but there was no place for the heartbreak and the history runs deeper than his boyhood home of philadelphia. sinesere to

kobe bryant the star and also the student. at lower merion high school people remember kobe because kobe remembered them. the high school gym bears his name and by all accounts the place lived in his heart. >> hey lower merion, good morning. today we are here with a really special guest, kobe bryant. >> this is home for me, you know. i did not go to college. i didn't have the other memories that other kids have. all of my memories come from this school. that is why lower merion is extremely, extremely special to me. >> skilled in the classroom as he was on the court. by the time he moved to philadelphia he was different than most kids he encountered. >> he was so competitive. >> emery dabney played on the high school basketball team with kobe. >> he got whatever he could get out of you to win.

his mentality is that you are only as strong as your weakest link. he would pull you aside saying you need to work on this or we need to talk to the coaches. but it was all about winning. >> by the late 90s, the legend of kobe bryant was in full bloom attracting cameras from espn. temple university professor lamont hill remembers kobe. they played on this court in philly when they were boys. >> i must have played kobe 200 times, first to score wins. i never won. we would all come out here and play for hours. kobe would be here hours before we got here and after we left he would shoot and do drills and work on angles. he was a savaunt. >> that took him from high school to the nba. >> i decided to skill college and take my talent to the nba. >> only the fifth student at the time to do so. >> i asked how he felt about

going to the lakers. he said i can't wait. i said it is going to be coming off of the bench behind eddie jones. don't you wish you went to a place where you could start. he looked at me like i cursed out his whole family. he was indignant that i thought he would not be able to be a starter against eddie jones two was an all-american, lottery pick and future all-star. >> kobe's announcement was seen by many as cocky and arrogant but his family supported the decision. >> we lived in europe. the students did not have organized college basketball. they went to the professional level. that is the way that he thought was the way it was. >> basketball wise he was ready for primetime but as an african-american man that grew up overseas in affluence many thought he stumbled in social justice time, the death of treveon martin. he was the 17-year-old black

teenager in a hoody that was shot and killed in 20 by a neighborhood watchman george zimmerman who perceived him as a threat. lebron james and his heat teammates posting teammates in black hoodies, heads bowed in soldarity with martin's family but kobe did not take a stance, quoted in an new yorker article saying if we progressed as a society you don't jump to somebody's defense just because they are african-american. you sit and listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right. i won't assert myself. >> a lot of people were disappointed in kobe's remarks. it seemed like, again, african-americans sharing a similar experience recognized what that was and were speaking out against it and disappointed kobe did not come out strong as they would have liked about what was going on down in florida. >> kobe bryant had touched a

nerve. >> kobe had a very unique world view because he was clearly a black man and african-american and i know that sounds strange like they should be one and the same. but they are not. african-american would suggest you had certain experience relatable to other african-americans but kobe did not fit in that umbrella. as a black man he could understand racism but as an african-american his relationship with racism was different. >> as he did in many parts of his life, kobe bryant leaned in, admitted his shortsightedness to social justice issues and eventually became an advocate. >> he is also someone that talked about growth and evolving, seeking information. i am sure that people were disappointed in the quote, it was really just a mikobe as a t seeker. >> my responsibility is more

than putting the ball in the basket, helping them to have the platform to be able to voice this. >> speaking at a rally filmed by cbs in los angeles, tweeti inin travon martin was wrong. >> kobe may have stumbled in what he said. he grew, educated himself and began to speak out. he came out in support of colin kaepernick. that is his growth and maturation. >> over his lifetime kobe bryant evolved, a cocky kid to nba star, father, entrepreneur. those that knew him well said he was not afraid to fail, and that is why he succeeded. >> i remember the most about his heart and vision. kobe could see himself playing for the lakers before he wore a high school jersey, oscar

winner, coach, mentor, as an entrepreneur. he could see the next 40 years. i am devastated that he did not get to live it. >> when we come back, words to live by and an international kobe tribute. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) once-weekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. there's no increased risk. oh! and i only have to take it once a week. oh! ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis.

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another example of a global reach and impact of kobe bryant, soccer fans paying tribute in italy where kobe spent part of his childhood. fans of his favorite soccer club a.c. milan standing to honor number 24 in the 24th minute of the match. as we have seen the grief over kobe bryant's death is palpable around the world. kobe once said life is too short to be bogged down and discouraged. you have to keep moving and keep going. just keep on rolling. that is nightline for this evening. thanks for the company, america. good night.

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