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From a certain point of view...
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jan 28, 2020
The death of Kobe Bryant has rocked not just the sports world but the entertainment world as a whole. His death, along with the deaths of eight other people, is a surreal occurrence, and one that seems to defy explanation.
In that vacuum, then — in that lack of an explanation for what seems to be completely nonsensical — different theories surrounding Bryant's death have popped up, as these sorts of things are wont to do. So, what are the top 6 Kobe Bryant helicopter crash conspiracy theories?
Though the cause of the crash is still under investigation, there are still plenty of questions that people have that are, as of this writing, unanswered — and in the absence of answers, of course, "conspiracy theories" tend to pop up.
What we do know for certain is this: approximately 30 minutes before the fateful crash, the flight tracker showed that Bryant's helicopter was circling around Glendale, CA, for at least 15 minutes, presumably because they were waiting for the dense fog to clear. Thereafter, they proceeded onward before crashing in the densely wooded hills just outside of Calabasas, CA.
Valid questions are one thing, of course, and fear-mongering extrapolations are another. With that in mind, let's look at what we know about the top 6 Kobe Bryant helicopter crash conspiracy theories making the rounds on the Internet right now.
1. The 2016 Comedy Central cartoon that depicted Kobe Bryant's death in a helicopter crash
In 2016, Comedy Central ran a short-lived cartoon series called The Legend of Chamberlain Heights. While the series mostly flew under the radar during its thankfully short-lived run, there's one episode that has quickly gone viral in the wake of Kobe Bryant's death.
The episode, titled "End of Days," featured Bryant dying horrifically in a helicopter crash. After it was shared on multiple platforms, Comedy Central pulled the episode from its website (though another site recorded the episode, which you can see above), and the official Twitter of the show asked people to stop sharing the episode out of respect for Bryant and his family.
2. The 2012 tweet that predicted Bryant's death in a helicopter crash
As if the 2016 clip from The Legend of Chamberlain Heights wasn't crazy enough, a Twitter user who goes by DotNoso predicted that Kobe Bryant would die in a helicopter crash on November 13, 2012. While some questioned the validity of the tweet, the link enclosed proves that the tweet is, indeed, real.
However, another Twitter user pointed out that "DotNoso" could have merely been reacting to the news that Bryant had flown a friend of his to a doctor's appointment in his helicopter on that day. Whatever the case, it's still really freaky.
3. The former 1970s pop star that suggested that Bryant's death was meant to "distract" from President Trump's impeachment defense
Not because we want to necessarily give credence to so-called "Q Anon" theories, but it certainly catches one's eye when Eric Carmen — formerly of Eric Carmen and the Raspberries, best known for the hit "All By Myself," and later, for the song "Hungry Eyes" on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack — tweets that Bryant's death was little more than a "deep state distraction" meant to keep the American people's eyes away from President Trump's impeachment defense.
4. The Kobe Bryant helicopter crash conspiracy theory that suggets Bryant is part of the so-called "Clinton Body Count"
It's no secret there is a subsection of people on Twitter that absolutely despise anything and everything relating to Former President Bill Clinton, and Former First Lady Hillary Clinton. This time they're suggesting that Bryant was merely nothing more than yet another body in the so-called "Clinton Body Count."
Really, folks — the Clintons are killing all these people and nobody notices? They're either the biggest serial killers since the Golden State Killer, or they're not doing what you think they're doing.
5. The theory that Bryant's death is part of an "Illuminati Blood Sacrifice"
The old chestnut of the entertainment industry being a proverbial Ground Zero for all sorts of "Satanic sacrifices" has been around since, at least, the 1960s, though thanks to the Internet, the theories run even more rampant today.
One such theory suggests that Bryant's death is an example of an "Illuminati Blood Sacrifice," which suggest that the mysterious "Powers That Be" in the entertainment industry practice human sacrifice of a beloved entertainer (in this case, Bryant) to satisfy their proxy of God by whatever name said Powers That Be call it.
6. The theory that Bryant's death had to do with his past sexual assault case
It's no secret that in 2004, sexual assault charges against Bryant were dismissed after the victim refused to go forward with the case. However, there are people who believe that Bryant's death stemmed from his sexual assault case — Skai Jackson, in fact, called out one such person who said as much in a now-deleted tweet.
Jackson also said that she was "sick" of all the conspiracy theories surrounding Bryant's death. "Y’all really believe people are sacrificing them or they were a part of the Illuminati? Y’all go to the extreme to believe the most appalling things," she said.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.